Blog Update - 02 Aug 2018
And so it begins...
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I’m not sure what came over me, but I started working on my finger puppets pretty feverishly this week. I hear Mercury is in retrograde, which, apparently, can encourage a return to old ideas… IF you believe in that sort of thing. Anyway, after watching a bunch of videos on how to add hair to dolls and make wig caps (check out the video from
AkameruKawaii's channel below), I got an overwhelming urge to start making my little puppets again. I mean, I’ve wanted to work on them for some time, but this new information from my research renewed my interest AGAIN and really motivated me to return to this project.
I’m fairly certain I’ve used this quote here before, but as an artist (and creator in general), I have always followed the sage wisdom of good ol’ Honest Abe. He said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” So, as with any project, I have been working on some testing for my new creation techniques before starting on my next character. While the costume and sewing is still set to follow the same steps, I have been trying to find a better way to make the puppet heads.
A while back, I passed through the wood section at Hobby Lobby. There was a packet of dowel caps that caught my attention. They were almost exactly the size and shape of the Model Magic heads I had been creating, and they had large, drilled openings in the bottom that looked big enough for even my spouse’s Kielbasa fingers. I bought them on a whim and am only now starting to practice with them. A couple nights ago, I made some wefts (like demonstrated in the video above) and gave a blank hair. Last night, I managed to get to the hardware store to buy wood stain in varying skin tones to practice changing the color of the wood.
I still need to work on finding a middle ground between the 2 darker colors, and I also plan to buy a lighter stain for pale characters as well. Regardless, I’m really happy with how this first batch turned out. Once I have a really good handle on the process of making these new character heads, I will be releasing a more indepth, step by step post. Until then, I apologize for the lack of pictures and thank you for checking out my post anyway!
Until next time!
I love feedback, so if you have any questions, ideas, or requests, make sure to leave a comment below. And, if you need more fun stuff to shove into your eyeballs, hop over and check out my YouTube channel, Chimp Skipper, or my online portfolio.
#art #craft #puppets #toys #wood #handmade #practice #quotes #creative #creation #howto #dolls #dollmaking #fun #silly
That's pretty cool. I did not think regular yarn would turn out all silky smooth like that.
I know, right? I’m not smoothing out my yarn hair to that fine of a finish, just unraveling the strands. It was really nice getting some pointers from the web on how to improve my process a bit.
Thanks for the comment and upvote!
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Oh, i like it! i could never do this, im really bad at those things, but i'll love you if you made a afro-caribean doll! good luck <3
Thanks! Hmmm, I've always liked the character Tia Dalma (Calypso from Pirates of the Caribbean). Perhaps I should add her to the list of puppets I want to make. 😃
Wow, this is very interesting ! I will definitely be following this series off your blog, @hglucky13 <3 Good luck !
Thank you so much! Only one more week before I start staying home with the baby, so I’m really hoping I’ll have more time to start making these dudes again.
I've never made puppets from wood, but we do have a little lathe bought recently ... so I guess that makes it suddenly become possible to make a puppet myself. So happy I stumbled upon your blog as this is a great inspiration for me ... Thank you and I'm going to follow your progress!
Thank you so much! Progress has been slow since going back to work, but I’ll be staying home with my kid soon, so I’m hoping I’ll find more time to work on these things. Thanks again!
Hey there lucky! This looks awesome! I found you on the @c-squared blog, and was intrigued by your skin toned dowel covers! It can be so hard to get skin tones right, but it looks like you have a great place to start : )
I think physical crafts and sculptures are my favorite forms of art, they are so creative and almost come alive! Thank you for sharing with us here on the steem blockchain :)
Thanks a bunch! Yeah, I got pretty lucky with my first picks. The process needs a bit of fine tuning, but I’m getting there. Thanks again!
Keep taking pictures! I really am interested in your process and in how you will continue to advance it. I will try to stick around, I am following you but you might get lost in my feed, so I will try to remember your user name. What does HG stand for? Human Girl?