Skinning the Puppet Children

Finally the foam has finished flying.  Now for the reverse fleece flaying.

I’ve been stitching skin to these smiling faces for some weeks now and thought it proficient to elucidate upon the process.  Fleece makes a good stand in for flesh as it’s got an elasticity which conforms fairly well to the contours of their faces.  Its also lightly fluffy, which allows me to conceal the seams fairly well by fluffing fibers up to mask the edges.  It is, however, quite difficult to find it in all the colors I’m after, so only Trey and Chip the Larger ended up clad store bought colors, the rest require some dying or tinting to better match Andy’s concept sketches.

First I wrap the head in a sheet of fleece and begin stretching and folding it to fit.  I try to minimize seams, but when they’re unavoidable I do my best to place them in either an anatomically accurate location or someplace discreet.

Only the seems on the front of the face are sewn by hand.  Wherever the puppet is to be covered in hair, I just pin and glue down the edges.  Time is the most precious resource we’ve got around the puppet factory.  We’re always running out.

Here’s the lad all neatly stitched together.  Once the sewing is finished, I tighten the fleece and glue it carefully along the interior of the mouth and neck, sealing up the epidermis.

Ears are pretty arduous and need to be skinned separately, then sewn to the sides of the head.  Ultimately, all the ears will end up mostly obscured by felt hair, but I agonize over them anyway.  This is part of why time seems in such short supply.

Patches Kitestring, fully faced.  Note the yellow sharpie circumscribing his skull, demarcating the forthcoming fringe of golden hair.

Here’s a closer look at Chip Doogan and Trey Awesome.  Both are well along to being realized but still wallow in the super creepy.  They want for mouth interiors, felt hair, painted eyes, eye lids, teeth, and —  in Trey’s case — some sweet shades.  Hopefully when all is glued and done they’ll look a lot livlier, if not much less freakish.

Tags: Chip Doogan, Fleece, Patches, Trey