MATERIALS
This page contains a brief description of most of the materials I use for
making.
Click on a material, or scroll down the page.
Sculpting
Clay
Plastaline
Styrofoam
Soft Foam Rubber
Sculpey
Milliput
Moulding
Casting & Construction
Clay
There are many different types of clay available, and to some degree it is personal preference as to which one you use. To me it is the most pleasing medium in which to sculpt the puppet heads, although for practical reasons I tend to use plasticine more often. I usually use a simple grey clay from Tiranti's.
Plastaline
This is an alternative sculpting material to clay. It's advantage is that it doesn't dry out and isn't as soft, so you can be a bit rougher with it. It provides very fine surface detail, however it takes a bit of practice to get a smooth finish if that is what you want. You can use lighter fluid and a sponge or brush to smooth it down.
Styrofoam
Some of the puppet parts are sculpted in styrofoam. This is easily
carved to a rough shape with a saw, and can then be with shaped more carefully
with sharp knives. It is finished with various degrees of sanding.
styrofoam is great to sculpt in. It is very lightweight, and is available
in various densities. It can be sawn, carved, and sanded, to create quite
detailed shapes and features very quickly. On the whole it is better for larger
figures, this is for two reasons. Firstly, very fine details can be hard to
achieve and quite fragile, and secondly, you will most likely need to cover
it with something to protect the surface and increase its strength. This will
inevitably cause some loss of detail which is far less noticeable on larger,
simpler shapes. The biggest problem with styrofoam is that it's easily dented
or snapped if you are creating thin shapes (such as fingers). I don't know
of an easy way around this. If I am using it for puppets then I usually coat
it in a harder outer shell before it can be used. You can use jesmonite, which
in some ways is ideal as it has no reaction with the fibreglass and adheres
to it well, but jesmonite is quite heavy and I have found it to be less durable
than fibre glass. If you use fibreglass, however, you can't put it directly
onto styrofoam because it dissolves it. You need to cover the surface
first. Tin foil is a good material for this, and can be glued with PVA but it is
a hassle to have to do. Both fibreglass and jesmonite will leave an irregular surface
which you will need to sand if you want a smoother finish. Apparently there is a
material called peel ply which can help give a smooth finish with fibreglass.
If the puppet does not have a long life ahead of it and will be treated quite
carefully then it could just be covered with a few layers of tissue paper or muslin,
but the surface will always remain vulnerable.
Soft Foam Rubber
This is my preferred material for sculpting body parts. It is relatively light, and can be knocked and dropped with no damage to it at all. I use an electric kitchen knife to cut and shape it, which is a long and tedious process, but produces a very good finish. You can also use scissors, and it can be sanded. You can achieve a good smooth finish and after I have attached it to the body armature, I cover it in stockingette, using copydex to give it a more durable and protected surface. The stockingette also alows the costume to move more freely over the surface of the limbs with less friction than the foam.
Sculpey
SuperSculpey is the brand name for a polymer based modelling clay which hardens in the oven. I have found it good for hands as you can harden fingers as you sculpt them.
Milliput
A two part sculpting material mixed in equal quantities of resin and hardener.
When set it is very strong and can be carved, drilled and sanded. I tend to
use it on smaller puppets, to sculpt body parts too small or fiddly to mould.
It is quite heavy and so not ideal for larger puppets.
When using milliput be sure to mix the two parts very well, if there is
any streakiness then they may not harden. You can smooth the surface with
water whilst it has not set.
Silicone Rubber
This is the best material for making the head and hand moulds, as it picks
up the detail of the sculpting so well. The only downside is it's cost; unfortunately
it is quite expensive.
The rubber comes in two parts which need to be mixed together before use:
the liquid rubber and catalyst. You can also add a thixotropic additive, which
thickens the rubber and allows you to use it on a vertical surface without
it slumping.
Jesmonite
This is an acrylic based powder and liquid mix offered as a replacemant to
fibre glass.
I have found it to be a bit too heavy for the puppets and a bit more 'crumbly'
than resin and fibreglass when strength is needed. It's advantage over resin
is that it does not have the fumes and is therefore much more user friendly.
I sometimes use it for the rigid mould casing, where weight is not such an
issue.
Polyester resin & Fibre glass
Polyester resin is a plastic based liquid which when used with fibreglass gives excellent strength for a reasonable weight. It is ideal for picking up the detail in the silicone mould, and is what I use choice to cast the head and hands of the puppet. It can be coloured by mixing polyester pigments before adding the catalyst which causes it to harden. The resin and its catalyst cause an exothermic reaction, i.e. one which creates heat. When laminating this is not particularly noticeable, but if you are pouring solid resin casts then the heat can be considerable. However this is unlikely if you are making puppets as a solid resin cast is usually too heavy for anything but the smallest of heads. The trick is to create the strongest and most rigid structure with as little resin and fibreglass as possible.