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
Plastazote
Airex
Soft Foam Rubber
Sculpey
Milliput

Moulding

Silicone Rubber
Jesmonite
Shellac

Casting & Construction

Polyester Resin & Fibre Glass
Epoxy Resin
Polyurethane resin

Adhesives

Araldite
Evo Stik

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.

Plastazote

Plastazote is a very lightweight, soft polyethylene foam. It comes in sheets of varying thickness. It is very pliable and can be pattern cut and shaped to make complex and detailed forms. This can be done in two ways. The first is simply to cut out trial shapes and to keep adapting them until they are right. The second way is to sculpt the puppet in another material and then take a pattern from this sculpt.
With a bit of effort shapes can also be sculpted from a block of plastazote.

Airex

Airex is another rigid foam, which is much tougher than styrofoam. It comes in sheets of various thicknesses and can be gently heated to shape it, it has an elasticity that styrofoam doesn't have, so is much less brittle and it can be glued easily with evostik. It is less dense than Styrofoam, so not as useful for carving detailed shapes and is also quite expensive and only available in large sheets.

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.

Shellac

A quick dring varnish which I use to seal clay before taking a mould. Apply three or four layers with a brush.

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.

Epoxy resin

A liquid resin which sets with the addition of a catalyst. Its main advantage over polyester resin is that it can be applied directly to styrofoam, without covering. It is available as a liquid or a paste.

Polyurethane resin

A two part liquid resin which is mixed by volume. I mostly use this for casting hands. It is very strong and will not break if dropped. It is best to colour it with pigment when you cast it as I haven't yet found a matt paint which adheres well to it. I use a product called Easyflo 120 from Mouldlife.

Araldite

Araldite is the brand name of an epoxy resin. It comes as two parts which you mix in equal quantities. You can get quick setting glue and it is an incredibly useful adhesive. I tend to get a cheaper alternative such as Z-poxy from The Modelshop

Evo Stik

Evo Stik make many different glues, the most useful of which is the impact adhesive. You apply this to both surfaces about to be stuck, leave it for a few minutes and then put them together.