Photo Gallery

Here is a gallery of many the puppets I have made.

Adam Ant

I finished Adam Ant today. I am very happy with the way he turned out. He might just be my favorite puppet so far. The mechanism works perfectly. The hard hat fits perfectly and he's just down right cute.

I've decided that Adam and his family are going to be latino. This gives me the opportunity to introduce additional cultural elements to the Johsua Junebug series. At the same time accents are very helpful in generating new voices.

I am planning to introduce a brother and sister to the cast as well.

Free Puppet Head Pattern

I've decided to post the basic pattern for the heads I have been building for the Joshua Junebug series of puppets. In reality this pattern is just the starting point. So far only Joshua has used this exact pattern. All the others have been modifications. I post this so that others who are just beginning building puppets will have something to help them understand how to shape foam.




Enjoy.

If you would like a higher resolution copy of this pattern I'd be happy to email one to you.

PS: I have posted a video tutorial for building this pattern on You Tube. Hope this helps too.

Adam Ant

I'm working on an ant puppet, for the Joshua Junebug and Friends project. At this point I'm planning to name him Adam. In many ways the process of the build is similar to the termite build the major difference, other than cosmetics, is the internal mechanism. I decided that I wanted the mechanism to be small enough for the puppeteers hand to fit inside the puppet and still work it. It took a bit of thinking but I was able to come up with a new design.

The bulk of the mechanism is made out of 1/2 inch pvc tubing. The spring is a section I cut from a old fashion screen door spring. this spring is secured by forcing it into the top of the pvc tubing. The bottom jaw is made out of a wood dowel whittled down so that it would fit snugly into the spring. The trigger is made from a 1 inch dowel. I drilled a 3/4 inch hole through the dowel and then carved the dowel down to prevent finger pinching and cut a grove to prevent pressure points on the fingers. 14 gauge wire secures the trigger to the bottom jaw.

The mechanism works great. I think I'll probably use this design for all my new rod puppets.

Background Completed

Well, I've finished the outdoor background. I wanted it to have a coloring book kind of look to it and I think I succeeded. You notice that I made some minor alterations to the hills in the picture. I thought this change and the dark outlining for a few of the elements would help to give the picture more depth without making it too complicated.



I painted it with high gloss, Rustoleum, water base paints. Their selection of colors is limited but by mixing them together I was able to get basically any color I wanted. All in all I very happy with the result.

Making a Background

Well I changed my mind as to which background I will do first. I've decided that I will do the outdoor background. I'll be helping with a VBS program in a few weeks, the theme is bugs, and the outdoor background would be useful for that set up so I'm doing it now.

Below is a line drawing of what the background will look like. I plan to paint the back drop with some nice bright colors.


I'll be painting the scene on 4X6 foot canvas which I've primed to ensure the canvas doesn't soak up all the paint.

I've Been Very Busy

I know it's been almost a month since I last posted and to answer any of your concerns I want to assure you that I have not given up on the Joshua Junebug and Friends project. but I have been very busy with almost every other aspect of my life and when push comes to shove my hobbies almost always end up getting pushed.

I do have some preliminary sketches of the school house background and plan to post them after I refine them a bit more.

Thanks for your patience with me as I balance try to keep my life in balance.

Jon