I had a puppet show that I did on youtube for a year. This year I went to post a link in one of my blog posts and realized that YouTube had deleted my channel. Because it's been six years and we've moved a couple of times, I couldn't find the original videos. I was really heartbroken. That was a major thing for me and my youngest two kids.
We eventually found some of the videos on an old external hard drive, but a lot of them are still in pieces/unedited and still others are permanently lost. SERIOUSLY upsetting, with no way to recover them from YouTube. And SERIOUSLY YOUTUBE? With all the shit you have, you decide to delete a damn PUPPET SHOW FOR KIDS? WTF?
At any rate, I tried to upload a video to dtube today, but it was NOT functioning, so instead I decided to go back to the beginning of making the puppet in the first place. I will eventually get the dtube thing figured out, edit my original videos and upload them there, but for now, here is the beginning of what was a wonderful adventure (If I can get dtube to work at some point, I'll tell the story of how this voice/cahracter came to be in the first place as well... but it really requires sound to go along with it!
This was previously posted on a blog of mine back in 2012. I created this puppet due to a silly "cartoon monkey voice" that I had finally revealed to my kids. My girls and I wanted to create a puppet show with this new monkey... so that's what we did. This was step one:
I've got a rough design drawn out for my monkey, I've ordered a professional puppet making pattern and reticulated foam, bought all of the equipment and supplies... and I'm going to make my own silly monkey named, "Bean". This became such a huge, living, breathing part of our lives, I can't believe that the videos from that year are gone.
I ordered a puppet making pattern for my own reference, even though I planned to customize the puppet, I wanted to at least have the base of the puppet from the patter so I hopefully wouldn't mess up from the very start.
My reticulated foam and pattern from project puppet
It came at a very frustrating time. My dad was visiting, I had to take my son to work, then my daughter to babysit... things just kept getting in the way. What I really wanted to do was just sit and build the puppet until it was DONE. I was not in the mood to leave the house and do responsible things! I wanted to stay home and have fun:) Alas, I actually AM a grown up with responsibilities, so I left.
This means that I've only had about 5-6 hours to work on Bean thus far.
Onward!
I was a little confused at first and ended up cutting some things out of foam that were only supposed to be cut from fabric. That's what I get for being in a hurry and not paying attention. It was all good in the end, though.
NEXT is was time for HOT GLUE & Building the Core for the Body
Which, btw, burns. A lot. Especially when you keep getting it on your hands repeatedly!
Seriously, this is a simple concept, it wasn't that hard to do... except that I am SO impatient!! I got annoyed at having to sit there and hold things for "so long"... and I'm sure it wasn't THAT long, but still.
NEXT is was time for The 'Skull'
NEXT WEEK for "Mommy Monday" I'll show you how to make the puppet's mouth, assemble the head and start on the fabric covering!
