Blog Update - 02 Aug 2018

And so it begins...

I’m not sure what came over me, but I started working on my finger puppets pretty feverishly this week. I hear Mercury is in retrograde, which, apparently, can encourage a return to old ideas… IF you believe in that sort of thing. Anyway, after watching a bunch of videos on how to add hair to dolls and make wig caps (check out the video from
AkameruKawaii's channel below), I got an overwhelming urge to start making my little puppets again. I mean, I’ve wanted to work on them for some time, but this new information from my research renewed my interest AGAIN and really motivated me to return to this project.

I’m fairly certain I’ve used this quote here before, but as an artist (and creator in general), I have always followed the sage wisdom of good ol’ Honest Abe. He said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” So, as with any project, I have been working on some testing for my new creation techniques before starting on my next character. While the costume and sewing is still set to follow the same steps, I have been trying to find a better way to make the puppet heads.

A while back, I passed through the wood section at Hobby Lobby. There was a packet of dowel caps that caught my attention. They were almost exactly the size and shape of the Model Magic heads I had been creating, and they had large, drilled openings in the bottom that looked big enough for even my spouse’s Kielbasa fingers. I bought them on a whim and am only now starting to practice with them. A couple nights ago, I made some wefts (like demonstrated in the video above) and gave a blank hair. Last night, I managed to get to the hardware store to buy wood stain in varying skin tones to practice changing the color of the wood.

I still need to work on finding a middle ground between the 2 darker colors, and I also plan to buy a lighter stain for pale characters as well. Regardless, I’m really happy with how this first batch turned out. Once I have a really good handle on the process of making these new character heads, I will be releasing a more indepth, step by step post. Until then, I apologize for the lack of pictures and thank you for checking out my post anyway!

Until next time!

I love feedback, so if you have any questions, ideas, or requests, make sure to leave a comment below. And, if you need more fun stuff to shove into your eyeballs, hop over and check out my YouTube channel, Chimp Skipper, or my online portfolio.