B.A.R.K. Production Journal: The Muzzle, Step 6

The cat puppet is coming along nicely. So far I've built the head, the mouth grip, the bottom, and top jaw. Now it is time to attach the muzzle to the head. This is one of the best parts because once this step is complete I can try the puppet on for the first time.

1) Hold the muzzle up to the puppet's head to find the proper placement. Once the position looks good mark it with pen.



2) Using an exacto blade carefully cut a hole in the puppets head.



3) Put the puppet on and make sure it feels right. In this stage I've noticed that the ring of gasket rubber that I added to the hand hole to give it's shape is rubbing up against my thumb. To fix it I simply cut away that portion of the rubber which thankfully does not effect the shape of the head.



4) Using Barge Cement glue the muzzle to the head.



With most of the actual head construction finished you can have some fun. Take the puppet to a mirror and try it out. Get a feel for how it moves. If it needs any further tweaking or altering do it now before fabrication begins.

B.A.R.K. Production Journal: The Muzzle, Step 5

I'm back with the next step in the muzzle building process for my cat puppet.

Once again I've used Barge Cement to glue the pieces of the top jaw together. The finished shape was OK but looked more like a duck bill than a cat's muzzle (not pictured, sorry). To remedy this I simply cut some additional pieces of foam and glued them to the existing muzzle. In order to keep an accurate record of what I'm making, I've also traced the "add on" shapes onto paper so I can keep them with the rest of the patterns.

One of the great things about working with foam is you can add on and remove pieces until it looks just right. Once the muzzle is fabricated the added on pieces will be completely hidden, and I will look like one seamless shape.

B.A.R.K. Production Journal: The Muzzle, Step 4

In order to give the top jaw of the puppet's muzzle the desired shape, I need to cut away some of the foam. As always, I'm using an exacto knife.



I will also cut the pattern so that it reflects the change. Sometimes it is easier to do in foam what you can't per-visualize on paper. No matter what you cut first, it is important to keep your patter as up to date as possible. If you ever need to go back to it, you will have a pattern that matchs the final puppet. I also make notes on the patters if nessary. For example I'll denote how many pieces should be cut for any given shape. The cat's pieces are marked X2 letting me know that I'll need two pieces to make each cheek.



Here is the revised pattern of the muzzle. Next, I'll most likely need to add some extra pieces to the foam to finalize the shape.



This Production Journal series has been tracking the progress of a cat puppet I'm building for the new Swazzle puppet show B.A.R.K. The Robot Dog. I hope you are finding it interesting and educational. Click here, to see where the puppet started, and here for more B.A.R.K. behind the scenes photos.

B.A.R.K. Production Journal: The Muzzle, Step 3

With the bottom jaw finished, it's time for me to move onto the top jaw. Just like all of the other foam shapes, I will make a pattern first. Again the pattern is drawn on butcher paper and cut out. Once again I'll use a sharp exacto to cut the foam. Barge Cement is used to glue the muzzle together. Now that the puppet's top jaw is assembled I can tell that I'll have to do some trimming to make the just right.