Ping Pong's Puppet Workshop

Our Construction Diary
Page 27

September 2, 2001- (Page 1 of 3)

It's strange to finish a project like this one. Funny, I said that back on Page 20. Actually, we had one more puppet to go -- the Sea Monster. A while back, I promised you a separate page on his (her?) construction. Actually, it will be three pages, for it was quite different from all the others, and I wanted you to see all of the steps involved.

The first picture was taken back on July 10th, so you can see that it has been in construction for a long time. The script calls for Perseus to do battle with and eventually vanquish the Sea Monster. Thus, the head has to detach from the body. To be in scale, it had to be quite a bit larger than any of the other puppets--the head alone is almost 18 inches from nose to horn.

First you take 45 pounds of plasticine

July 10
To start, first you take 45 pounds of plasticine and shape it to look like your average, everyday, Sea Monster. Then almost everybody on staff works on carving it. Here it is shown about a week along in its creation.

Kristin carving the Sea Monster

July 11
Kristin puts her time in on carving him.

The finished plasticine carve

July 25
The sculpt is finished. Notice the helper rod supporting the nose of the monster. To cast such a large sculpt in neoprene would require a plaster mold so large that it would require several pieces, not just two, and it would take several hundreds of pounds of plaster.

The Monster's jaw

July 27
The monster's jaw, which was carved as a separate piece. We decided to go with a papier mache technique, using strips of cloth instead of paper. The entire sculpt was first covered with aluminum foil, to aid in the removal of the dried cloth mache.

Kristin & Steve merrily foiling along

Kristin & Steve merrilly foiling along on the head. The next picture shows the results of their labors (and Bill's & Candace's).

Curses, foiled again!

July 28
Curses, foiled again! (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) The sculpt ready for four layers of cloth mache.

Applying the strips of cloth mache

Candace and Kristin applying the strips of cloth mache. Each little strip was dipped in a mixture of Elmers white and wood glues and water. Messy, Messy, Messy!

The finished cloth mache

July 30
The finished cloth mache. After the four layers were all applied, the whole thing was allowed to dry for about a week before attempting to remove it from the plasticene.

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