The structure of the puppet’s head will change depending on the design of the doll and how to animate the eyes and mouth. here, I introduce using plastic (resin) and the framework of the neck is wire.
example
Make a foundation to bend the aluminum wire to make your head.
This time I used polymer clay called scalpy. It is a clay that hardens by baking in an oven.
Make the prototype of the head with the scalpy. After shaping, use an oven to bake it for about 20 minutes at a temperature of 120 ℃ and harden it.
After baking in the oven, wait for it to cool down and cut the aluminum wire base. Make a box with afoam core board and fill half the head with oil clay.
Pour in silicone. After the silicone hardened, remove box set and oil clay. Do not remove the silicon mold and prototype. Return the silicon mold back into the box. And apply vaseline or mentholatum as release agent to silicone.
Once the silicon has hardened, take out the prototype and silicone. And use a cutter to open the escape port of the air and the sink of the cast.
I use resin as a material of the head. When liquid A and liquid B are mixed, it cures in a few minutes and becomes plastic. It is strong against shocks and is relatively light so it is often used.
Squeeze the mold with a plate of wood, stop with a rubber band, and pour the resin.
When the resin is hardened, remove it from the mold and adjust the shape.
Drill a hole to insert the wire in the neck.
Cut the periphery of the hole with a motor tool and make a place where the neck enters. the cross section of the neck and head looks like the illustration on the right.
Adjust the size of the hole by looking at the filling condition of the neck.
Just inserting. not glue the neck. The hardness of the joint of the neck is loose enough to hold the head with fingers and move lightly. And the hardness is that the head does not fall even if the doll is turned upside down. If it is too hard, widen the hole a little. If it is too loose, roll the paper with a bond on the neck wire and make it a bit thicker. Refer to “neck and hand” for making necks.
After adjusting the neck, make fine parts such as coloring and flocking.
In the case of a puppet with big head, think in the direction “make as light as possible”. Specifically, there is a method of using a hollow structure or a light foam material as a core. Some people may think that, if the head is heavy, it should be made joint of neck more hard. But in that way, the center of gravity of the puppet becomes higher and the balance becomes worse. It will collapse just by changing a little pose, and it is hard to animate. Basically, The lighter the puppet, the easier it is to animate.
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