Hey guys, this is my current project, and as you can see, it's a big one and I need a little advice. The concept is sort of a meld between the dinosaur puppets at the LACM, , and Handspring Puppet Company's war horses. It is a 1:1 model of a pterosaur that I am describing as my senior thesis. It is a two-person puppet, with  one person inside and the other a "handler", controlling the head and neck. There will be an accompanying informational program about the biology of the animal and the diversity of the Two Medicine formation that it came from.

Here's a small mock up of it, so that I could play around with the mechanics of the head especially.

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see more.

Here's some detail of the head. The setup shown isn't to scale, but the mechanics will basically be similar. By twisting the control rod, I can achieve dorso-ventral motion and the two pegs on the rotating bar allow me to move the head medio-laterally.

I am running in to some trouble with finding the right fabric. i bought a sample of this because it is exactly what I want in terms of the fabric itself- lightweight, flowy, and most importantly hairy. But it came in this very distracting animal print.


It's called Simply Silky Print-Hairy Animal. It appears that it  also comes in zebra and a whole host of other equally distracting prints. I really just want a strait up single or two-tone color. I don't necessarily care what color, just as long as it's not distracting from the puppet itself, you know? Does anybody know where to find this sort of fabric or where to order it? I know i've seen this before somewhere, probably a dress, and i refuse to believe that it only exists in animal print. HELP!

Thanks for the feedback Billy. Hopefully there will be full size things to post soon, I've got a schedule and I'm sticking to it.

That looks awesome already. Can't wait to see more. Sorry, I have no clue as where to get the fabric.

Thanks for the feedback Billy. Hopefully there will be full size things to post soon, I've got a schedule and I'm sticking to it.

Is there a particular animal print you are looking for?

Is there a particular animal print you are looking for?

Actually I'm looking for anything that is not animal print. Just a plain solid color would be fine. I do like how the hairs of the fabric i posted are variable colors or tipped, but at this point anything other than animal print would be awesome.

This might be a bit more time consuming for you but what if you went with a fabric that did not have the "hair" on it then added that yourself.  Ultimately I think it would give you the look you want and you would have more control over the final look.  The fabric itself looks to be a loose weave knit of some kind.  See if you can find that in a single or two tone fabrics you like. In fact being a knit more then likely you could die it so if you found a good single tone you could add via dye are paint any other color you may want.

Once you have the body covered in the fabric you could then add the "hair" by threading something like thread or cord through the loose weave and knotting it. In fact you might be able to use a latch hook to do this. I would think this would give you control over where the hair is like perhaps just on the head or around joints.  Being a loose weave knit the fabric should move well for you also.

You've got  great start and I love your concept for controlling the puppet.