Processes & Considerations

This is a very large project that has to be considered in many different sections before pulling them all together. I've mentally separated these into:

• Head - sculpting, casting, moving jaw mechanism, painting, finishing and attaching.
• Neck - mechanism, covering, upholstering with fur and airbrushing.
• Body - sculpting in scale, patterning, scaling up, cutting from foam, assembling, creating PVC support frame, attaching to base, upholstering with fur, detailing with feathers and airbrushing.
• Feet - carving from upholstery foam, patterning, upholstering, attaching soles.
• Tail - cutting, attaching to base, airbrushing.
• Saddle - carving from upholstery foam, coating in fibreglass for rigidity, attaching neck plate, attaching harness, attaching to support frame, painting and detailing, attaching saddlebags and stirrups.
• Bridle - assembling fabric straps and fixtures, attaching to head, bending and shaping hollow rigid reins, running mouth operation cable inside, attaching handle lever to end, covering with fabric, detailing.

My main source of concern is to do with the mechanical parts of the project, as I have the least experience in these areas. Whereas the moving mouth mechanism has been created, I won't feel like it's fully been successful until it's been assembled inside of the puppet's head with the cable running inside the rein. This concern applies even more to the neck mechanism - it is a complex, jointed system which must be attached to the body comfortably and stably without having pressure points, and must be able to tape the weight of the head and the pressure of the lower jaw's cable system.

Other elements of the puppet - such as making the body - are large, but are processes I'm more confident in. It will be expensive and challenging to draw different textures on the body together and add feathers, but it feels achievable because it's more of an art-orientated process as opposed to a mechanical/engineering-orientated one.

Notes and sketches on the assembly and design of the puppet.

Once this project starts making some solid, visible progress hopefully my nerves will be settled; the puppet is fully designed externally with technical drawings, fabric swatches, colour plans and many sketches pondering the complexities of the mechanic, but nothing feels real until it can be held in one's hands. Watch this space, big bird is coming...!