Thinking in multiple planes can really melt your brain. It’s Day 4 of our Puppet Design and Construction intensive, and everyone’s working on their mechanisms.
Mads (pictured) set herself the challenging brief of swivelling eyeballs and moving eyebrows for her rabbit, all operated with one hand. The process of moving from a 2D drawing into permanent materials is made much smoother with 3D prototypes, so you can understand the relationships of everything in space. But working out that prototype can be maddening.
Work with salvaged materials that can be easily modified such as cardboard or offcuts, use simple joining techniques (masking tape, staples, pins) and keep in mind the end-of-life of what you’re doing – can it be recycled, re-used or composted?
Here’s a simple swivelling eye mech, seen from above. From here, any number of drivers could be built, depending on whether you want your thumb, forefinger or another appendage to do the work, and how far away from the mech you want to be.