Danny Sexbang pt 2 - Hair!
Hey readers,
It's time to talk about Danny's hair. I thought that Danny was frequently shown in Game Grumps Animated videos with hair covering his eyes. As I looked through, the only one I could find was the puppet video - the inspiration for all of this puppet making. I might eventually make him smaller eyes, but with the hair I am making, you won't ever really see them. I have some pretty cool toys coming through Amazon that are going to step my puppet making way up. Once again, thanks go out to Adam for his super amazing tutorials and supply lists.
I just started a paragraph by saying I would talk about Danny's hair, and instead talked about eyes. Clearly I am the best blogger who ever lived. My ability to stay focused in matched only by that squirrel loving dog from that movie. I just did some googling, that movie is Up.
I know that there are a lot of great options for hair out there for puppets. I have done hair with feathers, fur, and even the tubing you use to neaten up the back of your entertainment center. For some reason, I always come back to plain ordinary yarn. I think it is because it isn't something I see a ton of on puppets of this type, and it gives the puppet a more "homemade" feeling, while still looking pretty awesome. Given the plan I have for Danny's clothes, I think yarn will look really amazing and fit the overall theme of the puppet.
I never really saw a tutorial on how to do yarn hair for puppets. I sort of just developed my own way of doing it. This might not be the most efficient way, but it is how i have always done yarn hair. I also haven't spent a whole lot of time looking into it, so its possible I developed my method parallel to how yarn hair is done. Stranger things have happened.
I had chosen the pinhead shape for Danny's head to make his hair appear bigger. I also grabbed a very loose skein of yarn that I thought would closely resemble curls. Mistake 1: That yarn, while super cool, also is made of a lot of relatively loose fibers wrapped around a single thread. I quickly discovered that every time I cut it, I would have to tie a knot in it or face the risk of all the fibers falling off. That didn't seem like a lot of work at first, but considering how many individual strands of hair he winds up having, it was kind of a pain.
To make my hair, I need to create wefts - lines of hair like you might see in a wig if you ever got close to one. I find the length of the eventual weft I am looking for. In this case, I broke out my DVD of Cabin Fever and used that as a marker for my length. I watched the sequels to Cabin Fever the other day, its was a bit of a rough go. No. Focus!
I wrap the yarn around the DVD for a while until the whole case is covered. Then I took some masking tape and taped all the yarn together.It is important not to let the yarn double up on top of itself because then your tape won't hold it together right for the next step. I flip my template (again, a well used copy of Cabin Fever) over and cut the yarn right down the middle. I make sure to wrap my tape all the way around to create a little line of yarn. Then - due to the yarn I picked - I had to knot each individual hair. This is not a normal step in the process, but here we are. Finally, I run the masking tape through my sewing machine. I set it to the smallest straight stitch I can to be sure every strand of yarn has some thread through it. Then I can remove the tape and send it through the sewing machine again - this time with a zig zag stitch. Mistake 2: If you don't start with a straight stitch, removing the tape is almost impossible. You won't really be able to see the tape under all the hair, but its not ideal to be able to see it.
The final weft stretches a little because as the treads move around a bit, but eventually I wind up with a secure weft of yarn to use on my puppet. Then I had to do this over and over. I eventually used the entire ball of yarn for this puppet's hair. It is really amazing how much yarn is required for a single puppet.
I then can lay my hair on my puppet. I like to start on the outer edge and work my way up. This allow me to figure out where my hairline will be on the puppet. I do a whip stitch through the weft to secure it. I started just doing knots every half an inch or so as that turned out to be faster and just as secure. I started pretty high up in the back because I knew the hair was going to be really long so it wouldn't be possible to see much of the neck anyway. Plus, how often is a puppet walking away from you.
I wound up with a bunch of funny looking stages of hair. My favorite was that at one point he had a bald spot right at the top of his pointy head. He looked like Friar Tuck. I actually made it to the top and still had a bald spot. I didn't have enough yarn for another weft at that length, so I made a shorter one. I would have likely cut it this short in the end anyway, but I like leaving as many options open as possible during the process.
Once all the hair was attached, he had a big unruly mop of hair - exactly as I wanted. The haircut process is usually really easy, but I like to cut really small amounts at a time to make sure I don't over-trim. Since each strand of this puppet's hair needed to be knotted every time it was cut, it made for a much more arduous process. After at least 600 knots, I found myself with a length I was really happy with! Danny is coming out great! Next time, we are going to look at creating the body!
Make something cool and leave a comment!
Until next time,
JoshPrime
It's time to talk about Danny's hair. I thought that Danny was frequently shown in Game Grumps Animated videos with hair covering his eyes. As I looked through, the only one I could find was the puppet video - the inspiration for all of this puppet making. I might eventually make him smaller eyes, but with the hair I am making, you won't ever really see them. I have some pretty cool toys coming through Amazon that are going to step my puppet making way up. Once again, thanks go out to Adam for his super amazing tutorials and supply lists.
I just started a paragraph by saying I would talk about Danny's hair, and instead talked about eyes. Clearly I am the best blogger who ever lived. My ability to stay focused in matched only by that squirrel loving dog from that movie. I just did some googling, that movie is Up.
I know that there are a lot of great options for hair out there for puppets. I have done hair with feathers, fur, and even the tubing you use to neaten up the back of your entertainment center. For some reason, I always come back to plain ordinary yarn. I think it is because it isn't something I see a ton of on puppets of this type, and it gives the puppet a more "homemade" feeling, while still looking pretty awesome. Given the plan I have for Danny's clothes, I think yarn will look really amazing and fit the overall theme of the puppet.
 |
| A "Cabin Fever" length of hair. |
I had chosen the pinhead shape for Danny's head to make his hair appear bigger. I also grabbed a very loose skein of yarn that I thought would closely resemble curls. Mistake 1: That yarn, while super cool, also is made of a lot of relatively loose fibers wrapped around a single thread. I quickly discovered that every time I cut it, I would have to tie a knot in it or face the risk of all the fibers falling off. That didn't seem like a lot of work at first, but considering how many individual strands of hair he winds up having, it was kind of a pain.
To make my hair, I need to create wefts - lines of hair like you might see in a wig if you ever got close to one. I find the length of the eventual weft I am looking for. In this case, I broke out my DVD of Cabin Fever and used that as a marker for my length. I watched the sequels to Cabin Fever the other day, its was a bit of a rough go. No. Focus!I wrap the yarn around the DVD for a while until the whole case is covered. Then I took some masking tape and taped all the yarn together.It is important not to let the yarn double up on top of itself because then your tape won't hold it together right for the next step. I flip my template (again, a well used copy of Cabin Fever) over and cut the yarn right down the middle. I make sure to wrap my tape all the way around to create a little line of yarn. Then - due to the yarn I picked - I had to knot each individual hair. This is not a normal step in the process, but here we are. Finally, I run the masking tape through my sewing machine. I set it to the smallest straight stitch I can to be sure every strand of yarn has some thread through it. Then I can remove the tape and send it through the sewing machine again - this time with a zig zag stitch. Mistake 2: If you don't start with a straight stitch, removing the tape is almost impossible. You won't really be able to see the tape under all the hair, but its not ideal to be able to see it.
 |
| About half a ball of yarn wefts |
I then can lay my hair on my puppet. I like to start on the outer edge and work my way up. This allow me to figure out where my hairline will be on the puppet. I do a whip stitch through the weft to secure it. I started just doing knots every half an inch or so as that turned out to be faster and just as secure. I started pretty high up in the back because I knew the hair was going to be really long so it wouldn't be possible to see much of the neck anyway. Plus, how often is a puppet walking away from you.  |
| Friar Sexbang |
Once all the hair was attached, he had a big unruly mop of hair - exactly as I wanted. The haircut process is usually really easy, but I like to cut really small amounts at a time to make sure I don't over-trim. Since each strand of this puppet's hair needed to be knotted every time it was cut, it made for a much more arduous process. After at least 600 knots, I found myself with a length I was really happy with! Danny is coming out great! Next time, we are going to look at creating the body!
Until next time,
JoshPrime
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