Oscar the Pug Puppet Project (Complete!)

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Meet Oscar! He is a full on muppet style puppet with a foam skeleton and fleece skin. He's roughly 16 inches tall, not including the arm sleeve, fully anthropomorphized with his front paws as arms and hands. He has no rear legs in true muppet fashion.

Merging into this muppet’s arms is a bit of “Lamb Chop” style tech. Instead of using traditional arm rods, the arms are controlled by a series of invisible thread strings just like my puppet Drew. One set raises and lower the arms and the other set bends either arm at the elbow. Movement Demo www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRyagj…

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The final touch! His very own dog tag.

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People really don’t use the Lamb Chop technique of using strings to move a puppet’s arms. I honestly don’t know what. It’s a very clever way to move them. You do not have the glaring eyesore of arm rods dancing around. These strings, especially under the right lighting conditions completely disappear. I deliberately took this picture with a light shining right on them so you can see them. One set pulls the arms in towards the chest. The other rises them.

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Arms are attached!!! Now it's time to string them!

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Paws attached to the arms with the prints glued on. All that leaves is attaching them to the body.

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All sewn together!

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The inner and outer paws.

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The arms before and after sewing the foam in.

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The arms. The last major step.

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Collar complete and attached. The collar serves a functional purpose as well as a decorative. It hides the seam where the inner and outer neck meet.

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Now for the collar.

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Ears are now attached!

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Now for the ears!! Before and after pictures.

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The all important eyes are attached. :)

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Adding those famous pug wrinkles.

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Starting on the face!

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The arm sleeve is more important than you may think. What is the worst thing that could happen to a puppeteer? You arm is showing. The arm sleeve gives the puppeteer some leeway when performing. You'd be surprised how often the arm sleeve makes it into a shot on the muppets or Sesame Street. Without it, it would be the puppeteer's arm for the world to see.