INTO THE OVEN - Part 3: Clarke

Close up of the facial armature for Clarke.
The entire foam run can be found in the PREPRODUCTION folder.

Clarke is a big puppet. He stands 14 inches tall compared to Isaac's 8.5 inches which means a fairly large batch of foam. I always mix more foam rubber than I need. Mixing too little is a total disaster and I am loath to admit that I have faced that situation in the past. Because of the problems that arose with Isaac (the air pockets) I was very meticulous when it came to filling this mould. The finished puppet turned out very well but there were still some air cavity issues. These ones proved not as problematic. There is a good half inch of rubber between the puppet's skin surface and the air pockets so I simply filled the larger cavities with pieces of run off foam. With the smaller air pockets I injected liquid rubber into the cavity. I have never had this problem with air pockets to this extent in the past. I believe that I am not giving the foam enough time to set up before closing the mould. This may be causing the foam to pull away from the top side of the mould once I close it. For Leith's run I plan to wait until the foam has started to set up before closing the mould. After 25 years of making puppets I foolishly thought these types of problems where behind me.