Hello Philip. First of all, thank you for the clips, it's always nice to see creative people in action :) regarding silicone coating, I use this material for several years and I have some tips to add to the clip. First, since the silicon reacts with moisture, Acrylic paint will form clumps and its rather difficult to apply a uniform layer. A small amount of oil paints for painters will give a better result. Another thing I discovered was that using silicon directly on the foam creates a relatively thick layer of silicon and makes it too stiff, especially for the puppet face and mouth . My solution to this problem is stretching and sewing of nylon stocking on the puppet and apply silicon on top of it. the Silicon will glue the nylon stocking to the foam and prevent the the foam from absorbing to much silicon. and creates smooth thin layer of silicon. Hope to see more clips in the future. Thank you
Thanks for that. I agree, that after a while of curing the silicone does go reasonable stiff. Around the mouth edges I cut the foam really thin and then glue some material inside it to give extra strength while remaining fairly flexible.
Wanted to say thank you for the video. Your explanation of the chemistry behind the curing of the silicone was great. I like to know why things happen and how....not just "well it just does what it does and this is what you get" So thank you very much for the video!
If you want to thin out the silicone mix, you can use mineral spirits. This has been used with acetic cure silicone/cornflour mix with a lot of success (cornflour basically acting as the moisture source, same as your pigment, for speeding up the cure time). I'd test the mineral spirits on a scrap of foam first though, I'm not sure what effect it will have. Last thing you'd want to do is dissolve your puppet.
se que lees español muy bien, y quiero decirte que te admiro mucho, eres una inspiracion para mi, me motiva ver como encuentras la forma de superar tu trabajo cada ocasion que lo veo, siento orgullo al ver tu trabajo y motivacion para seguir adelante, gracias por eso...
You Sir are a lifesaver!!!! I spent hours over the internet and researching all possible ways to build my puppets; of course as cheap and effective. since I seen your show, now I have an idea of what to do. Now I need to know how to take basic colors and blending them
You can mix any color that you have paints or powders for. The feathering of colors takes a little practice , but just layer thin coats one on top of another.
After a long while of waiting, I finally made my puppet, it's a snake and I have to admit, it was blast to create her. I wish I can show you what it looks like. Now I know what to do on my 2nd reform of building my snake
Alcohol will thin silicone an make it take longer to dry. Will also disolve dried silicon, for clean up. Learned that installing countertops. Applying alcohol to your finger will also keep the silicon from sticking to it (like when smoothing the bead between counter and backboard). Or spray it on the silicon with a bottle, then smooth. We used methanol (campstove fuel) but seems like any strong alcohol works. Have yet to try it on foam, but have used it for other crafts.
Thank you for this. I've also been experimenting with several materials, and found that for smoothing silicone when it is fresh, rubbing alcohol (70% or 90%) is really good as a temporary solvent. I use it on my gloved fingers, and make the texture as smooth as i need it. Let the alcohol evaporate well before adding more silicone, to make sure both coats will stick together. The same rubbing alcohol can be used to smooth epoxy putties.
Thanks for that. Yes, I tried that in my experimenting as a thinner, which did not work so well, but I did not try it a a smoothing thing. I will give it a go. Thanks.
***** Last Monday, I had to repair a puppet whose feet were carved out of polyfoam, and were starting to tear from constant flexing. The only solution I could think of was to use your silicone skin technique. The results were too glossy, so I added an extra coat of the tinted silicone (which I tinted with powdered pigment, and accelerated with corn starch, instead of using acrylic paint), and generally sprinkled more of the same pigment powder over it, then lightly brushed it everywhere, to ensure proper coverage. I let it set, then washed the whole thing with water and soap. Surface pigments that had been grabbed by the silicon stayed put, and the rest washed off. Thanks for your sharing, you certainly saved me a lot of trouble!
Creaturiste Good on you! Yes I have also done similar, just sprinkling dust onto the drying surface to matte it a bit. .How do you do the accelerated corn starch pigment thing? Sounds interesting.
Philip Stephens I just add a tiny amount of corn starch to the small batch of silicone, just like you do with acrylic paint. For example, one cup of silicone only needs a tablespoon of starch to set within 15 minutes. I also add a tiny amount of dry pigment, for coloring, then vigorously mix all together with a thick dowel that has been flattened to form a spatula. I apply with an actual meal painting knife though. This approach is the same I use when making silicone caulking molds, when the fine detail and texture does not absolutely need to be perfect. I embrace the rough, handmade, antique-looking finish in most of my work.
I saw on youtube somewhere that the corn starch was good for getting thicker silicone applications to cure. I tried it and it seems to work. The corn starch has enough moisture to make the silicon set where a skin that forms on the outside does not let the moisture inside.
This is such a great tutorial! I'm looking to make silicone dolls, which is how I stumbled onto this video. Learning this method I think I want to try and make a puppet! :)
Very brilliant...I admire your inventive way of thinking....I thank you for your informative videos,and may I just thank you on behalf of some of us who cant even see the value of these videos.Keep challenging us to think outside the box.
i love this video also i think this man looks like a puppet but it us also 3 am and ive stayed up all night watching puppet making videos so that could just be sleep deprivation talking
Thanks for the video, love the technique, especially as it is cheap to do. I have recently made a puppet, my first proper attempt, I think a silicone skinned puppet will be the second one :)
Thank you for sharing your technics with us I look foreword to trying this out on a puppet I am currently making. I do have a quick question for you you showed a few examples of puppets in your video that had hair. Do you have to use the silicon to attach the hair as well. You said silicon sticks only to silicon. Just wondering . As always Philip I look forward to you next video. Your the best
Oil paints are great for mixing with silicone, either platinum or caulk......you can also thin it down with naphtha to make it more spreadable and to gave yourself some more working time
wow. This is very clever. You know, I was planning to buy the 2 part liquid silicone, but after this I think I'll try silicone caulk. The transparency is way better for adding pigment....but I wonder if the quality is any different for puppets.
Artist's soft Pastels will add vibrant color if you simply use a piece of sandpaper & sand the pigment off & then add it to whatever you please. This also will allow you to mix the perfect colors!
Hola, I just want to know what colour powder are you using? Is it food colour or vegetable dye Secondly you talk about silicon-what is the name of the silicon that you are using
This is awesome! I have to make a Blob Fish puppet, something that looks wet and slimey- would silicone skinning be my best bet to achieve a malleable, wet look?
I have used silicon extensively in the past, and my experience is that it takes minimum hours to dry, often days. I wonder why it seems yours cures so quickly.
It's the water content in the paint used as pigment. Silicone molecules 'chain' together taking pieces from the water molecules. Usually there is enough in the air for this to happen, but takes longer. The water provides greater numbers of molecules for this to happen faster.
I know this video is quite old but it is quite amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing! I just begun building my first puppet, an Audrey two stage 2, I tried out your silicone painting technique on a piece of foam and I would like to know how you get rid of the „stickiness“ of the dried silicone? Best regards
Very nice. I had an idea for a red ant character that this would work nicely for. Now with latex some people put it on top of fleece as well. Does that technique still work with silicone?
Wow I was breaking my head on how to do a home project which would en up flexible and the foam and silicone combination is just the answer I needed, though my project will need a wood like finish so the gelatin mold you showed will do the final touches. just what type of gelatin did you use? it is like alginate or what is it?
Thanks, this was a very useful tutorial. In fact, I have been considering this type of silicone for foam puppet use for a while, but wasn't sure what type of paint I should use with it. The type of powder that you used, is it titanium oxide based or something else? Have you tried makeup colors and oil bases?
Dinoslay oil colors work great to tint and also copex inks. You can thin down the silicone with naptha if it is available in your area to make silicone paint that is sprayable through an air brush. Be sure to wear a respirator and work in a spray booth or well ventilated space when spraying naptha.
Mr. Philip , Goodnight, I am a great admirer of your work, I am in Brazil and I am starting an art process , which need your help. I checked the process that Mr. began with the silicone puppet, to achieve a glow effect as something similar to the effect that Mr. employed this video , but a little more gleaming as if it was wet or fresh , which kind that pigment Mr. use?
+ Miolo Gamer Boa pergunta .Good question. Para obter mais brilho, pode-se tentar usar será,cera para móveis . Mais tarde . ..voy para experimentá-lo também :) . ... Não pigmentos tóxicos pós são bons. Eu uso um pouco de vinil pintura, mas você tem que trabalhar rapidamente porque a água na pintura torna endurece mais rápido. Tintas a óleo também funcionam bem .
Hey I'm a puppeteer and just starting to make puppets. This video has been really helpful. Quick question what paints do you use? Also What glue do you use for sticking the foam? Thanks
Powder colors are best as they give you more time to work the silicone , but vinyl house paint or artists colors work, but make th re silicone set faster. I use a contact glue to glue the foam.
AMIGO NO ENTIENDO MUCHO LOS MATERIALES? CREO QUE S SILICONA Y ALGUNA PINTURA AL AGUA O LATEX? ESPERO SU RESPUESTA ..... MI NOMBRE ES FRANCISCO ( CHILE)
Excellent video! I see the silicone you use is named "sikasil ac" but I can't find that brand in the U.S. Do you know what I should look for? Like the ingredients or something, so I can search my local hardware store for a perfect equivalent? Thanks for sharing your amazing skills.
any brand should work. The cheaper the better for your budget. It is basically the same stuff brand to brand, except sometimes they add anti fungal stuff or colourants, or different viscosities. Just get a cheap brand and see how you go.
Thank you so much for this,. I want to use this technique for a costume but I'm curious about the "shelf life" . Has the silicone on any of your puppets started to crack or stiffen up after time?
Silicon lasts a long time. (Latex goes bad after a couple years) I have some puppets 4yrs old with silicon skin and they are still fine. They are still supple , not cracked, and have retained their color. The question is whether the foam will last as long as the silicon. The bathroom sealant silicon does go a little opaque over time (quite a few years) and gets a bit stiffer, but as far as I know it should outlast the foam.
Would this fill in gaps? I have a dinosaur puppet and it's got scales cut into the foam already we don't want to loose that effect. If we used silicone would we have to redo the scales?
If the scales are sort of large, you should have no problem, Just applying scale by scale may be tedious. Try it on a test piece first to see if it will work for you.
It just so happens that I am skinning a dragon/dinosaur for a friend right at the moment. It is not terribly realistic, but I am filming the progress, and just go over the technique. It may take a short while to get it edited and subtitled , but it is in the works.
I would say you could , but you will get a lot of brush texture. It is simpler to just use a normal bread knife and spread it on. (the knife will clean up fine.)
well I am also interested to use silicon to cover some shoes I have just hand painted, I have used various different sealants but as the shoe flexes (not alot as quite hard shoe) the paint acrylic and sealants split and peel. I am hoping silicon might work over my new acrylic paint job but I haven't used it before so unsure if to apply with brush or knife and how thick to apply to cope with shoe flexing?
yes, you can punch hair in. Make sure the hair goes down into the foam as that is what holds it mostly. Silicon does not hold the hair well, but like latex, it will work if you treat it right.Hot carving the foam makes toxic smoke, so be careful with that one.
Mr. Philip , Goodnight, For Mr. understand , I'll paint over the surface of foam poliureto Espand . What paint or effect Mr. recommends Me so that I can achieve this effect Mentioned I asked him
As mentioned in the video, silicon is fairly inert. It is the same thing glass is made of. The smell in caulking compound is vinegar which is acetic acid. In general, I believe silicon is safe and non toxic (they even use it to make body implants.) I think you will be OK concerning puppets. :)
+PhilipStephens007 thank you. The foam is from a pillow and I find a rubber base, cement glue that works well. I'm about to apply the silicon outta coat. :)
