The Blue Bird is a large scale puppet project I built for Halloween 2015. Here I document just how I did it.
Here's one of the final planning sketches for the Blue Bird puppet. The initial idea was to build a puppet where it looked like I was riding the bird horseback style, with the plan to add fake legs (this idea was later scrapped). You can see I'm already trying to figure out how to structure the inside of the bird so that it moves the way I want it to, especially the neck.
I found it really helpful to make such a thorough plan beforehand, as I had never attempted a puppet of this scale and detail before.
Here's the underlying body of the Blue Bird puppet. Here you can see the relatively commonplace materials used to build the body. I made a rough template for the cardboard and then perforated it so it would bend into a rounded shape. Inside the body there are bits of hula hoop and thick wire holding the body in shape. The neck is made of strips of foam and pool noodles adhered together. You can also see the suspenders attached to the inside that will hold the puppet on my body when the costume is complete.
You can also see in the background behind the can of the paint a foam half-dome that will eventually be the starting point of the bird's head.
Here's the Blue Bird head (minus the eyes). The mouth plate is made of cardboard, the beak and head is made of foam, and fabric has been sewn/glued over it.
A quick aside on the eyes as they're an element I'm especially proud of. No supplier makes "eyes" at this scale, so you have to figure out a way to make them yourself. I wound up using the shrunk wrap plastic shell packaging lightbulbs come in and painted the inside of them black.
Here I've added the legs and head to the body to get a sense of proportion and do a walking test. I opted to make the bird's legs separate from my own instead of one and the same like in the original sketch. The birds feet were made of yoga mat cut and glued over slippers.
Forgive me, this was my cargo pants phase.
Here's the Blue Bird fully dressed at my school's Halloween Costume Contest (I got second place, because high school is the worst).
The fur was mostly glued onto the bird in strategically cut strips and sections as to hide any gaps. The feathers on the front were glues on by hand. Not pictured in an enormous plumage of blue, black, and white ostrich feathers on the rear.
Here's a bonus picture: the Blue Bird featured onstage in a puppet dance number.
The Blue Bird was my first project where I used my fabrication skills to branch out of the traditional hand puppet style and build something large, detailed, and naturalistic (to a degree). Despite its low-cost materials, the bird held up for a long time. I eventually had to get rid of the body because I was running out of room in my garage, but the head is still proudly displayed as a testament to my hard work, and will be for years to come.