Don Johnson, Vent Puppet

This is Don Johnson, Beach Bum ... I made him from an assortment of found and thrift store purchases: 1. kid's styrofoam safety helmet - face and top of the head, 2. a styrofoam ball - back of the head, 3. powdered laxative bottle - neck, 4. gallon plastic bottle - body, 5. thick meat trays - pecks and six pack, 6. tennis and table balls - shoulders and eyes, 7. paper towel and toilet roll tubes - arms and legs, 8. hanger wire - arms, legs, hands, feet, controls, 9. lots of paper mache, duck and gorilla tape, wood putty, 10. acrylic paints and 11. little kids shirt and shorts. It took a long time and I'm please to share him with you. ... One eyebrow raises and the mouth move. His head turns left and right.

I took the helmet and set it as the face. I cut out eye holes and the jaw. I set the ball for eyea and filled around them with mache. The nose is a plastic Christmas ball. It and the cheeks and lips got mache.  For the ears I used gray cardboard built up with hot glue and wood putty. I mixed my own colors and later added wood putty mustache and hair. The control stick anchors in the top of the hear and string for the jaw and wire for the eyebrow run trhough the neck bottle. It is covered in mache and wood putty.

For the arms and legs I used wood dowels or wire armatures and build them out with plastic bags and the paper tubes, covered them in mache and finished them with wood putty and paint. The flip flops are from the Wifey. I cut them and fitted them. NOTE: the arms were originally straight and stiff. It did not work so I cut them down and made elbows. The arms just poke up into holes in the tennis ball shoulders affixed to the body. I couldn't dress him otherwise.

This series shows the body build process. Legs on first. Then shoulders and pecks and abs. Then mache, wood putty and paint.

The back of his head was open, so I cut down and fitted a styrofoam ball, covering it in mache, wood putty and glue. Its held in place by a long wood screw (think Neo in the Matrix).

All that was left was to dress him, paint hair on his chest, give him a tattoo that tells of his love for Sweet Lorraine, make him a friendly companion in Badbot .... and give him the grandson test! .... WIN!