Frank Zappa Stop-Motion Puppet

Hello! Welcome to my second Instructable. Here I'll be sharing the process of the creation of my first ever stop-motion puppet, inspired by the one and only Frank Zappa!

Design

- Reference images

- Sketchbook/Paper

- Colored pencils

- Pencil

- Eraser

Armature
- Jewelry tools

- Wire

- Kneadatite (epoxy putty)

Skin
- Aluminum foil

- Sculpting tools

- Polymer clay

- Rubbing alcohol

Hair
- Black yarn

- Tacky glue

- Doll hair brushes

- Toothpicks

Clothing
- Fabric

- Needle & thread

- Pins

- Pen/Pencil

- Fabric scissors

Electric Guitar
- Paperboard

- Acrylic paint

- Paintbrushes

- Scissors

- Assorted glue

- Assorted paper

I’ve chosen for my puppet to be in 1:12 scale, meaning that for every 1 foot in height Frank Zappa is, my puppet will be 1 inch.

According to Google, Zappa was 6 feet tall, so my puppet will measure 6 inches tall. With this in mind, I drew a rough sketch of the puppet’s body to be my guide when constructing the armature.

Next, using my sketch and colored pencils, I planned out my puppet’s armature.

• Red represents the wire armature
• Green represents the bones: indicating where the puppet can’t bend
• Blue represents the joints: indicating where the puppet can bend and pivot
• Pink represents the puppet’s hands

After I finished planning the components of my wire armature, I began to shape the wire based on the red lines!

After creating the puppet’s legs and torso, I started to work on its arms (which were made up of two pieces of twisted wire). I untwisted the top of the torso and slid in the arms while adjusting it to match up with my drawing. After, I re-twisted the wire, partially securing the arms in place.

Next, I mixed the blue and yellow components of my epoxy putty and began sculpting the “bones” of my armature. This will help secure the arms while also preventing the puppet from bending in unwanted places.

Next, I began working on the puppet’s hands: which ended up being a challenge.

I first twisted two pieces of very thin wire and shaped it into a hand using jewelry pliers. I was satisfied with the end result until I found that there was no effective way to attach it to the arm while still being posable.

In my second and final attempt, I ended up taking a small piece of Kneadatite and stuck in some small pieces of thin wire to be the fingers. I then sculpted the hands around the wrist to attach it, completing my armature.

Finally, I allowed the putty to fully cure for 24 hours and the armature was finally complete!

In this next step, I began working on the puppet’s head. I wasn’t sure how to go about doing this, but I decided to go along with a technique using aluminum foil as the head’s core.

I used sculpting tools to create indents in the foil as to where I wanted the eyes and nose to go. Afterwards, I covered the foil head with polymer clay and started to shape facial features.

Next, I began working on the eyes.

I gathered a small amount of clay and rolled it into a ball, adjusting it to fit inside the eye socket. Once I had the right size, I poked a hole in the center of the eyeballs to be the pupils and baked them. Creating a hole for the pupils will also allow me to move the eyes for animation.

After baking and letting them cool, I painted the eyeballs white and allowed them to dry. I then painted the inside of the hole (the pupil) black and the iris dark brown with lighter brown highlights.

Lastly, I painted on a layer of glossy Mod-Podge to make the eyes realistically shiny.

After working on the eyes, I finally got to working on Zappa’s frizzy black hair and iconic mustache.

To do this, I took some strands of black yarn and brushed it out using a doll-size hairbrush (I did this over a t-shirt as it was easier to brush out the yarn over a soft surface compared to the desk). The fluff that stuck to the brush will be used to give his hair volume while the brushed out strands will be the hair itself. To make the eyebrows and mustaches, I took small pieces of the less brushed-out sections of yarn and applied them to the face using tacky-glue.

As I continued onto making the mouth, my progress was going unusually well. Unfortunately, things were too good to be true and as I continued to shape and adjust the mouth, the rest of the head was getting mushed. In frustration, I took off everything and re-rolled the entire head; destroying hours of sculpting and perfecting the face.

After having finished my remake of Zappa’s head, I moved onto re-doing and fixing his hair.

As mentioned before, I brushed out strands of black yarn using a doll’s hairbrush. Using tacky glue and the fuzz that stuck to the brush, I glued on the fuzz directly onto his head to not only cover it, but to also add volume. Then, I glued the brushed out strands of yarn on top to be his hair.

After finishing Zappa’s head, I returned to working on the armature.

I used scraps of felt to wrap the armature in. The purpose of this step is not only to protect the armature but to also add padding and give it shape.

Next, I started work on making clothes.

Cutting off the sleeve of an old t-shirt, I tucked Zappa in and marked where to sew his sleeves. I used pins to more accurately mark where to sew.

While figuring out what to do about his outfit, I moved on to creating a miniature version of Frank Zappa’s infamous Roxy SG guitar.

I didn’t take many pictures of the process, but the technique is very similar to the process shown in my first Instructable.

First, I drew out the shape of the guitar onto a scrap piece of paper and cut it out to use as a tracing template on paperboard. I also repeated this step to make a template of the guitar neck.

Next, I used a pen to trace around the guitar and guitar neck templates and then carefully cut them out. I made four cut-outs of the body and three of the neck to get the right thickness. Lastly, I stacked the cut-outs and used tacky glue to glue them together.

After gluing the cut-outs together, I used a nail file to sand the edges smooth. Next, I mixed brown and orange acrylic paint for the body color of the guitar.

Unfortunately, from this point on, I don’t have any photos of the rest of the guitar’s progress.

Since I don't have any pictures, I'll describe the rest of the process.

For the guitar body, I painted it a base color of burnt orange. Using a pencil, I drew out where I wanted the pick guard to go and painted it black, outlining it with off-white paint. Next, I cut and glued two tiny rectangles of silver reflective cardstock paper to be the guitar’s pickups.

Beneath them, I cut out the same paper to be the vibrato tailpiece at the bottom. Glued directly next to it, I bent a small piece of wire and tipped it with black paint. This is the guitar’s tremolo. Next to it, I used a toothpick and dotted silver and black paint to be the volume and tone controls. Finally, I went back with silver paint and a toothpick and applied dots on the guitar according to reference pictures.

For the guitar neck, I painted it with a base coat of black acrylic paint. Once it dried, I outlined it with off-white. I used the same white paint and a thin paintbrush to create the frets and the fret markers.

For the guitar head, I painted it with a base coat of off-white acrylic paint. I used a thin paintbrush to apply the black mark on it, as well as using silver paint for the guitar name at the top. I used a toothpick and silver paint for the tuning peg markers. For the tuning pegs, I placed a tiny amount of hot glue to the very tip of a toothpick and pressed it flat. I trimmed the edges square, cut off the tip of the toothpick, and used Super Glue to apply it to the sides of the head. Finally, I painted them silver.

After weeks of attempting to finish him, Zappa kept breaking and falling apart until I finally gave up. Both of his legs had snapped from repeated posing, and once his left arm snapped too, I decided it was time to make him a new armature altogether.

To make him less prone to breaking, I created a sturdier armature using even more wires. I also left larger gaps for his joints so that he is easier to pose, placing less tension on the wires.

Next, I redid the wrapping covering the puppet’s armature so that it was neater and added sufficient padding.

After, I added polymer clay as skin around Zappa’s neck and shoulders so that you can’t see the armature through the opening of the sweater’s neck.

With my puppet being very close to being completed, I added some finishing touches:

- Despite adding clay as skin for his neck, I decided to wrap felt around his neck to be his shirt collar so that his armature wrap would look like shirt sleeves.

- Ever since adding hair to the puppet, the clay quickly became dirty as it started to trap tiny black fibers from the yarn. To clear up his skin, I used rubbing alcohol to remove the dust and fuzz that started to accumulate on his face.

- As for adjusting clothing, I sewed the sweater closer to his arms so that it was less loose and better fitting.

- Finally, I used brown polymer clay and shaped it around the puppet’s feet for plain brown shoes (that don't make it).

Next, I decided to remake Zappa’s hands so that they looked a bit more realistic. I flattened a ball of polymer clay and shaped it into the shape of his hand palms. I then rolled out and adjusted thin tubes of clay for his fingers.

Since I didn’t want to constantly worry about smushing or breaking his hands while posing him, I decided to bake them so that they’d be firm and in one position (holding/playing the guitar).

I first wrapped clay around his arms to make wrists and baked them separately. I then took the baked clay wrists and glued them onto his arms so that they’d stay in place, then gluing on his hands.

After I added finishing touches the guitar, my Frank Zappa puppet was finally complete!

Here is the finished puppet! He isn't perfect as it was my first ever handmade puppet, but I'm happy with the final result. Keep an eye out for part 2 when I share the animation process and final animated video!

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Thank you! :)