Friday, October 14, 2016

Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors

Here is the YouTube to see how it was made:



Making this plant from Little Shop of Horrors has been on my list for a while now. I love how it turned out. The video shows sort of my process. Obviously should have taken more pictures to better describe but hopefully it gives you the idea. Go make one!










UPDATE!!!  Many of you have asked some great questions on my YouTube tutorial of this. When I was building it, I never intended to make a step by step video. But turns out many of you want to make your own and now I wish I gave you better details of my process. I've tried to answer your questions but I think some more pictures might be even better. So I'll post them here and hopefully that helps. Basically, I didn't know what I was doing and solved my problems on the fly. My advice is get started and you'll likely do the same. But I hope this helps. Have fun!












61 comments:

  1. This is really amazing! I want to make one for a gender swapped Seymour costume im doing this year. What type of clay did you use? Also how did you connect the head together?

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    1. Thanks! I used DAS modeling clay. To connect the head together I made a sort of ball and socket type grooves at the back of the top and bottom then just attached a piece of green felt. You can see it at about the 1:36 mark in the video.

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  2. Awesome stuff well done :) I'm trying to look for a blank polystyrene head but can only find ones with face features. Could you tell me how you found the blank ones please

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    1. I had trouble finding faceless heads , I couldn't wait to get them from amazon but I am going with a paper mache head but some of the ideas Mason has are awesome . I am using a sleeve from a old sweatshirt for my hand at least that is the plan . I am going to play around using ides from Mason and others. Awesomely done project!

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  3. Hey Paul, I believe I got it at Hobby Lobby. Hope that helps.

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    1. Thank you I think I have found them on ebay now. Every time I put polystyrene head into the search box I kept getting the ones with faces. I was afraid it would be to small if I sanded it down. What did you use for the neck section please? I was looking at others and ducting for a tumble dryer looks like a good idea :) Thank you for your quick reply and inspiration :)

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    2. Sorry I don't really show what I did for the stem. Basically I bought some dark green felt by the yard. Then made a sleeve but instead of sewing I just hot glued. Shhh nobody needs to know. Basically just cut a rectangle as long as your arm and glue the two long sides together. Super easy to slide your arm in. Then I just went to michaels craft store and even the dollar store for leaves and plant stuff I thought would look good and hot glued them to the sleeve. I found some awesome leaves that had wire in them which allowed me to shape them exactly how I wanted. Good luck!

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    3. You can get the Styrofoam heads cheap at Sally Beauty Supply. You can also get them at most wig shops....or amazon.

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  4. Ahhhhh :) Hot glue is amazing one of my all time fave things to use. thank you for the information that's very kind :D

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  5. Hi Mason sorry me again just been watching your video. Did you add the fingers holes on to the back section with air dry clay or did you cut holes into the polystyrene itself at the back and then re inforce it with air dry clay please? Also with the two holes at the bottom was this built up with the clay or did you use something else? I presume you have done a textured top layer with tissue and glue or paper mache? Sorry for the 101 questions :D

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    1. HI Paul, The finger holes were made from the air dry clay. But If I were to make one again I would maybe try and leave room in the styrofoam head for some finger holes. I had hollowed out the head before I had a finger plan. I'm sure you could make either direction work. Yes I did a tissue and glue layer all over the head after I carved in some design using a burn tool. Hope this helps

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    2. Hi Mason thank you for replying again. Ahhh good to know about the hot wire tools that thought didn't even cross my mind. I have a got knife and wire cutter in workshop. I wonder if I put the holes in the polystyrene weather the tongue section would then look a bit odd inside the mouth. I was contemplating painting a layer of liquid latex over the whole thing to give it a clamy skin type feel maybe? I had my polystyrene head arrive yesterday so can mame a start soon. Does the air dry clay hold up well? I imagine you gave those area a lick of gloss to give it a wet look? thank you for all your help :)

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    3. the air dry clay is amazing! a bit of a learning curve when working with it. dip fingers in water then work it in into the clay until it gets more soft. I kneed a ball of it in my hands adding some water to get it softer. Also use wet fingers to get a smoother blend. Its awesome tho. Didn't have any clay shrinkage or cracking. Super hard when dry. yes I coated the lips and inside the mouth with a clear shiny varnish. Good luck!

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    4. Thank you :) interesting stuff . I have several bags of air dry clay here made by scola so will give that a go. Thank you for the tips. I have most things here now to make a start just have to get my bum in gear to start making :D

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    5. You said tissue and glue layer, can you elaborate more on that please?

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    6. This video shows what that technique is. Especially around the 6 minute mark. You can use tissue paper or paper towel or napkin etc. You don't have to use mod podge. I use a water/elmers mixture. You can google for more info on this.

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    7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEbnDAj0Jpo

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  6. oooop forgot to ask when cutting the main head section in half for the mouth did you cut right across with a long knife or did you cut around with a short knife please and scoop out the middle?

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    1. I cut the head using a hot wire tool. It wasn't exactly in half. I made sort of a mouth shape. You can see where I drew the shape in black marker on the video.

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  7. So had a bit of a disaster. managed to cut the head in half and start adding the lip sections with air dry clay. Left it in a warmish area and just got to check on it and its cracked all over the place :/ Particularly around the thinner sections which I kind of smeared and blended it around the edges. Do you think its the clay I'm using ? :(

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  8. oh i'm not sure what happened. I only have experience with the DAS clay and it didn't do that for me. Maybe climate has something to do with it. sorry. don't let it get you down. try something else.

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    1. Hi :)

      I have now bought some Das clay and it seems to be a more plasticy type clay compared to stuff I was using. I have done the lips , gums and teeth and now waiting for it to dry. I've used screws to mould the teeth round which seems to work ok. I've also added the holes into the top section of the head. I'm still a little puzzled about the bottom holes. Did you mould the clay around your little finger and thumb and then just press it on to the lower jaw? I see you mention about a socket and ball type set up to connect the lower and upper half I don't suppose you have an close up photos of this do you? Thanks for all the help and tips

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    2. Glad Das is working better for you. Yes I molded that stuff around my pinky and thumb and onto the bast of the plant head. The socket and ball thing is maybe not necessary if you connect the top and bottom with some felt or something. You just don't want the jaw to move sideways instead of just up and down.

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  9. Nearly dry :D Just another quick question (you must be sick of me by now) with the lips gums and teeth now added both the top half and bottom half are quite heavy. How did you cope with opening and closing the mouth operation without your fingers falling off lol ?

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    1. The Das clay dries pretty light. Mine isn't too bad. I guess if you plan to puppet for a long period of time then it will be a workout.

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    2. Paul I'd love to see your recreation.

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  10. Love, love, love it. Hoping I can figure out the ball n joint part. Gonna watch the video see if I scope out some of tips.please don't ever stop sharing your diys, u by far make some of the coolest stuff.

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  11. would you consider doing these for commission?

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    1. Yes. Send me an email with what you are thinking and I can give you an estimate. masonbarton@yahoo.com

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  12. Thank you for posting this and your video. You made my littlest sons' Halloween! He is a big fan of "little Shop of Horrors"

    http://www.chriscustoms.net/blog/seymour-audrey-2-halloween-costume-wip

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    1. Thanks for the shout out Chris! I love what you've made! Great job!

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  13. Hey Mason i cant tell if the comment i just made appeared or not but i have a question about how you got your arm through the pot. I see you cut the side out but how did you keep the pot from slipping off when you removed your hand from the bottom of it?

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    1. I have a felt green strap that loops over my arm and velcroes to the other side. Hope that helps.

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  14. Hello! Just seeing this post! Love it!! My son is a huge fan and I'd like to make one for him! May I ask what kind of paint you used on the styrofoam?? Spray paint? Thank you for your time!! ~Allison

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    1. Hello! Yes make one! Its so fun. I just used regular acrylic paint. You can't use spray paint on styrofoam or it will eat away at it. Good luck. Would love to see how it turns out.

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  15. I wanna try and make one for my dad he LOVES that movie but had a couple questions. What did you use for the steam that would be flexible but string enough to hikd head up? Also did you attach the hand to the jacket and whoever is holding the plant wears the jacket?? You did a great job! Nobody's on the Internet compares to yours!

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    1. Thank you! The stem is just green fabric I hot glued into a tube/sleeve shape. It is only meant to hold the plant head up when an arm is inside it. As for the jacket. I took an old jacket and cut a hole sort of in the chest area for my real arm to go through and use to animate the puppet. The actual jacket sleeve was filled with material to make it look like a real arm. Then a plastic fake hand was attached to the sleeve with some velcro to then attach to the pot. I did have to heat up the plastic hand and mold it to the curvature of the pot. Also painted it to look more like my hand. Probably the trickiest part is to get good support of the fake arm to rest nice against the actors real body. I totally hacked jobbed it and just used clear tape to sort of build a belt or harness if you will. To wrap around the body so it is secure. Good luck. I hope that helped a little.

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  16. Aww ok I didn't realize it was a puppet that layed flat when you wasn't using it. One more question, did you put the clay on the foam first then decoupage afterwards or should I decoupage first so the clay sticks to it good? Alson did you decoupage the entire thing before painting to cover the texture and holes in the foam or did you actually put clay on every part top and inside of the mouth for this, or both? Ive never worked with that particular clay but have ordered it and was curious how ling it took to dry? Thanks so much for taking the time to help me with all my questions

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  17. I put clay on the foam first then tissue and a water/elmers mixture. I didn't cover the lips with tissue tho or the teeth. Clay is only used for the teeth and lips and building up the back of the head for my fingers and hand to fit nicely. The clay dries pretty fast but super hard and light weight. Work it in your hands to get it warm and soft. Can dip your fingers in water to smooth out texture.

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  18. I'm not gong to attempt to replicate this, so I don't have any technical questions. I just wanted to let you know that this was amazing. Loved the video. Very easy to follow. You did a fabulous job.

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  19. Hello. I have been wanting an Audry 2 for years. I'm not that crafty when it comes to this area but I absolutely love how yours came out. Have you ever thought about or are you willing to make one to be bought and if so for how much?

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    1. Thanks for the compliment Amber. I'm not making any more of these sorry. But thanks for asking.

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  20. Muito criativo
    Já estou querendo fazer uma também

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  21. Wow! This is amazing. And thank u for Sharing your "how to's". You're very talented.

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  22. Hi! Not sure if you're still replying to comments but this is my first time making something like this and i'm a bit stuck on some stuff and hoping you could help? First confusion is how the holes for the head work. Are your pinky and thumb in the bottom and your other three at the top and if so how exactly are the holes added in? Were they actually cut into the head and then clay was sculpted over it to cover it? And Then where exactly is your arm? I've seen a lot of people put their arm through a hole under or is the pot cut out from the side? Sorry if this is a lot of questions! This is coming from an inexperienced 17 year old.

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    1. Hello! Good luck making one of your own! yes pinky and thumb are attached to bottom part and the other three fingers are in the top. The holes are added with the das clay. I just sort of molded it around my fingers and onto the styrofoam. I made a green sleeve out of felt. Basically just hot glued two long ends together and it made a sort of tube you stick your arm thru. One end gets attached to the head. Then just hot glued lots of leaves and such. I cut the pot side. Its more comfortable. I added a strap of the green felt to go over my arm to secure the pot to the arm. Did you watch the You tube? It should help as well. I know its missing details so I don't mind answering questions.

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  23. WOOOOOW That is incredibly creative. Would be such a cool halloween costume this year. I bet you put a lot of smiles on peoples faces with you project.

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    1. Thanks Carla! Yeah its a fun one to wear. People love it! Thanks for the comment.

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  24. Curious, what does the coring of the head look like? I read above you may have used hot knife/wire? Can you explain that a little or at least provide a link to what that tool looks like so that I can imagine that process? Great work BTW!

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    1. hotwirefoamfactory.com has a bunch of hot wire foam carving tools. I have one I like but don't remember where I got it. It came with a bunch or different strong shaped wire. There's one with in a loop shape to take out big portions at a time. It basically heats up the wire which then cuts thru foam pretty easily. Hope that helps

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  25. How do you recommend carving out the inside of the head without a hot wire tool? I live in Australia and I’m not sure about my access to tools like that without spending a lot of money

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    1. Also, what is it you stuck into the teeth to get them to stick in the gums?

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  26. Hi! Okay, first of all, amazing! Second, any way to make this waterproof? I'm concerned about the exposed clay parts... Mine won't be a puppet, its stationary for Halloween. Thank you!!!

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    1. Thanks so much for the kind compliment. Hmmmm not sure the best waterproofing. Give it a google. Good luck.

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