Kelvin asks me yesterday of my bunraku puppet (discussed here):

"What is the shoulder board made of? Is it something completely rigid or something that’s a little soft and flexible?"

Nori had explained to us that the shoulder board was usually made with plywood, and using one of two methods: two interlocking plates, as I’ve done; or one board, which has a latch to lock it into place. I didn’t see the latch on his puppets close up, and we didn’t have time in class to learn about the making of the boards - so I guessed and used the first system.

Plywood sounded great, but the problem was that I have no tools for cutting and shaping pieces of wood, and can’t really borrow from anyone. So I thought to myself, "let’s use a modern material". Plastic was the first thing to come to mind, because it was light, flexible, and durable. Nori had mentioned that the shoulder board should have some elasticity to it - I can’t recall why now, but I think it was something about the movement of the body being natural.

Anyway, I had some sheets of opaque acetate and thought it was ideal materials. Problem was - and this was back when I had planned on doing the traditional costume with the strings and hoop hanging off the shoulder board - it wasn’t going to be strong enough for the weight of the costume.

So I took one of my interlocking acetate plates and made a copy of it; another acetate plate. I then cut out another one from illustrator board, and glued the three together as a sandwich; acetate, illustrator board, acetate. It still has flexibility, but it does add strength. I was going to do the same with the other locking plate, but decided that one thick plate was enough.

In the video, the first plate I remove is the singular acetate plate. The second one I remove is the tri-thickness plate (the illustrator board is red on the back of it).

Actually, there is something else here too… I designed the shoulders based on the width and length that I thought worked for the character. But my design was lopsided, and therefore, when it came time to making the two interlocking plates, they didn’t quite match up. Pretty much all of the shoulders and costume was a ‘make it up as you go’ thing, since I didn’t have notes or the masterclass to rely on.