Where to buy puppet foam in Australia? Part Two
Reticulated foam, the industry-standard foam for making muppet-types and other foam puppets, is not easily obtainable in Australia; so I went on a hunt to find a substitute and this is what I found…
On Friday, I headed over to Riot Art in Camberwell, to get some felt and foam sheets. I discovered something wonderful: Riot Art has a very good selection of thin coloured foam sheets. This is excellent as they make for good bases for flexible puppet mouths.
Why is this good? Because previously I would buy foam sheets at Spotlight. Spotlight stores have a great selection of big plain foam sheets (see photo at right) which are better for making foam heads and bodies than for mouths; they are about 5mm thick, sturdy, and very light. The large sizes of the sheets (about A3) makes them ideal for cutting large foam head patterns. But the very things that make these sheets good for heads, makes them horrible for mouths. The thickness - despite being quite porous - makes them too bulky for mouths, especially once you cover them; and require a lot of extra material-coverings to make them sturdy to last the life of a puppet.
But Spotlight also sells a few packs of coloured foam sheets, about 1mm in thickness, A4 size. These are very sturdy, flexible and thin. Ideal for making puppet mouths, but not good for puppet heads. Cover them with a felt, and they are extremely versatile for puppet mouths. Problem is that the felt and the foam have to match colour, otherwise you need several layers of felt to hide the colour of the foam. And doing that reduces the flexibility of the mouth. … No problems, just get the right coloured foam sheets.
Problem, yes. Spotlight sells very limited selections of these coloured foam sheets, but have an abundance of the larger plain sheets. Now we come to my trip on Friday - Riot Art on the other hand, being more of an arts and craft store than Spotlight, has an abundance of these coloured foam sheets. And in a range of thicknesses. And in larger packs of 10 (Spotlight has packs of 4). The sheets cost roughly the same at either store, so price isn’t an issue. UPDATE: Riot Art stocks ‘Foamies’, which is what I’m referring to when buying the coloured foam sheets. See photo at right.
Now I have a tally going for where I buy my puppet materials:
Riot Art Buy glue sticks, coloured foam sheets for puppet mouths, dowel, balsa, core flute, papers
Spotlight Buy everything else
Two dollar shops/Coles/Safeway Buy coathangers for rods
Accordingly, I have updated my post about where to buy materials in Australia, with the above information. You can grab my foam puppet pattern here!
… This post AKA where can i buy foam to make a puppet, AKA where can buy puppet foam, AKA foam for muppets, AKA where to buy foam for puppets
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