Day 1 – Black Bear armature
Quicker build than NiCA, I reckon I could poss make a puppet in a weekend, one day to build the armature and one day to fabricate.

The wire is thicker than NiCA but his bigger and bulker, decided to try and make him so he can walk on both two feet and all fours but that remains to be seen, he has tie downs in both his arms, leg and bum so it’s possible.

I did a quick sculpt for his jaw and had a plan for making a epoxy skull,hinge wired with a latex skin on top. I have taken to using polystyrene balls for the heads as light weight and a good shape, I sure that is a reason they aren’t a good option, that I have yet to discover (I have considered the neck to head joint might now be problematic but make make her head no removable to fix this.)  Mold for top jaw, pads for feet and bottom jaw sculpt.

He/she (to be decided) is a messy armature but I reasoned black bear is covered in fur so a little rough around the edges hopefully won’t be a problem. Looking really ugly at this point and I ended the day feel a little dejected. The last thing I did was sculpt the head, make the plaster mold and pour into latex.

Day 2 – Fabricating Black Bear
I always forget to photograph this process, should have taken more photos as I built the jaw and furred the body but you get the jest.

All Above – Body wrapped in foam build-up, poly ball head with eyes, face skin in latex, top and bottom jaw in epoxy, feet and hand pads to cover the tie-down holes and the crow look feet at the top are the claws, wire dipped in letx, covered in flocking, dipped in latex and then dipped in black satin finish wood paint.  The bottom jaw is attached to the neck an the top jaw, poly ball and eyes are all hinged above (super glued and epoxy held) with 5 1mm armature wire. Focus is off but you get the idea.

Body covered in fur.  Black bear just waiting on his head/ears – A happy day spent..