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Halloween 2005
So that's me...A
Fandango Puppet. The specific puppet is named
LeAnn and I used a AIM Buddy Icon from the Fandango
website as my inspiration. I was sort of
disappointed that I could not find any really good
Anyway, I've sort of been wanting to do this for a few years now, but every year I get a better idea, and Sarah, My Ugly, claims that it was actually her idea but that I just can't remember the day she suggested it, which is entirely plausible. Approaching Halloween this year I actually called her and said, "Listen, I want to make the Fandango Puppet this year but I'm not going to do it unless I get your blessing. I need to know that you aren't going to be all bitter about me doing it." She gave me her blessing and I set about conceptualizing it.
I actually saved the box from my mom's treadmill last year in anticipation of it, but it was discarded at some point. I talked to a few of the facilities guys here on campus and they let me into a warehouse full of empty furniture boxes and I picked out one that I thought I could do something with. I took a trip to Fabricwell in Oxnard on Savers Road. Fabricwell is a little more..."old dusty swap meet" than Joanne's in Ventura so their selection is a little more eclectic. Basically you have to look harder but you can find cooler shit and its organized more like a rummage sale than a retail store, so I like it better. My materials: 3 yards of off-the-bolt blue and green floral print cotton for the dress. It was a find, I really matched the pattern almost perfectly, a little detail that I was very proud of though I knew no one without the reference image would appreciate. 4 yards of 1/2 inch foam (for the body of the hair as ribbon by itself would be too limp) 20 yards of thick Yellow Ribbon for the hair 1 Sunflower for the nose. Pink felt for the Lips Blue felt with sparklies on it for the irises. White felt for the whites of the eyes 2 Styrofoam discs for the eyeballs 2 large black buttons for the pupils 2 sheets of 100 grit black sand paper for the eyelashes 2 large brass rings for the earrings (which later fell off before the first time I wore it and I never bothered to put them back on.) 12 yards of pink ballerina tulle for the scarf. Black nylon string, large eye sewing needles, black duct tape, Tacky Glue, razor blades for putting it all together.
it took me the better part of a day to construct the whole thing. I had to pull the box apart and re-glue it inside out so none of the printing on the box was visible. I had to glue shut all the flaps and actually folding it into the paper bag shape was way harder than imagined. What you can't see from the this angle is that the sides are almost completely cut out and you can see through from one side of the costume to the other. This became critical in being able to talk on my cell phone and just being able to fit inside the thing was near impossible unless I cut out all the folded cardboard inside. I rigged up support boards inside to keep the "mouth" flap open so I could see out. I was able to drink and it was actually pretty versatile in being able to get around. I could get it off and on in about 20 seconds and it was a little hot, but not unbearable. The only thing that is obviously inconvenient about it was that it is that its about 7 and a half feet tall. I didn't actually measure it when it was on, but holding a ruler up to my screen here, I'm 2 and 3/4 inches tall and the costume is 3 and 1/2. Cross multiply...if I'm 5"10", that makes the costume about 7' 5". I had to walk through doorways sideways.
Caricature of me from the "People to Watch in 2003" -Ventura County Reporter
It took me about 45 minutes from start to finish
Jessica's pumpkin, Alisha's pumpkin, my pumpkin
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pictures
on the web anywhere. It looks like Fandango
for whatever reason is keeping the bag puppets off
the net with the exception of one page on their
entire website that is devoted to the puppets and
even then there is no really good pictures.
What I'd really like to see is the trailers because
for the life of me I can't remember which specific
scenario this puppet was in. A few people over
the weekend commented that it was the lady with the
dog going, "Fan-Dang-GOOO!" but I can't say for
sure.
