Evil White Rabbit Puppet/toy

Evil White Rabbit 'Puppet'
(a twisted version of the White rabbit from 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' by Lewis Carrol)

It all came about because I was creating allot of rabbit characters for a company coming up to Easter and something just clicked inside due to the cuteness of the illustrations, and out of that glitch the Not so white rabbit was born. I am hoping to have an exhibition with other 'twisted' characters from the book.
By EMCM

Step 1: Materials and Sketchs

This was a while ago when I created this and I only took half the images that I should have needed.
I am not sure if this will be a useful instructable due to the lack of visuals for important parts like construction of body, head, jacket and waist coat.
I made this with a rough idea, what I wanted as a result there was no exact plan except a sketch to start with.

Shown here are the primary sketches which stared it all off and materials.

Materials in sections.
Art store materials.
Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
Wallpaper paste
A tub of Quick Drying Air Dough. (primary school art material)
Acrylic Paint (flesh colour, brown, black)
Plush toy stuffing (used for body, legs and arms)
Gloss Art paint
Brush
Sissors
Marker for marking
Sand paper (for papermache head fore paws and hind paws)

Fabric store
Fake gray fur 1.5 meter square (bought from a material shop) There will be quite a bit of left over.
Lace 40 cm width (scrap material from a second hand cloths store)
Thick black thread
Fine thread for detailed
Velour scrap orange red ( Thanks PKM for the spelling)
Canvas 1.5 meter square rough estimate
Sewing machine ( I had a hobby toy thing, not great but got the work done)

Bead store
Assorted beads Red beads & heart shaped clasp, button like metal beads, mother of pearl shards for teeth.

Found objects

Shredded paper
Heavy / strong Card board (stronger the better so it wont bend)
Scrap of goat hair (for detail)
Sack cloth 40 cm square

Mixing bowl for papermache

Step 2: Fore Paws and Hind Paws

Created from shredded waste paper molded in to rough shapes.

Shredded paper and wallpaper paste (strong mixture double or triple the normal amount indicated) mixed in to a mush in a bowl.

Molded in to the fore paws(8cm long) and hind paws (20cm long),

Left to dry (on a radiator to speed up the process).

When Dry
Sanded with sandpaper to smooth enough finish

Mold inner paw from Air dough (when dry and hot glue to the inner paw)

Step 3: Head Case

Items needed
Cardboard
Hot glue Gun
Paper mache & the wallpaper paste (pus extra paper strips to cover rough patches)
Air dough
Sack cloth
Mother of Pearl Bead shards
Canvas strips

Shape and cut cardboard and into pieces for skull structure. Use Hot glue gun to secure in place (the hot glue gun will be used allot in this project)
Add Sack cloth to cover cardboard sticking it down.
Mold paper mache in the form or a rabbit head (eye mounds, features etc.).

Mold air dough into gums (add shards of mother of pearl as teeth) and nose piece (when dried it will be stuck with hot glue in place)

Eyes are shaped from Air dough, smoothed out and glued on when dry.

Step 4: Body Shape

Canvas Body with legs and arms.

Between the layers add plush toy stuffing in the arm and legs. To bulk them up and add ridged form.
Thick thread to add structure to the body by 'pinching' it together.

In these images you can see the hind paws and fore paws added and covered with strips and pieces of canvas.
Attached to the body with the hot glue gun and strips for flexibility.

Goat fur added between some toes & spats covered and glued into place.
Fur is cut and added in to shape

Paint and colour air dough on the paws, nose, gums, skull rings.
When dry, coat with acrylic gloss

Step 5: Final Steps

Head and body to be joined with stitching.


Rough Information of suit make up and Velour vest.
Sorry no measurements due to the fact I judged it with the body shape in the previous section.

Rest of the fur is added to the head and belly, chest, and tail area stitched on and glued on.

Adding fur to the head was a slow and careful task. Adding fur to the ears was difficult.(and trimmed for visual reasons)

Before adding fur it was sized and re-cut and double checked before gluing.

Eyes carefully painted on and painted over with acrylic gloss multiple times to give a bit of depth.

Step 6: Evil White Rabbit Puppet

In the end details were added like goat fur in the ears.
Painted skull rings Hot glued in to place on finger digits.

Pocket watch
Bracelet with red beads and a red heart crystal (showing his dedication to the Queen of Hearts)

Comments

[NOODLE!]

This is amazing. I am doing a year long studie of puppets, and I will be using this as a resource, thank you for sharing!

[Mauigerbil]

awesome. just plain awesome.

[aramanthe]

This instructable greatly reminds me of a movie simply named Alice.
It's a stop motion animation, I believe by a Belgian director and team. Most of the animals and characters are made of mismatched bones and taxidermy'd things, The white rabbit is taxidermy, and comes to life from a glass shadowbox in Alice's room before leading her down the rabbit hole. It's very creepy, the kind of thing you'd expect to see on a really bad acid trip.

[tinker234]

oh i saw the movie creppy is right

[McM]

Ian M mentioned below the same thing, Alice by Jan Svankmajer. Thanks

[tinker234]

wow hey could i add motors and some parts to make a evil rabit that sits on my shelf talking and telliing jokes and making fun of my guests alll night ha ha i think i know what to do

[tfrost1980]

Yet another creepy rabbit.nice. What is it about rabbits that make people think scary? Remember the rabbit from Donnie Darko or the ones from watership down?

[mary candy]

WAUUUUUUUU!

[FionaP]

Does he move easily, I want to make one like that but a gremlin and I am not sure how i am going to do that yet. I wanted it to be like an actual puppet, stiff with a place to put my hand to move his head and arms. I am not sure if you could do that with yours. If I made the head they same way do you think it would last? Could it be moved around without...con-caving? How durable is the dough you used? I wanted to make my puppet the same way but cover the whole head in dough, have it be rough and give it texture like fur without using any. Ideas? Thank you so much, your Evil Rabbit is amazing!

[McM]

The movement is Ok upper limbs are able to move the lower ones were not designed to move. The head is completely movable since it was added last with extra material for rotation and panning. The mouth is a little stiff due to the amount of material added around the jaw. The head seems to be durable with the design case i used with sturdy cardboard (not the corrigated type), and robust for basic animation. As long as it is comfortable, practice as you make it. I think, if you use a little air dough on certain areas for shape or curves and cover the head with canvas and painted, that could work but the whole head with air dough wont work so well, that why i covered the head after with fur after the air dough was was secure. The Air dough dries to a durable and hard surface but soft to touch a little like leather. Thanks for the comment, good luck with yours, i hope i was a help.

[Robotika]

This is brilliant and very much worth 5/5! I wish he were mine to own.

[Catskinner01]

Amazing!  Fantastic!  I want one of these for my baby daughter so badly I can taste it!  Any suggestions for making one that is baby-safe?

[inkstainedheart]

Fantastic puppetry skills! I don't think I have ever seen air dough for sale anywhere--did you purchase it online?

[McM]

thanks, I found air dough in a craft / art store (Ireland), I believe it can be found on line, it dries to a very light object.

[rukumedes]

awesome awesome awesome! max rating for this lovely creature!

[bassclarinet23]

Disturbing.

[threadbare]

This is fantastic!

[sh0ckl473]

ok not including the stuff u found how mutch did aall the suplies cost u?

[McM]

Hi less than € 25 i think the most expencive stuff was the fur and fabric (but most of it was in the cut off-bin)

[zatco]

ditto