Tartuffe – 18th Century Puppets

Tartuffe

18th Century Puppets

For one half of my culminating project I wanted to explore further techniques in puppetry fabrication while also creating 1/2 scale 18th century costumes for these characters.

Based off the text Tartuffe by Moliere I designed the characters Madame Pernelle and Orgon as marionette puppets.

The clothing is created using patterns from Norah Waugh’s The Cut of Women’s Clothes and The Cut of Men’s Clothes.

Process

Starting with creating the patterns for the puppet form.

I based the shapes off a combination of 18th century costuming silhouettes and the shapes of caricatures from that period. Once they were sculpted a pattern could be taken from their form using plastic wrap and tape.

Process

The EVA Foam is glued together, with the help of a heat gun to create their shape.
The painters tape holds the forms while the glue sets without damaging the foam on removal.

Next is sculpting the hands and faces. Wire frames covered in paper mache is used as a base, then Creative Paperclay is used to sculpt the shapes. Paperclay sculpts like a clay, and dries as light and sturdy as paper mache.