I use mostly sculpey or some type of clay you can fire & harden.
I use hydrocal or ultracal (for hot latex molds) and foam latex, paint, plumbers epoxy, anything that looks like it will work basically. Gotta know how to think on your feet.
OK so to make these I used more material from Home Depot as opposed to any crafy or art store. Goes to show where the real tools lie...
This project needed a 15' long insect puppet for an independent film.. apparently not a good one since I didn't get invited to the oscars, but it did teach me how to use what tools a meneal budget of $600 (including my pay) can buy. I used 2 cookie sheets & a door-spring to make the mouth open!
This project called for a fat, rambunctious penguin protagonist named Tuxton Squawkmire, an out of work actor desperately trying to make it again in a world of feather-less albeit next-gen actors. The puppet was built to order to survive live action acting, and it did so very well. ALthough he liked pills so the fact he's a junkie has nothing to do with me...
These are stop-motion puppets. The first few are for a stop-motion video I made for Weird Al Yankovic's "The Night Santa Went Crazy" track. (Unfortunately not a commisioned video but I get nothing but rave reviews on youtube.View it here!)
This was my latest puppet-venture. It was for my 2007 Halloween costume. The puppet (Joanna) was my trusty steed.. becasue everyone knows a ninja needs a velociraptor to ride...