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GEORGE (GEORGE & MILDRED)

SPITTING IMAGE PUPPET RESTORATION

 

 

This is an original Spitting Image puppet head of George (of 'George & Mildred' British sitcom fame) bought to me by the writer Brian Cooke who had commissioned a puppet of both George and Mildred for a stage show.  

 

George​ was in pretty good condition but had been knocked in storage and the weight of his head was hanging on the soft foam latex at the end of the metal stand which eventually had pierced through the skin. His arm and body foam was also beginning to shed. 

As with all of the puppets my first task was to stabilise any loose material before beginning work. I then worked on supporting the areas which were going to be vulnerable around the split on his face. I reinforced inside the whole head piece backing up the skin with strengthening material. The foam on the body was very fragile and ideally a new body would have been made or a hard bespoke form but the client chose to keep the original body. Initially I considered making a tight bespoke removable top to hold the foam securely but the foam was shedding so much that I had to glue a skin of sorts on within the budget. The weight of the puppet was hanging from the head so I created a support for the torso which attached to the existing stand. I then added straps to secure the body and stop it slipping. I removed the rotten arm foam and shoulder attachments and made stronger replacement pieces. 

Full list of tasks completed. 

  •  Backed up the head internally, creating a strong internal shell. 

  • Added a piece of material to the neck to attach to the body 

  •  Repaired the hole in the face caused by the stand poking through and colour matched.

  • Repaired some other facial tears 

  • Made a support section for the stand which attaches to the chrome pole. 

  • Created a bespoke body suit and glued and sewed material to the shedding foam body to secure the existing foam. 

  • Repaired the arms. Cleaned off the rotting foam and rebuilt new limbs.

  • Removed rotten shoulder attachments and replaced to strengthen. 

  • Made some bespoke straps to secure the puppet on to the stand pole to avoid slipping. 

 As with all pieces I restored the head to be sympathetic to its authentic condition, maintaining the original features and paint work and ageing the restored areas appropriately.

 

BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS

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