Sophos Puppets Part One

I mentioned previously that I'd been working on some pretty awesome puppet projects. Well, a few months ago, I built eleven puppets for an I.T. company called Sophos. It was fun and challenging due to the short timeline and the special needs of each puppet. Because it was such a quick turnaround, I didn't take very many photos, but I'll share what I have:  patterning, hands with pockets for removable rods, foam mockups, hair, and skinning. Photos of the finished puppets and their designs to come!

Holiday Sale

Having a little holiday sale over at my etsy shop! Take $50 off of select puppets through Friday December 18th!

Puppet building has been slow this month because of finals, but as the semester ends I hope to get crackin' on some creatures/critters/humanoids. I've started some prep work:  cutting and gluing foam.

Starting a New Puppet

Here is the start of a zombie puppet. I first made a clay model of what I wanted the puppet to look like, and then I used foam to make a skull based on the model. The next step will either be the body or the fleece for the head.

Zombie Sculpt

For a awhile I have been working with some friends to produce a Zombie-Puppet-Musical. I know zombies are a bit over done, but believe me when I tell you that this is going to be a fun show. The world needs zombie puppets. So many people have great projects with a similar concept. I just want to see one completed.

This zombie was an exercise to get the look of the zombies.

Robot Concept Art

In an effort to post more often I've decided to show more progress shots and concept work. One of the longest steps for me is solidifying the final look. I sometimes will skip this step and just throw a puppet together, however I am rarely pleased with the result. I also feel there is a great deal of satisfaction in seeing your vision come to life. Most of the time I will sketch out my vision and work from a drawing. Other times I will sculpt a clay miniature. This is a much longer process, but gives the advantage of seeing the concept in the round, making it easier to think about the puppet from all angles. Also, it's easy to make little changes to the model.




This a concept for an up-coming project. The final product should look close to other puppets I've made, however the eyes where giving me a lot of trouble. Fortunately, I was able to work out the kinks.

Puppet Concepts

I've decided to post more of my puppet concept work. I haven't done it too much in the past, because only a fraction of the drawings I make turn into puppets. So here are a few hopeful puppets.

The Snorts

I really want to make these two guys into puppets. I will to when I find the time. Until then I'm mulling over their story. Definitely aliens on a distant planet, with a son and disapproving father. I really don't know though. I just drew what popped into my head. There are a lot of things I'm unsure about. What's the guy holding? Why is he sitting on a huge egg? Why does the old one look so disapproving? If you think of a good stories for these guys shoot me a line.

Robot Puppet Legs

Here are the legs for the "Robo-Kid" puppet. They are made primarily of PVC pipe, craft foam, and paper clay. I really like how the feet came out. The last step will be finding a way to attach them to the body.

Robot Puppet Arms

And now the arms are done. Yeah! I'm almost done with the whole puppet. My crowning achievement with the arms is the shoulder. They have three points of articulation, for full range of motion. 

Robo Kid Puppet

So recently I have been asked to be part of a fun film project. It is a production by a group of BYU film students. My role not surprising is puppet builder/puppeteer. The puppeteer part has me a little worried, because I'm a little rusty, however I'm up for it!

I'm using a kit I bought at a local craft to age the metal finish and dull down some of the silver metal paint. The director wanted the eyes to be giant metal nuts, so I took a silicone mold of the biggest nuts I could find, and then cast them in a hard plastic resin.

I had to polish every inch of the hard dense foam with a dremel tool to get the surface of the foam to be less sponge looking. Then I smoothed out the tooling marks by adding a little heat.

The welding around the eyes is painted hot glue.


I have really enjoyed working on this puppet, because I haven't had to sew anything. It's been a nice change of pace to paint the foam. The results are a little more instant, and if I don't like the way a color came out I just paint over it easy as you please. The puppet has been a delightful challenge, learning to make foam look like metal. I've been very satisfied with the results, though I still have a long way to go.

The Wide Eyed Pig

Progress is going well, however the eyes of the puppet look a little scary. 

Pig Body

Monster Head

Finished the head of a dinosaur-monster puppet.

Pig Foam

Progress on the pig puppets

Pig Puppet Sketches

Bird Muppet Style Puppet

Here is one of many puppets I am making for an upcoming show. The exciting thing is I can finally blog about them, because they aren't commissions! This is a work-in-progress shot... so eyes and wings to come.

The Dollar Store Challenge

This is a challenge to all puppet builders!


Rules of the challenge:
All materials must be found at the dollar store.
The only exceptions are glues, paints, and tools.

The goal is to make professional looking puppets, using only dollar store materials.


My experience with the challenge went like this...

• These are the main materials I found. Cleaning supplies were a gold mine.

1. Scrubbers
2. Fleece baby blankets
3. black socks

• The best thing I found were the green scrubbers.

• They broke down into 3 pieces, furry dread-locks, shiny reptile skin, and cheap foam.

• I got a bunch of them,

• and sew'm together. I also glued the foam into a simple skull for cranial support.

• The thing I found the most challenging were the eyes. I found ping-pong-balls, but the puppet needed something bigger. Luckily I spotted big plastic balls mixed in with miniature novelty mugs in a gumball machine. 6 dollars later I had two perfect eyes. Here is the completed puppet (the poor guy still needs a left arm):