Lion puppet

I have recieved a few emails in regards to my lion puppet - well you wanted a closer photo, so here it is ! He is made from reticualted foam and covered in Antron fleece, his mane is orange orstich feather with blue highlights. His tail is posable also. Hope you like him.

Hands and Arms for Villian puppet

You can see in the photo above that i have machine sewn the arms and hands , also on the left is the neck and sleeve.

Above is the hands and arms turned right side out ready for the foam structure to be inserted.

And finally above are both hands finished , well almost finished they need to be picked and shaved to get rid of any seams. Picking the seams is what takes the most time and is not my favourite job , but the end results always speak for themselves.

Muppet Whatnots have arrived

Well the Muppet whatnots have arrived at F.A.O.Schwarz - well online anyway at www.fao.com

They are $90US each, you have three body options - blue,orange and green. There are several choices for eyes and noses etc which you get you pick and choose which one you would lik eyour Whatnot to have. Ok now they seem to be Ok for someone just getting into puppetry or a Muppet collector , But If you have always wanted your own professional puppet i'm afraid these are not what you are looking for. Now here is something I have noticed, the top picture shows the Whatnots when they where advertising before they were released , and the photo below that I from the catalog - there are BIG differences as far as i can see just by looking at the two photos. Number one is that the first puppets seemed to be made from Antron fleece ( the same as the REAL Whatnots) whereas the ones for sale seem to be a different fabric ( seams galore!). Secondly the first photo shows the puppets to have hard mouthplates in them whereas the others seem to maybe have soft foam mouths, and thirdly the eyes and noses seemed in much better proportion to the head than the ones in the catalog photo. Of course this is just my opinion from looking at the photos - hopefully they will be much better in person ( much like thr MR replicas)

Update on puppet

Ok well his nose has been stitched on and I did have bags for under his eyes which were a slighty darker colour than his skin - but because he is slowly turning into a villian I went with the more visual purple for his bags - which make him instantly look more evil. Next I will start covering the hands and arms. have a great day all

How to contact me

Below is my Email , this is usually the best way to get in contact with me , I do try and reply as soon as possible - it just depends on the volume of mail I get plus my workload - so please be patient


jeyebay@hotmail.com

Boober Fraggle puppet replica

Hi all, I finished my Boober fraggle some moonths ago - but he ended up in a box with all my other replicas and I forgot about him. Here are a few photos of him - keep in mind that he is not being operated in the photos so they look alittle static. He is a tiny puppet , I like the idea of compact size puppets with great design. I can't wait for the new Fraggle movie - should be awesome.

eyes and eyebrow

Once the nose and skull have been covered I then attached the eyes then stitched on the "brow" then attached the black eyebrows to the eye mech. Next is bags around his eyes and attaching the nose. This guy has evolved from a cranky man into a villian - well a cranky man villain ;o)

Fleece has been sewn together

Above is the Antron Fleece which has been hand dyed to a light skin tone, it has been hand sewn to help reduce the visablity of seams - the seams will be completely invisable once it has been finished.
Above is the Antron skin after it has been applied to the skull, it has been carefully glued around the mouth. It fits nice and snug, I always make my antron skins alittle smaller as Antron stretches to fit.
Next is the pattern for the nose, it was made the same way as the head pattern - it just needs to be cut and sewn together.

Update of man puppet

Ok the next step after all the foam skull has been created is to pattern the skin to cover the skull. I usually use fabric similar to T-shirt material to create the pattern by covering the head and cutting the pattern on the skull. The end result is seem in the photo above, the head is in three sections - left,right and under the chin. Other pieces which will help to make up the head are the ears, nose and neck. More photos soon

My Muppet replicas

Hi there All, I get ALOT of emails each week ( like atleast 20) of people after Muppet Character puppets. So I thought I would use this Blog to explain to everyone why I don't sell these puppets. The first and most important reason is due to copyright laws - thats the big one, secondly I mainly make Muppet replicas as a hobby - I find them (most of the time) to be a challenge. Everytime I make a replica I find out a new or better way of making a particular part of a puppet. And last of all I don't really want to spend my days creating puppets of someone elses design - I enjoy being able to create original designs and seeing them put to good use. So I hope this explains it alittle better ( and my email is 20 emails less a week now)

WHATNOTS at F.A.O.SCHWARZ

F.A.O.SCHWARZ will soon be selling Muppet whatnots, from what I have seen they look to be pretty good quality. There seems to be three heads to choose from blue, green and orange. I will be very interested to see what these puppets are like up close, to see if they are quality products or just a mass produced items. If my memory serves me correct they will be on sale from 22nd October only at F.A.O.Schwarz

PROJECT PUPPET

I have decided over the next month to purchase a puppet pattern from www.projectpuppet.com and review it here on my blog. I find patterns such as the ones for sale at project puppet the best way for a budding puppet builder to learn the in's and out's of a puppet. I will of course have to find some time to do this , but it should be fun . If you are after a great project with great results check out project puppet and get started on your own puppet - the possibilities are endless.

Below is a short video I have Edited from and interview with Caroll Spinney - he mentions my work - the puppet he is trying to remember is Gooby the Bunyip (An Australian Mythical creature) . Also is a painting he drew of Big Bird and Gooby playing together.

LATEST GONZO NOSE

Here is my latest Gonzo nose, I have been at this stage for a few months now - I can never seem to find the time these days to spend on my replicas, which is a good thing for gonzo because I like to let gonzos nose foam turn slighty yellow as it does with age - looks more authentic.

Here a few photos I took of my workbench today - still pretty messy I guess, it's clean when I'm not making puppets ( which is not very often). The foam body parts you see are for a cranky man puppet I am building at the moment. The Arms are reticulated foam with leather joints. The hands have wire armature - they with have removable rods. The head is also reticulated foam, the top half of his head is closed cell foam as he has an eyebrow mech - i find it keeps the head shape better and gives you something to attach the eyebrow mech to. His mouthplate is dyed reticulated foam for flexibilty . Once all the foam structure for his body is finished I will then cover him in Antron Fleece.

Also on the workbench is my Oscar the Grouch puppet - just fixing up his internal ribbing. Also building a Nicky puppet (from Avenue Q) . Also in the top photo is a lion puppet.

NEW MUPPET MOVIE FOR TV

I recently saw some photos from behinds the scenes of the new Muppet Movie "Letters to Santa" and I must say that Miss Piggy and Fozzie both seemed to have very round faces? maybe its taken from a bad angle but I think they have been on the Christmas Pudding early this year.

Puppet Building on my Blog

Hi Everyone, now very shortly ( in the next few weeks) I plan on showing step by step how I make my puppets - I just have to decide what kind of puppet to make , then I will sell the finished product on Ebay. I am thinking of making a little boy monster - but that may change by the time it comes for me to start making the puppet.

Terry Angus puppet on Ebay

Up for auction on Ebay is this adorable dog puppet made by the wonderfully talented Terry Angus. He only has 4 days left so go check hin out before its too late!! Terry doesn't sell many puppets on Ebay anymore - so I suggest you grab him if you can , I think I might even put a bid on him - RUFF!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Professional-Dog-Muppet-Style-Puppet-Angus-Puppets_W0QQitemZ110297392386QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item110297392386&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A3%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

PROJECT PUPPET CONTEST 2008

Its that time of year puppet builders where the guys at project puppet (www.projectpuppet.com) have begun there puppet contest. This years theme is " A Space Odyssey" check out the details and enter if you dare www.puppetcontest.com . As in the past I am one of the judges - each year the entries are getting better and better, I can't wait to see what crazy space creatures we see this year! goodluck everyone

Hi there, this is my latest puppet to be auctioned off on Ebay. his name is MON-KEY - and he's got a black belt so WATCH IT!!

Here is a photo of my workdesk - well this was taken a while ago, its much cleaner now. For me the best way to keep my bits and pieces in order are storgae containers - i have them everywhere and all labeled.

new blog

hi everyone, I have been looking for a way to keep an online diary of work for everyone to see , and as it turns out a "blog" would be the perfect way to do that, so i will try and update weekly or more often if time permits. have a great day