This is the latest puppet that I made for Garrett Hughes in Mobile, AL. It’s Harlan, the flop-eared, drummer rabbit. I instantly fell in love with the concept of this character. I think I have a fascination with rock and roll puppets.

I wanted him to have a sort of laid back feel, but also be able to express his energy when he attacks the drumkit. So he has a slightly slouchy posture and lidded eyes, but has long floppy ears and shaggy fur to give lots of movement when he is in full swing.

I like to use make-up sponges for teeth, and in since he’s a rabbit, I didn’t have to do much shaping.

He has these great big bushy eyebrows that make for a nice contrast to his light fur, and he has an orange mullet. I have to say, this is the first puppet mullet that I’ve ever made.

I left his hands nice and shaggy for added movement, and gave him some matching wristbands.  The lettering on his shirt was found at the local fabric store.  They are the iron-on variety, and as fortune would have it, the only color available was red and black. 

I hope he finds a welcome audience in Alabama. I’m sure the kids will love him. Rock on, Harlan!

Tags: Projects by Philip
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This character was really fascinating to me. Paul Van Dijk came up with the whole idea for the jester, (and sent over some great drawings to kick the process off) and I really wanted to make sure that the finished product matched the idea he had in mind for his character. So I took great care in the building process to make sure the puppet matched the final design that we worked out.

This puppet has a moving eyebrow mechanism. Here it is installed into the foam skull which has all of the extra features such as cheeks and eyebrow ridge attached.

After the arms and poseable hands were positioned on the body, I started pinning the fleece on the head to get it ready for hand stitching.

Here is the head completely covered with fleece. I like to take my time during this phase to get a really smooth finish. The bags under his eyes were dyed darker to make his eyes really stand out.  You can also see that his eyebrows are attached. I loved this black  fur–I think the texture is a nice contrast to the smooth fleece. At this point, I started working up the hat in muslin to make sure the patterns for the satin version would work out well.

Paul wanted the Jester to have teeth, so I made these out of make-up sponges. They give him a slightly demented smile that really fits the character.

After the puppet has basically been completed, it was time to start working on the rest of the costume. I used purple and black satin, in conjunction with  ruffles on his neck and sleeves, to give him a royal flair.

And here is the finished puppet, with a nice red tongue, and complete with a stick that bears his likeness on the top. His hat is finished off with jingle-bells so that you can always hear him approaching. 

I hope that he will get lots of use and that Paul enjoys using him as much as I enjoyed building him!

Tags: Projects by Philip
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We now have a gallery on the website.  You can take a look at some of the puppets that I’ve built, as well as some of our performances and pictures from the workshop.  So go ahead and take a look!

Tags: Thistledown Stuff by Philip
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As I mentioned in a previous post, the foundation of all great puppets is their character.  Before foam is glued or fabric is sewn–who is this character?  What is he/she/it like?  The design process is where the personality of the character is put into visual form.  With careful planning, the puppet’s look will reflect his character.  Of course the final and most important ingredient in a puppet’s character is his puppeteer and the life that he brings with his performance. 

 The following are the beginning designs for the Jester and Alfons (think I’ve been misspelling this) puppets.  These designs were the launch pad for the building process.

I worked up this design for the Jester…

…and this one for Alfons came directly from my client. I loved how expressive this character was.

Tags: Projects by Philip
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Here’s a bird’s eye shot of one of the bells on the Jester’s hat taken during the costuming process.

Tags: The Artful Puppet by Philip
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Here are two puppets that I recently finished for a client in the Netherlands. They are great characters and were a blast to build. They each have eye mechanisms–one has moving eyebrows, and the other moves his eyes from side to side. In the coming days I’ll chronicle the building process for each of these guys.

Tags: Projects by Philip
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The eyes of a puppet, like the eyes of a human, are the windows to it’s soul. They are important and should be carefully considered before construction begins because they will make or break a character. Given the right eyes, (and combined with skilled manipulation by the puppeteer) a puppet really comes to life.

Tags: The Artful Puppet by Philip
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