Walter and Weatherby. These are two rabbit magicians that I built last summer for Kids on the Move in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Fun characters.

I was pleased to work again with Kids on the Move in Tulsa, Oklahoma to bring two new characters to life. These vultures are loosely patterned after the Thenardiers from Les Miserables. I’m looking forward to seeing these two in action.

I recently built a modified version of the Mushu character for a staging of Mulan by the Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School‘s drama department. The puppet is built to be worn by the performer and attaches to the waist. The performer’s hand enters the back of the head and the legs attach to the thighs to give the illusion of walking.

I was pleased to work again with Ramon Ramirez of Smarty Cartoons (I previously built Ms. Carrie Oki for him). It’s always great to work with Ramon. His cartoons translate so easily into engaging puppets.

And speaking of puppets, this guy is Rosendo. He’s a reporter…and a bit of a ladies man. I got to do some things on this project that I hadn’t done before such as hand making shoes and a microphone. The puppet’s hand is connected to the mic, and the mic is controlled with a rod.

Times are busy in the Thistledown workshop. I’ve been so happy to be a part of some really fun projects. My hope is to be able to share some of the work here over the course of the next few weeks.

This little guy was commissioned by Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. They have a television station for the hospital and he will be used in some of their programming. It was fun bringing him to life.

I recently worked with illustrator Ramon Ramirez of Smarty Cartoons to bring one of his Teacher Toons creations to life.

One of the things I love about working with illustrators and cartoonists is that their work is usually quite stylized and that almost always translates into great looking puppets.

She was a blast to bring to life. I can’t wait to see her in action.

This past summer, I created a couple of puppets for Websense. They were two I.T. guys named Frank and Jim and were used in one of Websense’s marketing campaigns. You can see Frank and Jim on their Websense page here. And you can watch all three episodes featuring them on their YouTube channel. Below are some images of Frank and Jim before they left the workshop: