I was recently contacted by a client that wanted a Ryan Reynolds-ish puppet to use in an upcoming video contest. It’s going to be a spoof of the movie Buried. This was a fun build since I’ve never really done a lot of “make-up” effects on a puppet before. But I’m happy with the outcome—take a look:

You can also see him in action on his own Youtube channel. Here is his first commercial. David Hosay did a great job bringing him to life!

He’s also been seen on billboards around Russellville, Kentucky:

For those of you who haven’t heard, Pasha Romanowski of Project Puppet fame has recently started an interactive puppet building website called Puppetsmith. You can become a member and join a rapidly growing community of puppet builders that are sharing tips and techniques. Pasha is updating the blog regularly with great tutorials–both as blog posts and videos.

As a part of this endeavor, Puppetsmith is now selling a dog puppet pattern from legendary puppet builder Terry Angus. This is a great pattern, and I have the good fortune of being able to take you through the process of building this dog puppet. It’s quite an honor to be the first guest builder at Puppetsmith.

If you’d like to follow along with me, all you have to do is become a member (just $10 a month) and purchase the pattern. We’ve only just begun so there’s plenty of time to jump in and learn some great puppet building techniques.

So don’t wait–meet me over at Puppetsmith today!

You can also find Chummy and Champ on Facebook.

Below are the characters from the show:

First is Champ the energetic orangutan.

Next is Chummy the happy Sun Bear.

Here is wise old Captain the sea turtle.

And this is the laughing and protective Big Beak.

Big Beak Pictures has just wrapped up filming the pilot for the show and will soon begin shopping it around internationally. You can follow their blog for more information.

I really hope Chummy and Champ will be aired here in the U.S. I’d love to see the characters in action.

In another post, I’ll show a bit of the building process for the puppet characters.

The guys over at The Kids Music Underground have put up a video of the intro for their new pilot, and it includes some glimpses of the puppets in action. Check it out:
Kids Music Underground–Pilot Intro
They also now have a page dedicated to the puppet characters

In recent weeks, I’ve been busy being a new Dad and loving every moment of it. Now I’m back to the studio working on some fun puppet projects which I can’t share just yet, but stay tuned…

I’d also like to congratulate John Carlin and the Kid’s Music Underground on their new TV pilot which will include three of Thistledown’s puppets. Below is an excerpt from John explaining the show’s concept:

“We’re just putting the finishing touches on a kids’ television show pilot that we’ll be shopping to the networks. In each episode, my character comes to the aid of a child guest by traveling to a distant culture and learning about its people, food, customs and music,” Mr. Carlin explained, “with the help of three pretty amazing character puppets. We shot the majority of it in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival in 2009.”

Sounds fun and I can’t wait to check it out.

Last Friday, my little man Titus came into the world. I can’t wait until he can build puppets with Daddy.

Here is the third puppet that I built for The Kids Music Underground. She’s an Anime style catgirl named Yuki. What I like about this character is the funky, colorful design and the varying textures in her outfit.

Her tail is flexible and attached to her back with monofilament. This allows the tail to wag and wiggle when she moves.

Here’s the second puppet that I made for The Kid’s Music Underground. The idea was a cubist painting come to life. The intial idea was to have him be flat (like a foam finger), but that presented challenges with movement. I’m really pleased with the three dimensional outcome.

One of the cool features of this puppet is the movable eyes. They are what give this puppet it’s expression.