Thistledown Puppets » Thistledown Stuff

Building the Chummy and Champ Puppets

Philip — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:26:32 +0000

Here is a photographic trip through the building process of the Chummy and Champ puppet for Big Beak Pictures:

You can also find Chummy and Champ on Facebook.

Chummy and Champ

Philip — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:54:04 +0000

Last year I had the privilege of working with Big Beak Pictures in Malaysia to build four puppets for their children’s pilot called Chummy and Champ. You can watch a behind the scenes video of the show here.

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.

A Day In The Life…

Philip — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:08:20 +0000

Lately, the workshop has been hopping. Foam is being patterned and glued, fleece is being dyed and dryed, and every once in a while, I have a little overseer keeping careful watch over his Daddy.

I can’t wait to show some of the puppets I’ve been working on. In my humble opinion, they are some of my best. Stay tuned…

KMU Pilot Intro

Philip — Fri, 14 May 2010 12:44:04 +0000

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

The Studio–In Pictures

Philip — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:14:56 +0000

Knight Hand Puppet

Philip — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:13:19 +0000

This is a little hand puppet that I built recently. I must say, the big moustache is my favorite feature.

Update

Philip — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:56:54 +0000

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.

Future Puppeteer

Philip — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:38:17 +0000

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

Old Man Puppet

Philip — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:06:02 +0000

This is the latest puppet that I built for Paul van Dijk in the Netherlands. He’s come up with another cool design. You can see some other puppets I’ve built for him here. This time it was an old man with “live” hands. Below is Paul’s original design and some photos from process to completion.

New Promotional Video For The Raven

Philip — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:35:05 +0000