Turtle Puppet is now selling on eBay!

The turtle puppet that I most recently built is now for sale on eBay! Nab him while you can here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/330859639067?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Monkey Puppet Building Process

 

This is a sketch of the next puppet I set out to build! This is my first time building a puppet with a successfully carved head. Here we go!

I begun by gluing together two blocks of foam with some Super 77 and carved it with an electric knife that I got for Christmas!

This is the head with the fleece covering that I put on it. The eyes are the first time that I used store-bought doll eyes and snapped them on. He also has some shading painted on him. Looks a bit like Anthony Anderson, doesn't it?

I used some foam pedals to make a semi-sphere for the bottom of the body.

Entry ring! So glad that I discovered this trick. It's SO much easier the put on the puppet with this... and QUICKER.

 

The patterning is nice on this one. I'm very satisfied with the way that the body turned out.

These are the wire shapes that I put into the hands for them to be poseable. I then sandwiched them between the two hand shapes, glued them, and rounded the edges.

The patterned piece next to the hands and forearms is the patterns that I used for the shoulder and top halves of the arms.

The two sections allowed for bendable elbows on the puppet.

I braced the inside of the bottom half of the puppet so that it will not squish under any circumstance while  the puppet is moving.

Once again, I have built the puppet with a built-in sleeve that is removable for ease of neck movement and travel.

The finished product! I'm very satisfied with this guy.

Turtle Puppet - Building Process

Sorry I haven't posted in while! been busy, busy, busy! You'll hear more about that later. For now, you have to settle for this. This week, I started the process on building and designing this little guy! I literally just finished him twenty minutes ago! I've been trying to document my building process for a while now, so here's how it went:

I patterned some foam int the shape on the design. The mouth plate is flexible. Works like a dream.

 

After I was happy with the foam guide, I patterned, stitched, and glued on his fleece skin for his face and head. Then came his neck (below)

God is good... The perfect material was left lying around for his shell, and it was leftover from a replica I built a while back! The plastic lid to a hamper was the PERFECT fit. I just glued on some foam pieces for the undulations that I wanted on his back... I stretched some tie-dye green fleece over the shelleton and glued it into the cracks between the bumps. Then I sewed the front piece to the back. Let me tell ya, folks, sewing an edge around plastic ain't easy...

Here is the shell with the edges half-stitched... Ugh.

The finished product! YESSS.

This sleeve thing is a nifty little trick... I'm gonna have to use it more often..

Success!

Reaching 4 Excellence!

I recently got the wonderful opportunity to sit down for an interview with FOX 4 News about my skills in puppetry.  It was an excellent experience and it turned out greater than I could have imagined it would. Phil Witt is a real professional and God is still awesome! You can check out the piece and watch it here:

http://fox4kc.com/2012/07/18/young-master-of-make-believe-ready-to-hit-the-big-time-of-puppetry/

Big things are on the horizon!

Bop Bop Dinosaur at Kauffman Center!

My good friend Bop Bop Dinosaur recently got the opportunity to perform at the Kauffman Center in Kansas City and I was along for the ride! I brought him to life for a concert performed with the Kansas City Symphony on April 22! (a bit of a late post, I know) The rush of excitement was amazing and the space we performed in was incredible. An in the round theater with an audience of more than 1,600 people! What a wonderful opportunity. Bop Bop was very happy!

Also, I recently got a call and FOX 4 news will be shooting and airing a piece about my puppetry skills! Keep an eye out!

Feed Me!

The run of Little Shop is over! It has been for a while now, I just haven't posted about it... It went excellent. Every night was packed all the way out even after adding some fold-up chairs. There were countless amounts of people coming up to me in tears over the show. It was crazy! God is good! We shot a full video of it one night. Enjoy this clip of the song "Feed Me.":



Audrey II puppeteers: Cedwan Hooks (head), Forest Kinsey (asst.), Hunter Hawkins (asst.)
Audrey II voice: Danny Moore
Seymour: Dakota Jafferis
Audrey: Elizabeth Nicholette
Orin: Ben Johnson

Also, I've got quite an exciting gig coming up. Keep an eye out for another post about that!

Opening Night of Little Shop!

Little Shop has opened and the public is reacting as if they'd seen an exact replica of the movie in person! The excitement from last night is still ringing in the casts' ears and well as everyone who's heard about it! My phone was ringing well until eleven at night with people's gracious compliments. Opening night could not have gone better.

The show has managed such a success that my puppet crew and I were featured on our district home page. God is good!