Be careful of this guy. This actually happened to a friend of mine. I think this new scam is prevalent enough to start a string of email forwards to warn all my friends.

Christine was created by Joel Brubacher. The description reads:

“This is Christine. She is very enthusiastic, outgoing, and loves to talk. She is fascinated with the world around her, and is obsessed with all things floral. She usually has a million things on her mind, and gets a little bit scatter-brained and forgetful at the best of times. She is very excited to be part of this contest.”

Christine received one of the judges’ votes. What a character! Look at those lips! See more of Joel’s work at www.banjopuppets.com.

Rocky was built by Ben Jones and received two of the judges votes. When we received this entry, we read the character description first. Scrolling down to see the pictures, we couldn’t help but to laugh out loud.

The description reads:

“Meet Rocky…

Remaining upbeat because each day is a brand new day that has never been lived before, Rocky is grateful to be alive and he never has to worry about going without silverware.”

Rocky is a great example of how well a personality or a character can be captured in the physical attributes of the puppet. Thanks to Ben Jones for the great work. You can check out Ben’s site and his blog for more goodies!

This little fellow was created by Emmalee Pearson and received two votes from the judges. He came with a very fanciful description and a story of how he, the littlest dragon in the land and often teased by the bigger dragons, once saved the kingdom from famine when no one else could.

One of the judges commented, “So cute! I want to take Pippin home with me. I love the design, colors and choice of materials. What a great puppet!”. Pippin is in our personal top ten list as well.

By the way, Pippin was Emmalee’s very first puppet. What a great start!

Well, the top ten entries for Sock Search - The Glorified Sock Puppet Contest have been chosen! If you haven’t voted for your favorite yet, now’s your chance.

As mentioned previously, we received 27 entries total, from around the globe, for the contest. Everyone did an excellent job, and hopefully had some fun in the process. There were so many great characters, some receiving votes from one or more of the judges, that didn’t make it to the final round. We’ll be sharing some of these wonderful creations right here on the blog in the days ahead. Stay tuned…

The Punto Fleece Head Covering Pattern is here! We know many of our customers have been waiting for this one to come out. The Punto Fleece Pattern is an add-on pattern and is to be used along with the Punto Pattern. It details how to cover the Punto foam head with antron fleece for a completely different look! Check it out!

“In New York builder-designer Nomi Fredrick snips at a carved Piggy head, shaving the foam into a recognizable shape…” - LIFE

Although this isn’t the way Miss Piggy’s head is made today, it’s still a viable technique for creating puppet characters, especially for those of us on a budget.

Diehard Muppet fans probably know Miss Piggy appeared on the August 1980 issue of Life magazine. I was browsing around an antique shop the other day and found a copy. (I really don’t think they are that rare.) The article was fairly short, but they had some great pictures. The most noteworthy was the one below.

The caption for the picture reads:
“Like most Muppets, Piggy begins humbly from chunks of foam. Above, Muppet makers in New York piece together a Piggy to be used for photo sessions. Rods and ball bearings will be inserted to provide flexibility for posing. Builders are at work on a ‘touchstone Piggy’ - a model with the ideal proportions on which future Piggys will be patterned.”

As many of you know, yesterday was the entry deadline for The Glorified Sock Puppet Contest (a.k.a. Sock Search). We received 27 entries from all around the globe - United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Australia, France, to name a few.

The entries have already been sent to the five pre-selected judges – Kanja Chen of Chensational Puppets, William Hennes of Hennes Productions, Sean Johnson of Swazzle and the Puppet 101 Blog, Jarrod Boutcher of Jarrod Boutcher Puppets, and Phil Fletcher of The Gluvets Puppet Workshop.

Once the judges have voted, the top ten finalists will be posted on Project Puppet for the public to vote.

Thanks to all those that submitted their creations for the contest and also to the panel of judges. We’ll keep you updated!