I have said it before and I will say it again, I am a big fan of fellow Canadian Mathieu René and his company called Créaturiste.  The thing that people may not know is that he has several blogs that he posts on and he is very generous with his discoveries and ideas.

I am putting this plug (which he knows nothing about) out for his online workshop that he is offering and to encourage others to go and see his newly posted online portfolio.  It is beautiful.

While you are there poke around and check out more of his stuff including this cool little puppet he built (among other things).

 In English that translates into “Wonderful Puppets!”  That is exactly what you’ll find from German puppet builder Norman Schneider (please note the website is in German so you may need to use an online translation tool to fully understand it). 

I had a chance to visit his website and I can say that I am an instant fan.  His characters are wonderful and he using a great combination of painting as well as standard puppet fabrication techniques in his building.

 I am personally interested in using more painting with my own puppet building.  Norman has given me some really great inspiration.  To see more of his work be sure to check out his company website called Figurenschneider (which I believe means “Figures by Schneider”).  They are beautiful!  He also has an awesome blog with tons more pictures here.  Check it out.

Alrighty then! I’ve been asked time, and time again for the pattern I posted on The Muppet Central Forum last March. I’ve see some of the really amazing things that came from it and thought that it would be great to now provide the fabric pattern to go along with it- It is now complete!

These are free!- If you feel guilty using them please feel free to make a donation to one of these: Center for Puppetry Arts, Muppetcast, or Camp Trillium.

All that I request is that you please give me credit if using them as a teaching tool, or for publishing purposes.

These are crude drawings, I apologize, they were never meant to be published in anyway to the public. Enjoy!

Ever since Philip Hatter came on the puppet scene this past year I have been a big fan.  I even bought a few of his puppets (what a pleasure to have hired him).  Well, Philip teamed up with fellow Puppet Buzz contributor and owner of Project Puppet, Pasha Romanowski, and redesigned his company’s whole image.  That is they have a new logo, website and even a new blog!

I think it looks spectacular and I highly recommend that people take the time to go and browse around.  Maybe buy a puppet or catch a show, but definately check it out.

The long awaited second PlaySoup video on puppet building featuring Dave Privett is now available.  Both videos are available for a package price or owners of the first video can get a discount.  The first one was a great investment. 

Get yours today.

This little nugget of puppety goodness, though its been in circulation on the web for a while, recently resurfaced over at PuppetBuilding.com. The article was originally published in a 1969 issue of Women’s Day Magazine and includes a play, The Purple-Necked, Black Bearded Blatch, written by Jerry Juhl, and patterns and instructions for four puppets, the characters in the play. You can’t get much more “vintage Muppet” than this!

Here’s the article - Script, Pattern & Instructions

And, for your convenience, here’s the pattern pieces, full-size and ready to be printed - Full Size Pattern Print

Judging from the size of the pattern, it appears the puppets are just the right size for kids. Have fun!

Cross-posted from the Project Puppet Blog.

The folks at Furrypuppet.com have a new blog! Every week they will post a new puppet they construct including behind the scenes pictures. Last week they posted an animatronic rod puppet designed and fabricated by Zack Bouchman.

(photo credit: Bryan Woltjen)

The Esperance Festival of the Wind was held on 22 March this year. The festival began as an art-themed celebration of the positive energy wind brings to the town of Esperance, Western Australia, but it has now evolved into a celebration of ‘community, art, culture and shared fun’. Puppet designer and maker, Bryan Woltjen, together with animateur Karen Hethey, community groups, schools and individuals, made 8 fabulous giant puppet sea creatures for FantiSea, part of the festival. The frameworks are made from a mixture of bamboo and cane, with wire and gaffa joins, the skins muslin dipped in diluted PVA, and dyed. It is likely the puppets will make an appearance during the UNIMA 2008 festival in Perth.

There has been a great deal of buzz about the tutorial that Project Puppet has just recently been offering on their blog.  I am a huge fan of Project Puppet and a great admirer of the amazing talents of puppet builder and designer Pasha Romanowski.

This tutorial is an excellent resource for beginners and experienced builders alike.  It takes you step by step in modifying one of the Project Puppet Simple Series patterns.  Like many others I am eagerly awaiting the finished puppet.  I don’t know about anyone else, but an instructional DVD from Project Puppet would be one of the best gifts I could get for myself.  I hope they have plans for one in the not too distant future.  Check out the tutorial here.

The Wippets just introduced a new character to join their cast of puppets. The new character was built by the very talented Jarrod Boutcher! I think this new character is a perfect example of excellent character/puppet design by Ron and, of course, a beautiful follow through by Jarrod. Take a look at the Wippets Blog for the original sketches on which the puppet was based.

I’m looking forward to see Phil in future episodes of the Wippets!