furtech | PUPPETS! Secret Project Revealed!

Puppet Show Full FLickr Set!

I was working like a madman from June until mid-August on a project I couldn't talk about or even show some of the pieces I was laboring on...much as I wanted to! The project I was making these for wanted to keep everything under wraps until the show was performed. Puppets. Lots of puppets!

The show was the EF Pawpet Show: Pompeii-- and I can now show off the characters I made for the performance.

I was very excited at the chance to help out with the puppet show. I've seen several of their shows and- at the end of each- wished I could have been involved somehow.

This year they were making the transition to much larger rod puppets that were custom-made for the show. They needed an extra hand with this, so I volunteered. Watching the show come together, even from many miles away, was a thrill. All of those involved do so much work and all of it for one performance only. Thousands of man-hours for one show. Amazing.

I made ten puppets for the show, all of which were either sold in the art auction or bought by the show to use in future productions.

Of the puppets I made, my favorite is Caius Gavius Rufus: he is a wolf and the villain of the show. My inexperience with puppets and not being able to handle the current batch of already-made puppets meant that I ended up making Caius twice: Caius the First was a good 25% too large. Caius II worked much better. Villains are cool to make.

I was also pleased with the Hare and the Boar. I'm still fairly new to puppet-making, so I took this opportunity to experiment with styles as much as possible. Here you can see the ten or so puppets I made , along with the other members of the cast.

I can't tell you how awesome it felt to see all of these puppets together in one place.

The show was wonderful and the cast and crew took well-deserved bows.