Chensational Blog

Introducing The New Chensational Puppets!

2008-06-01T08:28:00.009-04:00

There is exciting news here at Chensational Puppets. We have change our company logo and have a brand new website and blog. Thanks you at all of the readers who have subscribed to this blog address and have added our old website to your favourites. We ask that you add our new adress to your favouritea and we welcome you to subscribe to our new blog. Please follow the links below and note that this Blogger site blog will no longer be active. Thanks again.

CHENSATIONAL PUPPETS

and

CHENSATIONAL PUPPETS NEWS BLOG

Chimp TV Update

2008-01-13T14:19:00.000-05:00

Well for those of you who are interested, we have been hard at work with the Chimp TV project. No longer just a podcast, we have completed filming of footage to use in an upcoming teaser trailer.

Here are a few sneak peek pictures of the shoot. There were many well known Canadian artists on set that day.

I can't say who or exactly what for, but I was thrilled to be a part of it.

Stay tuned for more arcane news bits.

Cool Ebay Item

2007-12-19T12:58:00.000-05:00

I was just searching Ebay for some Christmas gift ideas when I came across this posting. It is the issue that has my interview in it. So if anyone is interested in reading the interview then snach it up. NOTE: This is not my auction.

The New Chensational Puppets!

2007-12-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I have been working on this for a while now and the logo is finally finished. You probably already saw it on the pirate mask video I posted. Here is my new company logo and colours.

It was designed by the highly/multi-talented artist Pasha Romanowski (of Project Puppet fame).

It took a lot of work, but I can hapily say that I am very excited to see my company evolve. Look for more great things to happen very soon, including....oh...I better keep that a secret for now.

I don't like posting about things until they are done.

Pirate Mask Video

2007-12-01T16:47:00.000-05:00

I have had people requesting to see the mask in action. So here is some video. Please excuse the quality. I am not a film or computer guy and I filmed this with my digital camera. I think it is a bit of a miracle that I even got it posted. Enjoy.

Making a Mechanical Puppet Mask

2007-11-23T05:49:00.001-05:00

So for Halloween I decided to take a goalie mask and turn it into a mechanical puppet that would operate on my head. I was planning to use my old pirate costume that I had purchased last year as the start. Here is the process as I was able to record. (Please note that the last few steps I was not able to record with my camera since I was literally working on it up to the last minute before a little parade that I was leading).

I purchased a $30.00 ball hockey helmet with neck guard and started to modify it. I drilled small holes in the neck guard and the helmet itself. The neck gurad would act as the lower jaw of my puppet. I then attached them together using scews and washers (so they could easily slide open and shut).

These are the screws and hardware that I used. I just grabbed stuff that I thought might work.

I made sure to add enough washers to allow my lower jsaw to open and close without touching the actual mask. The jaw moved very nicely.

Next I added two more hole to the back of the "jaw". These two holes would fasten the metal plate that I found to act as a lever for the mech.

I then attached the metal plate with a nut and bolt. I added another loger screw to the mask itself and added a spring bewteen the two.

The spring is what would give me the tension to keep the jaw in a closed position.

I added foam to the bottom jaw to have a base for my mouthplate that I would add later. Note that there is more than enough clearance so that the foam would not impeed the jaw movement.

I then took a length of brass tubing (can be purchased at any hobby store), I don't know the size but it fit the wire I was planning to use.

Next I glued the tubing to the metal facemask of the mask using a two part epoxy.

To create a base with which to sew my material to, I contact cemented some 1/4 inch foam to the mask, leaving eye openings.

I then took a piece of thin metal rod/wire and bent it into the deired shape and soldered it in place.

On the other side of the jaw I attached another metal plate (as I did to the Spring side) but this time I attaced the end of a bike cable to it. The black sleeve of the cable would then be attached to the eyehook that was secured in place. The eye hook gave the cable the distance from the mask that it needed to work.

I then built up the mouth by adding a thin (blue) foam mouthplate, lower foam lip, foam cubes for thickness at the back of the head and two strainers spray painted black for the eyes. After trying sunglasses, I found that these were much easier to see with.

Next it was time to patterns the skin. I decided to grab a bit of cheap poly fleece to use for my rough pattern and draped it over the mask. I cut away material to make it fit.

Here is the rough pattern. I like to take this and transfer it to card stock. I then make it symmertical and neat. That is then used as my pattern to trace onto my fabric of choice. This time it would be some old left over antron that I have wanted to use up for a while.

I draped the antron fleece over the mask and began to hand sew it all together. Unfortunately I was in a rush and the photos stop here. What I can say is that I carved a foam nose and covered that with fabric. Then attached all of the features.

I had wanted to use a push control mech which it has right now, but I soon learned that the spring was stronger than I had anticipated. I will be soon chnaging the mech contril to a standard bike break system. It is much stronger and durable. Here is an example of what I mean.

And finally, here is the finished mask (well almost). I do plan to add details, shadows, etc. with an airbrush, but you get a generally good idea of how it looks. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial.

Another Puppet for Sale

2007-11-04T21:03:00.000-05:00

So in my attempt to start anew with my company I have stilll more puppets to sell off. Here is the latest one. He was made for a never created short film idea. Let's see who the lucky duck is that will get him.

Vapor Music and Chimp TV Unite!

2007-10-27T13:50:00.000-04:00

Well this is indeed exciting news to share. As many of you already know I have been working on my Chimp TV concept for a while and I have recently been making some great progress and it was my intention to put it up as a podcast.

Well I am happy to announce that the good people at Vapor Music and I have joined forces to develop the concept. I can't get into specifics, but I can say that there is some amazingly talented people who are coming together to make this a reality. As of now the podcast release that was intended for January of 2008 will be on hold.

I will continue to keep all posted.

More Ebay Puppets

2007-09-17T17:30:00.001-04:00

Okay so I have decided to list a bunch more of my older puppets on Ebay they are within the Halloween theme so I hope they sell. Take a look.

Enjoy.

Chimp My Stuff Filming Done!

2007-09-17T16:39:00.000-04:00

I know this is a bit late, since it was completed the second last week of August, but better late than never. It was done over two days, with just myself and super star Tom Stewart of Puppeteers Unite! fame. That's right. Two guys, two days and a little bit of Quiznos subs, but we did it.

I honestly can't say enough about Tom. He was amazing during the whole time. Lots of fun and always very clam, he helped to keep me focused on what needed to be done.

His camera, his help organizing everything. He did the majority of the filming (as well as being the Director of Photography), he did all of the additional puppeteering as well.

The kids were also great and I was very impressed with how honest they all were. It was definately a shoot to remember.

I am now gearing up to finish one more puppet and organize another two day shoot for our next show Ape: The Debt Collector. It should be a blast. The talented Philip Hatter has created two of the puppets for the new shoot. You can see them here.

Stay tuned.

Building X-Ape-It

2007-08-25T05:55:00.000-04:00

The host for one of the Chimp TV shows I am doing is called X-Ape-It.

The design was done by Pasha Romanowski and I built him. I wanted him to look cool and hip. I think the design was spot on.

I was very unsure during the whole building process. I just felt he didn't look right and I kept tweeking the puppet.

It started to get worrisome for me since he was going to he the host of this show.

As I started to add more features it started to look better and as a result I felt better.

I could slowly start to see a character coming through.

I think the final puppet looks pretty good.

Surprisingly enough I think he looks pretty close to Pasha's original vision.

Of course there is always interpretation for the builder, but I definately have a sense that he is cool chimp.

Wolf Puppet On Ebay

2007-08-25T05:46:00.000-04:00

So, I decided to take the Ebay plunge and I have listed my wolf puppet for sale there. If you are interested in a great character to add to your next project go and place a bid. You never know you might get it for a lot less than you think.

Chimp TV gets an Added Boost

2007-08-25T05:17:00.000-04:00

How happy am I that I decided that I couldn't finish all of the puppets I needed on my timeline without some help? I am very happy. The reason is that I opted to hire fellow puppet builder Philip Hatter from Thistledown Puppets to help me. He is a great builder and working with him has been nothing short of amazing!

Philip has been chronicling his work on his puppet blog and the results are fantastic!

Here is one of his posts talking about getting started. Be sure to check out both of our blogs as things get rolling with Chimp TV.

Get A Chensational Puppet Of Your Very Own!

2007-07-31T16:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I have never done this in my life but the time has finally arrived. I am clearing out my workshop and as a result I have decided to sell some of the early and current puppets that I have made for different projects.

Normally my custom work can get a bit pricey, but here is an opportunity to get a great puppet for well below what I normally charge. I must point out that I will be selling off two batches of puppets. These are the first batch.

I am in Canada but all my prices are in US dollars (any people interested outside of the US can contact me and we can discuss the appropriate rate).

Here is what I am selling:

These two bunny puppets are screen used for a Canadian television show called "The 11th Hour". They were design to be "creepy and cute at the same time".

These two rat puppets were a couple of my earlier puppets. I was planning on doing a video with them called "The Rat Pack" but I nevr had time to do it.

Originally built as a custom order, the purchaser opted not to buy them. Their loss is your gain. These two aliens' heads are cast latex rubber.

Another show idea I had, these two "whisps" have latex heads and hands and come in these custom costumes.

This awesome troll was an experiment using two part molds. Face, hand and feet (actually one foot) are all latex. There are lots of cool details on him and he is wonderful to operate.

The second latex puppet I ever made. She is a witch with cool blue hair, and a wonderful fit on the hand. She was on display with some famous puppets at a puppetry exhibit a while ago (bottom picture, far right can only see her dress a bit, but I have other pictures wth her).

This gargoyle was made out of scraps that can be found in any classroom. It was a cool puppet to make using everyday items. He is extremely light!

The Big Bad Wolf was a custom build for a video I was in a while back. He has an internal blinking eye mechanism, removeable legs and a "sheep's clothing" costume.

If you are interested or you have any questions feel free to get in touch with me via email: Chensational [at] gmail [dot] com

Project Puppet's New Contest!

2007-07-31T15:56:00.000-04:00

Well, Project Puppet is doing it again. They are having their latest puppet building contest and this time there is a theme, Fairy Tales Characters! It's called the "Once Upon A Puppet Contest" and I am honoured to be invited back as on of the official judges.

This years deadline will not be pushed back for any reasons, so I am encouraging anyone who is interested, to look at the official rules and start building. I want to see the best you've got!

What's My Name? BIG MANE!

2007-07-13T13:15:00.000-04:00

Oh yes! Big Mane is in the house. He is one of the stars of Chimp TV, my online puppetshow that I have been working on for too long. His character was designed by awesome artist and fellow puppet builder Pasha Romanowski.

When I built Big Mane I stayed pretty close to the overall feeling of the design, but it ended up taking on a life of it's own. There are differences in proportions (head length, eye size, belly, etc.) and details like eyebrows that have been left out. But the essence I think is still there.

I believe in something fellow builder Matt Ficner told me about his puppets. He noted that there is a certain element of realism when things are not perefctly symetrical. You'll notice that is the case with this puppet. I acutally opted not to do measuring at all during construction and instead did a lot of "eyeballing".

I had started off with a rough mock-up of the puppet to get a sense of his look.

After I was happy, I started to build the puppet using reticulated foam.

This puppet has a cable control for the eyebrows that uses a basic system here. The only different is that I used a bike cable in a thin hose tube to push the lever instead of my finger.

Next I started to add a fabric covering to the body. You'll notice that I try to outline where elements of the puppet should go by using a marker on the foam.

I then did the same thing for the head and continued to workon the body. You'll notice that I used both antron fleece and fur on this particular puppet.

This puppet is also a human arm or live hand puppet. I made these arms to look pretty big and powerful. These gloves are really very comfy.

Here are the arms attached and the head ready to be attached as well. You'll noctice a giant sleeve coming out of the hack or Big Mane's neck. This is to help guide the hand when putting on the puppet.

This is a final shot of the puppet. I really like how he feels as a character. He is a gentle soul with more strenght than he knows what to do with.

I decided that his pectoral muscles were too small so I modified the puppet and here are the results. A bigger chest. He still has his little white chin beard but it was tucked away in this shot (sorry).

I hope you enjoyed this project. I will continue to build a few more puppets (and I have some other talented builders helping me out too). The goal is to get as much shooting done this summer, so that I can start editing stuff over the fall and winter. Stay tuned for some more Chimp TV news.

Cool Collaborative Design Idea!

2007-06-12T21:30:00.000-04:00

When it was time for me to build a couple of puppets for a client/buddy of mine (Billy), I was impressed a cool collaborative method we've been using. What we did was, I built the basic body designs (using the colours we had agreed on). These puppets are being built using the ever amazing Project Puppet patterns.

After, Billy used his excellent illustration skils to draw over top of the photos to show what he wanted. These were starting points for me to build from. My plan was to experiment with the designs to see what I came up with.

I roughed details and features to see how close to his designs I could get. Although the puppets are not done yet (purple guy doesn't even have ears, teeth are too big some postioning is off, etc.), we are very close. There will be more back and forth emails until we are both happy with the look of the puppets.

Billy felt the outfit in his design and in the first mock up I did was a bit busy (I have to agree; although I liked having a number on the jersey of the purple guy). I will soon send him a new picture of the changes I have made and I think he will like how they look now.

At any rate, it is a great way to collaborate and design. I recommend trying it sometime.

Chensational Star Wars Insider Issue!

2007-04-29T07:19:00.000-04:00

Well I am happy to announce that Chensational Puppets has been profiled in the latest issue of Star Wars Insider. I was approached a while ago about an interview for their magazine and I was happy to assist. This issue is the first since being published by Titan Magazine so there was a lot of anticipation. I must say that the magazine looked great and the actual interview layout page was visually stunning. Thanks to everyone at Star Wars Insider (especially you Bonnie)! So go out and buy your copy today.

It's Alive!!! So Save Those Scraps

2007-04-09T19:51:00.000-04:00

Well here is the result of a little project I started oh so long ago and never seemed to have time to finish. He was my first attempt at a cable controlled puppet blinking mech. It works very nicely I must say (I used a bike break cable). My intention was to include photos of the whole process but I barely had time to work on the puppet much less take pictures. So I apologize for not having more pictures.

Here are the pictures I have. Not exactly step by step, but pictures none-the-less. So at this point you might be saying, "Oh, another puppet." Yes! But not just any puppet. You see this puppet is quite special. Aside from it being my first attempt at a cable controlled eye blink puppet (darn I wish I had taken pictures of him with his eyes closed), he is constructed in a slightly unique way as well.

This puppet was built from all of those little extra scraps of fleece that I had gathered over the years and never wanted to throw out (because antron cost money don't you know). That's right, this little guy is sewn together from numerous small pieces of fleece. As well, I decided that everything on him was to be sewn by hand; so it is (with the exception of the outside of the arms; the patchwork of fabric on the arms was done by hand but I was getting impatient with the outside. What can I say?).

I had lovingly called him "Frankenswine" during the process. Althought I have just been watching Pirates Of the Caribbean while I was sewing his costume and I found his voice taking on a distinctive pirate tone. Oh well, he is done now and I am very happy with him.

Slick Silly DVD Now Available!

2007-03-10T18:54:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since my last post, I know. I have been busy with Puppet Buzz as well as Chimp TV and other puppet building projects, so there will be much news to come soon. For now I wanted to let any other puppet DVD collectors (like myself) know that a great interactive DVD that I was a part of a while back is now for sale. The show is called Slick Silly and is produced by the award winning (Toronto based) company called Snap Media: now called Quickplay Media.

So if you are interested in a new puppetry DVD to add to your collection, or even if you just want to here me sing like a 7 year old monkey (yes I had to for the show), then go here to buy your copy today.

Introducing Puppet Buzz!

2007-01-21T09:44:00.000-05:00

I have been working over the last few months with some really wonderful puppetry people on a new international puppetry blog. It is called Puppet Buzz and basically it is a collaborative blog on puppetry news, views and ideas with a group of international contributors.

Although we have been posting for three months now, I thought is was important to wait until things were running efficiently before officially launching the website.

The website has started to become quite popular and I am very happy with the statistics so far. Lots of viewers and it is growing monthly. A very big thanks goes out to the contributors, I couldn't do it without you all.

If anyone has puppetry related news from anywhere in the world, please drop us a line at "buzzline at puppetbuzz dot com".

Monkey Puppet #1 for Chimp TV

2006-12-29T09:02:00.000-05:00

Well I have decided to go against my traditional stance on not posting anything about my projects until they are completed...at least with this specific project. I had written about Chimp TV in an earlier post and I have decided to include people in the actual process of getting this project off the ground. It has taken some time but I feel that this is the push I need to get more done.

Anyways here is an update.

I have been building a couple of monkey puppets for the opening sequence and as background characters for this project. Here is one of the puppets with a rough outline for the pattern that I will use to create him. The arms have been sewn together using a sewing machine, I made the arms longer than normal because he is...well...a monkey.

Here is the first one that I have worked on. You can see he is just at the beginning stages of construction. I find that pinning pieces to the foam skeleton helps with construction. As you can see the arms, body and the back of the head have all been assembled.

Here is the puppets with some more progress done. Hands and arms are ready to be sewn. I use a combination of hand and machine sewing. When attaching the hands to the arms and the arms to the body, I opted to use hand stitching.

It looks grim I know, but here is the puppet with eyes added and head off so I could work on it better.

And here he is with everything assembled. I thought that I would put less effort into his construction because he was a background puppet, but I realized that I just can't do that. Any puppet I build is a reflection of me, so I put everything in to it. It's amazing the things I learn about myself as a builder.

The truth is that I want the puppets for this show to be the best ones I have ever built. They are the lightest and the best fitting ones to date. Plus, I really like the look of these puppets, which is an added bonus. I hope you like them as well.

Building a Realistic Cat Prop

2006-12-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

I wrote a post a while back about a cat prop that I built for a movie that should be in theatres soon (see previous post). My intention was to outline some of the steps involved, but only now have I had the time do it. So, here it is.

When I first set out to build the cat prop I was aware that I didn't have the time to order glass eyes and do all of the things that I knew would really make the cat be realistic. The client noted that the prop would not need to have a realistic face because it would be used it a very quick shot and would not show the face. So admittedly, the face is not that realistic. But there were a few steps I took to make the cat as "realistic" as possible.

The first thing I did was to find the right fur fabric. I opted for a light cream fur and did some tests using acrylic paint to see if the colouring worked. I was happy with the results, so I decided to carve the cat head out of a small block of foam.

The thing that I always think about is how much of the understructure will be seen with fur or fabric covering it. I think it is an important thing to consider especially when considering the actual details you want to be seen. I knew that the cat's face needed to be covered with fur, so the face was carved small enough to accomidate the bulk of the fabric that would later be applied. This is why the carved foam face looks so small and weird.

The next thing I did was print up drawings of cat anatomy to help with the possible armature that was inside the prop. The prop needed to have the ability to be posable, so I opted to use a wire understructure.

I built up the body (due to the fact that the prop needed to be able to "bounce off of a wall when thrown") with foam.

The next step was to create the fabric pattern for the cat's face. I used a piece of fabric and pinned the fabric over the carved cat's foam face.

I cut away the extra fabric to create the pattern that I would later transfer over to the fur fabric. I decided to use a pen to outline where I would cut the fabric out for the eyes.

The wire armature was done using the anatomy pictures as references. The face pattern is done as well and ready to be transfered to the fur. I realized that with the bulk of the fur, there was no need to add foam or anything else to the tail itself. As a result I just left the wire bare. Feet, legs and body all had foam as a part of their bulk.

Next the pattern was transferred to the fur fabric. I carefully cut the fabric out and prepared to attach it to the foam cat head.

I opted to use contact cement to adhere the fur to the cat's face and to press down details that I knew I wanted. If you notice, the actual bulk of the face is quite a bit larger than the original sculpt.

The cat is now ready for me to add the fabric to the body of the prop. I added pink fabric to the inside of the cat's ears, and started to pattern the body.

I followed the same process as with the cat's face pattern. Pinning and cutting until I had the shape I needed.

Here is the cat with the cream coloured fur on his body. The tail is the only fabric that had not been added yet.

I then cut and sewed the tail together, finally adding it to the cat body to finish the overall fabricing process.

It was now time to paint the cat a base orange colour. I used acrylic paints to achieve the overall colour that I wanted. The cat was coloered with this base colour.

I was sure to add painters tape to the sections of the cat's tail that I wanted to should the cream colour.

Painter's tape is easy to remove and proved to be a great choice for this project.

After I removed the tape, you can see how the effect worked. We now have a tail with rings of colour. Perfect!

Finally, I added darker colour lines for the variations on the cat's fur. At this point it is practically finished.

Add whiskers, paint the eyes, add any final deatials and highlights, and you are done. A fairly realistic cat prop ready for it's big screen dedut.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and that you are able to use some of the information on your next project.

Enjoy!

Chensational Puppets Is Finger Lickin' Good

2006-11-13T22:22:00.000-05:00

An odd title I know, but the name of the magazine that interviwed me is just as "interetsting". The magazine is called "Tastes Like Chicken" and they have interviewed an amazing number of really cool celebrities.

Now what would they want with little old me? That was one of the first questions I asked when they approached me to do a story about my puppet company and my teaching.

The answer they gave was quite flattering. Apparently they have known about me for a while and were just waiting for the right time to do the interview.

The article is a spotlight that they do with up and coming talent. It is called Untapped Talent and the actual interview was a blast to do.

If anyone is interested in how I started building, what it is like being a full time teacher and a puppet builder/puppeteer, then be sure to check out the July issue of Tastes Like Chicken.

A special thanks goes out to Nonnie. All the best.

Meeting Mr. Meaty

2006-09-30T16:49:00.000-04:00

This past summer I was fortunate enough to be invited on to the set of Mr. Meaty. For those of you who don't know what Mr. Meaty is, I will tell you. It is a puppet show that is the brain child of The Grogs. The same groups that brought us the children's show called Nanalan.

This new show is for a much older demographic, more like teens and tweens than younger children. The show is about two teens named Josh and Parker who work at a fast food joint called (oddly enough) Mr. Meaty.

The show started out as a series of shorts that aired on CBC here in Canada, but has now evolved into a half hour show. This show takes place in a mall setting. This is where I want to jump in to my take on the show.

Some people have stated that the show doesn't seem good, others say it looks great. My take is that this show is not only amazingly entertaining, in contains some of the best set and puppets around.

The puppets themselves are not your standard Muppet type puppets, but rather very cool and stylized hot foam puppets. I had a chance to try some on and I must say they are not only wicked to look at, but they are very comfortable to boot. Hot foam is something that I want to try to work with very soon.

The puppet builders and puppet wrangles are so talented, I was really just amazed by how much talent there was on this set.

Each puppet was carefully kept safe off to the side of the set. They were covered in a thin clear plastic that reminded me of dry cleaner bags.

There was a building station just beside the puppets where the puppet wranglers never seemed to stop working.

Some of the funny things that I noticed on their work tables were things that I have on my son's change table. Like baby wipes, and baby power; but that aside they had all the regular stuff like contact cement, touch up paints and paper towels which seemed much more straight forward.

Last but not least I was so impressed with the scale and detail of the set. I mean it was a mall set that had the most amazing detail I have ever seen for a puppet show. With stores like Game Barn and Monolife, the fact that each video game cover was a cleverly made prop is just incredible.

That is another thing that amazed me. They had prop builders constantly making the coolest most amazingly detail props I have ever seen.

Ultimately I had a blast on the set of the show. I look forward to it coming out and I for one will definitely be watching it.

Puppets Up! Festival Number 2

2006-09-25T19:08:00.000-04:00

Well I was very honoured last year to be a part of the first inaugural Puppets Up! festival. This year I had less time and involvement with the festival, however I am a big fan and I still do what I can to support it. This year that meant attending with my family.

Just as last year it had amazing puppeteers and wonderful puppets everywhere. However, this year proved to be a larger event with more visitors than ever.

My family were huge fans of the Canadian Mounties who paraded around the streets with marching music playing from their backpacks. With shorts, bright yellow socks and their intrepid puppet steeds they paraded around the festival with a hilarious, proud and focused look on their faces.

They would often stop and create impromptu marching processions around by-standers. With the most senior of the two officers calling out orders as they went.

Their merry-go-round routine was classic and had everyone laughing. I mean how can you not love these guys?

One of the biggest treats was seeing most (if not all) of Noreen Young's puppets on display. I've said it before and I will say it again, she is a true matser builders and one of the most kind hearted people I have ever met. She is a true puppetry hero of mine.

Her puppets are mostly cast latex rubber and her style very distinct.

Check out these Canadian Prime Minister puppets!

Like last year, this year's festival had balcony puppetry as well and a parade down main street.

This years parade highlights included...

...look alike puppets and their owners...

...and Matt Fincer with this cool mask that he made...

...and clowns on stilts...

...and giant dragons looking this way...

...and that way...

...and mascots...

...and Mounties...

...and big heads...

...and finally, giant puppets.

Now I can't end this festival report without mentioning the Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers. This family puppetry troupe are one of the most entertaining puppet troupes I have ever had the pleasure of watching...EVER. I had the chance to talk with them this year and I must say that I predict wonderful things from them in the near future. They are already award winning and the show I saw this year was even better than last year's show. If you ever have the chance to see them, do it. If you have the funds to fly them out to where you are, do it. I promise that you won't regret it.

I hope that my reports help give some insight in to what happens at this great puppet festival. I highly encourage anyone reading this to make plans to visit the little town of Almonte next year for the 3rd annual Puppets Up! festival.

And the winner was...

2006-09-19T21:07:00.000-04:00

How late is this post? Well...let's just say "very late". I have been busy all summer and I am only now catching up. So here goes. A very belated congratulations to Mike Harding of Applefun Puppetry for being the winner of The Glorified Sock Puppet Contest! Mike's entry of Kaal Haarloos was a very simple yet wonderfully constructed puppet.

A special thumbs up to Project Puppet for holding this amazing contest. You can see Kaal Haarloos' acceptance speech here.

Also congratulations to Spencer Lott for his second place winning entry Mr. Fuzzy Face. Check out Spencer's super puppeteering skill in his acceptance speech here.

A great job was done by all those involved.

The Glorified Sock Puppet Contest Countdown!

2006-07-25T21:09:00.000-04:00

I tend to like the excitement of the final days of a contest, so I've waited until now to post this reminder. I told you about The Glorified Sock Puppet Contest, and we are now in the final week of voting.

*If you haven't done so, go and vote. You can find the top ten finalist HERE.

*The voting period will end on July 31, 2006 and the winners will be announced the following day, August 1, 2006.

Chensational Blog featured on Drawn!

2006-07-16T11:40:00.000-04:00

Following up with the "thanks yous" to people for supporting my blog, I have another one to add to the list. I just discovered (quite by accident) that the Chensational Blog was featured on the illustration website called "Drawn!".

They did a little write up about my Chewbacca puppet. It was much appreciated and I thank them. They are fellow Canadians and fellow Torontonians as well.

To read the write up go here.

A Chensational Thank You

2006-07-11T22:15:00.000-04:00

Over the past month a few websites and blogs have been kind enough to comment on the Chensational Blog. I just wanted to take some time out to say thank you to each of the authors and their websites.

A Puppet Resource is a website dedicated to puppetry of all kinds. Run by Tom Stewart, I especially like his dedication to Canadian puppetry.

Recently Tom posted a blog entry about Chensational Puppets. Read it here.

Thank you for all of your hard work and the write up Tom.

Project Puppet is a company that I have talked about before.

Owner and operator Pasha Romanowski is a multi talented artist whose illustrations match his amazing puppets. Recently Chensational Puppets' Chewbacca was featured on their new Project Puppet.com Blog.

Thanks for the support Pasha and keep up your amazing work.

Read the blog entry here.

Nate Pacheco has his own blog and has started to build puppets on his own. Recently Nate was kind enough to also profile my Chewbacca puppet on his blog.

Keep building Nate I love the results! Read his blog entry about Chewie here.

Creaturiste is the company owned and operated by Canadian puppet builder Mathieu Rene. Recently Mathieu has started his own blog looking at his puppets and thoughts about puppetry.

Recently Mathieu added a post talking about the Chensational Blog.

Your work is beautiful Mathieu. Keep doing what you are doing. Super job!

To you all, a sincere thank you for your support.

My Project Puppet.com Chewbacca!

2006-07-01T18:18:00.000-04:00

Well after the great response from my Darth Maul puppet, I decided to use another Project Puppet.com pattern. This time I chose to use the Punto pattern to create Chewbacca from the Star Wars universe.

Just to clarify I have built this puppet just for fun and for myself (I can not and will not build-to-sell any characters to which I do not have the copyrights for). When I started this puppet I did not have the luxury of a fabric pattern for the Punto foam head. Luckily now they do have one, but I made mine from scratch.

I started the process by assembling the foam Punto head following the instructions from the pattern. Once that was done I glued the mouth father than instructed and built up the area above and below the mouth to create the "Chewbacca-ish" mouth. I also added a build up of foam for the bridge of the nose and the eyebrow ridge.

After creating a smaller mouthplate to fit in the head I assembled these parts and sewed the fabric head pattern (that I created) and fitted it over the foam head. The body was made following the Punto instructions, but the arms were made from my own pattern.

I created Chewie's nose out of FIMO and I would often use it to help me get a sense of the overall look of the puppet.

I added glue around the eye sockets and sides of the nose and pressed the fabric down to get a more defined shape to the puppet's features. And once again I used the nose to see how everything looked. It is starting to look a little more like our old pal Chewie.

I then used an airbrush to add shadows to the eys and nose area, as well as down the sides of the mouth. With the head, arms and body done I started to work on the eyes and Chewie's ammo belt.

I took standard craft eyes from the local craft store and spray painted them white with a great spray paint designed for plastic called Krylon Fusion. I then glued black fabric to makke the upper and lower lids on the eyes.

For Chewie's ammo belt, I simply took a piece of brown fabric, cut rectanlges out of some foam I found at the dollar store, craft foam, and some silver acrylic spary paint. I cut the foam shapes, painted them and then glued them on the brown fabric.

I decided to add more black to his eyes and nose area, so I had to tape his mouth to make sure I didn't paint inside his mouth by accident. The body was assembled and the head was attached to the body. Then the nose and ammo belt was attached.

The eyes were attached to the head, but the pupils will be added later. I always like to add the pupils as one of the last stages. It really gives the sense of a complete puppet. At this stage however it looks as if Chewie is a zombie. Still, it is at this point that I am able to actually look at the puppet and see how close I am to my original vision.

Finally, small details are added.

I used electrical tape for the pupils, makeup sponges for the teeth and I added a clear acrylic gloss medium to the nose and eyes to give a wet look. I am happy with the results. I hope you enjoyed the process and the final product.

May the force be with you.

Making Tools Fun

2006-05-15T20:08:00.000-04:00

As most puppet builders know, the need for a good hair dryer is essential when working with contact cement. But I needed to keep it fun when using this tool. As a result, I ended up adding a little spice to my hairdryer. Yep it is The Big Bad Wolf of hair dryers.

The truth is that I used the hair dryer in a science lesson (over a year ago) about building structures for my grade 1 students. We had read the story of The Three Little Pigs and the students were challenged to build a structure that would stand up to the power of "The Big Bad Wolf".

The lessons concluded with a final test to see who's houses stood up. It was amazing fun to see this wolf blow some of the straw houses right off the table. The stick houses stayed up for a little but fell over. It was the little houses built with stones and glue that stayed up no problem.

Now my wolf helps me with drying the contact cement I use for building my puppets. It is amazing what you can come up with when you have a need.

By the way, this hair dryer can be fully disassembled and has no fabric or materials covering any areas that could cause overheating.

Puppet building for kids!

2006-04-28T23:32:00.000-04:00

For those of you who read this blog and do not know much about me. I should state up front that besides being involved in puppetry, I am a full time school teacher here in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Puppets have long been a part of my classroom and I have built puppets every year with students that I have been teaching.

One of the things that I have tried to do is to make the puppet building experience different and ultimately challenge myself and the students to make outstanding puppets. I amazes me how many people mistakenly underestimate the abilities of children. My experience has been that children are often more capable than you might think.

Now I teach grade 1 and 2 in a combined classroom. I have taught Kindergarten and last year I taught art all year to a grade 2 and 3 combined classroom. A few years ago I even did a latex rubber puppet building class with grade 7 and 8 class (and no I didn't let them do any of the rubber pouring or anything else that might have been the least bit toxic).

Anyways, my point is that every year I try to get away from the traditional paper bag puppets and see exactly what children could do. I have talked about Project Puppet before (in my last post to be exact). They have a pattern series that I wanted to see if I would be able to get small children to build with. I contacted Project Puppet and made an agreement to test out the patterns with the students to see what they could do with it.

We started with character designs/drawings in February and just finished building the puppets the beginning of April. To actual building time was probably around 12 - 16 hours, but it was done during lunch hours 3 times per week or whenever there was time.

The patterns were reduced in size by about 60- 75% of their original size. Since we were working with 7 - 10 year olds some had smaller hands and requested smaller puppets.

I would briefly demonstrate each step to the students and they would then do each step on their own. From cutting, to tracing patterns, to hot gluing each student work with limited support and a lot of guidance.

It was decided that using the hot glue guns would be acceptable for the small group and we spend a good amount of time talking about safety with the hot glue.

Of course their were the occasional small burns, but in all honesty I have seen more injuries from out classroom tape dispenser than the hot glue guns.

As a group we dyed the foam (I later did the rest out of time issues), and started to build the body and heads for our puppets.

As always I would demonstrate (using the cat puppet that I was building) and the students would attempt each step that they were shown. I was amazed at how well the students were able to follow the instructions.

Slowly the puppets began to take shapes and the characters started to come through. It was interesting to see how many students stayed close to their designs and how many branched off where the building took them.

The final results were nothing less than incredible. Remember that most of these puppets were build and designed by children. There rival many of the puppets I see online by adult builders. I promised to post the final puppets online for them to see so please enjoy these amazing works of art.

Character Name: Melissa
Builder: Anna
Grade: 5

Character Name: Lily
Builder: Kayley
Grade: 2

Character Name: Tara
Builder: Yuan Yuan
Grade: 4

Character Name: Shadow
Builder: Elsie
Grade: 2

Character Name: Stinky Whizzle Tooth
Builder: Harlan
Grade: 3

Character Name: Little Joe
Builder: Sam
Grade: 3

Character Name: Blade McKennie
Builder: Jeremy
Grade: 4

Character Name: Smelly Cat Max
Builder: Mr. Chen
Grade: 1/2 Teacher

Character Name: Angelo Deville
Builder: Mr. Latter
Grade: 4/5 Teacher

Character Name: Lola
Builder: Larissa
Grade: 5

Character Name: Tommy
Builder: Rachel
Grade: 2

Character Name: Crazy Tear-Up
Builder: Keegan
Grade: 2

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did working with the students who built them. Great job everyone I am very proud of you all.

So you wanna be a builder, eh?!

2006-04-26T22:52:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wanted to build a puppet, but never known where to start? Are you a puppet builder already and want to see how your puppets stack up?

Well now there is an amazing contest being hosted by Project Puppet.com. With there latest pattern called "The Glorified Sock Puppet" pattern, you can build a simple, but amazing puppet, in no time.

The contest is called "Sock Search" and you had better start building right away because it has already started. Build as many puppets as you want, but you may only enter 1 puppet per contestant, so pick your best one to send in.

Chensational Puppets will be one of the honourary guest judges along with builders from different parts of the world (that I personally respect the work of). To read more about the other judges and for detailed rules visit the Project Puppet's website here.

Contest ends May 28th, 2006.

Good luck, and happy building!

If Life Were Like That...

2006-04-05T18:30:00.000-04:00

...you wouldn't need VISA.

Or so the commercial goes. Well a while back I was a part of a commercial of sorts that used this popular add campaign as a series of comical spoofs highlighting a director reel for director David Mewa (pronounced "mee-wah").

I was contacted by David and asked if I could build a wolf puppet and sheep costume in two weeks. Normally I would just say no way, but David was sent my way by a good friend and I guess I am a glutton for punishment, so I agreed. I had absolutely no time and found myself using spare minutes here and there to try to build this puppet.

I had the puppet ready for delivery on shoot day. If you ask me, I notice that the puppet looks rushed. Ultimately however I think the look works. I am extremely critical of my work and I know that with more time I could have done much better.

The wolf got his chance to perform mid afternoon. In fact I remember being in a deep sleep and hearing my name called to get ready to go on. I performed for a short titled "Yes Men".

The idea behind the sketch is that if people had a boss who didn't care who he hired then you wouldn't need an awesome director like David Mewa. So the short ended with "If life were like that then you wouldn't need MEWA". The idea being that your boss won't want to hire just anyone (especially a wolf in sheeps clothing).

The shoot was impressively well organized. We shot everything in the CBC building in Toronto. In fact David is a director who works for CBC and just recently finished working on a new show called "Hockeyville".

So finally here is the completed clip called "Yes Men".

Enjoy.

Happy 1 Year Blogiversary!

2006-03-29T21:31:00.000-05:00

Well here it is! The Chensational Blog has now been operating for a full year. Lots has happened over the past year. Thanks to everyone who has been reading. There are already lots more things happening that I will be able to post about. Stay tuned.

Broadway Debut For Andrew and Maurice

2006-03-13T14:54:00.000-05:00

A Chensational Puppet has officially been on Broadway...well, sort of.

It's not everyday that someone gets to go on stage with the cast of a Tony Award winning show. It's even more unusual for a puppet to do so. But that is exactly what Andrew-MacDonald Smith and Maurice Tipo did this past March, 2006.

Andrew entered the character of Maurice Tipo that he created (and that was built by Chensational Puppets), into a contest for Avenue Q.

Well it seems that after a second contest, to see who would be chosen to perform on stage with the cast of Avenue Q, Andrew and Maurice won again.

Andrew is a true talent. You can see his winning video entry here. I will be sure to update his progress and hopefully he will be using more Chensational Puppets for his future puppet projects.

To see an online interview of what happened during Andrew and Maurice's March visit to New York City, click here.

Keep up the great work Andrew!

A Chensational Profile on Swazzle!

2006-02-26T13:24:00.000-05:00

Well what exactly is a swazzle? Or more correctly who exactly is Swazzle. Well the short of it is that Swazzle is a California based touring puppetry company that have a very unique twist on children's entertainment. In a time where prerecorded tracks are often the "norm" for kids shows, Swazzle performs all of their shows live.

The quality of their puppets and performances speak for themselves. Highly talented and comitted to quality entertainment they recently started to branch in some other directions.

Most recently creating a PuppetGreeting.com card of their own and different members starting their own blogs.

One of their members named Sean Johnson has his blog called Puppet101. Sean is a very talented puppet builder and puppeteer in his own right and he recently did a profile on Chensational Puppets.

Be sure to read all about it here.

Using a Professional Illustrator

2006-01-29T08:49:00.000-05:00

Pretty cool picture, eh (yes I am Canadian)? Well these amazing designs are not done by myself. No, they are the ultra cool works of artist/illustrator Andre-Guy Landry and his company called Brain Slug. I have hired Andre to work on projects for/with me for over a year now and I can't say enough good things about him.

There have been many projects that I have hired Andre for. One of these is a new company website that is almost complete (I will bolg about this at a later time). Here is a cool picture of me for that website that Andre did.

As I said Andre is an amazing artists and has tried his hand at building a great puppet and has me hooked on a super online comic series called "Alein Tongues".

The bottom line is that as far as using a professional illustrator goes, it is a practice that I intend to use as often as I can. In fact I used Andre to design the icon of me at the desk for the top of this blog.

I have even used his services to polish a beaver puppet design that I had. The results gave me an even clearer idea of what I wanted. Like anything well done there are costs involved. However, much like puppets, you get what you pay for.

So if you are serious about your designs, or you just want to treat yourself to a spectacular design, then be sure to contact Andre-Guy Landry and let him know what you are interested in having drawn.

A Chensational Avenue Q visitor!

2006-01-17T18:59:00.000-05:00

It was last month that I received and email from a past client of mine (Andrew MacDonald-Smith to be exact) letting me know that he had entered the puppet I had built for him into a contest from Avenue Q. The contest asked puppets to be entered for an opportunity to win a trip to visit Avenue Q in New York City.

The entries were whittled down to a handful and then the public was asked to vote for their favourite puppet. The top three would be posted and would win the trips. Well I just went to the website for the results.

Maurice Tipo was one of the three puppets chosen. I am proud to say that a Chensational Puppet will now have the opportunity to visit Avenue Q and be surrounded by the puppets that were built by amazing puppet buider/puppeteer Rick Lyon who built the cast of Avenue Q.

I have included some of the original text from the website for you to read over. I wanted to wait until the results were in before I wrote about this in my blog. Enjoy.

I am glad that a puppet I built was able to bring happiness of a different kind to someone I have built for. It is a good feeling sometimes being a puppet builder. Actually more often than most people can imagine.

Congratulations also to the other winners. Well done.

Double the Trouble, Double the Fun

2006-01-11T22:18:00.000-05:00

Alistair Ant is not only a Chensational Puppet, but he is quite an amazing character who has a "quickly growing" following. Most toddlers can not seem resist his incredible charm...and now he is back with a new CD storybook.

Yes, Alistair Ant Productions has done it again.

I wrote about Rob and Soli Joy a while back and talked about their wonderful stage shows. Since their last CD storybook entitled "Bigger the Better Said Alistair Ant" Rob and Soli have created and performed a new live stage show entitled "Double Trouble For Alistair Ant". This successful show has now been adapted into a wonderfully creative CD and Storybook. Full of catchy songs that are sure to get any young child (and yes even adults have been seen tapping their toes to the music) up and dancing. This latest CD lives up to the high standards of the first.

The story revolves around Alistair and his new friend Sluggo (another Chensational Puppet created for the new show) and a bit of a problem. After Alistair makes a wish for a friend more like himself, he comes face to face with some of the problems that come from being too much like someone else.

Others have noticed how talented these two performers are and there are whispers of Alistair possibly speaking with a very well know production company to try to bring him to television.

I encourage anyone who has small children to grab a copy (go to the Merchandise section on their webpage) and enjoy some high quality entertainment.

Introducing Chimp TV......or Not

2005-12-17T20:42:00.000-05:00

Well I usually don't announce things until they are completed, but this is a situation that just developed and I think it is an unsual situation (and I have been waiting a very long time to annouce it). Over a year ago I contacted Blazin' Goat Pictures to have some footage that I shot edited.

The footage was the result of an impromptu video short. Everything filmed was improvisation and the person using the video camera had never used one before. The footage got me thinking and writing, and as a result I came up with the concept of Chimp TV.

I have been building puppets for this project for over a year (in my spare time) and I filmed additional footage in that time as well.

However, there has been a major setback. After over a year of waiting for the footage to be edited, the footage was accidentally deleted before it could be delivered to me. All that is left is this first clip that was put online.

Not to worry. My plan is to have all of the footage re-edited and try to get more videos completed.

Designing a Character

2005-12-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

For me learning to build puppets has been an evolution of professional maturity. I like to think that looking back at my work I have seen my work evolve in a personally satisfying way.

At first, I just focused on the external asthetic of the puppet. If it looked good to me then it was a great puppet. Over time I have learned to see much more in my puppets. Someone once told me that a great puppet is one that you can look at and know the character without even seeing it performed.

I like to think that I take a good amount of time developing or understanding a character before I build the puppet.

When I first started building puppets I would just build. Sometimes without any idea of what I would get. There is alot of fun in that, however, to truly develop into a better builder I needed to be able to have a clear vision and then translate that into a three dimensional design.

That is when I started sketching my characters first. This troll puppet was an attempt I had at designing and then building a puppet from those designs. The first thing that I accept is that there are some things that were off with the final design. I also accept that this was just a step in my evolution. Let's face it I am not a professional illustrator and I still captured the essence of what I wanted.

The plan was to eventually have enough funds to hire artists to develop the quick sketches that I came up with until I had a polished character design from which to work with.

Sooner or later I would find someone whose art I respected and admired enough to hire for those illustrations. Until then I acknowledged that even Jim Henson did little sketches to get the essence of his characters. They even published a book about his doodles. When I look back at my sketches I realize that I actually like the look of them, and they really aren't that bad at all.

Project Puppet.com Experiment

2005-11-24T09:47:00.000-05:00

Yes, the puppet you see is of Darth Maul from the Star Wars Trilogy. No I will not be selling him (or any other character that I do not own copyrights for). He is a part of an experiment that I have undertaken for fun. A while back and new company called ProjectPuppet.com popped up on my radar.

The company offers professional quality puppet patterns with easy to follow instructions. I liked the look of the puppets and I thought it would be a good idea to buy a pattern or two and try them out.

But how should I use them? I enjoy building my own puppets and creating my own paterns, so I knew that I wouldn't be using the patterns to make puppets to sell. I was struck with an idea. Make Star Wars characters for my own enjoyment.

I have recently received a few Star Wars gifts (video games and DVDs) and I became preoccupied with the Star Wars universe. It seemed only natural for me to try to use these patterns to make some of my favourtie Star Wars characters.

Since Project Puppet.com only has three puppet patterns currently, it offered me enough of a challenge to change these basic patterns in to identifiable characters.

Here is my first attemt. Darth Maul. I used the Rotondo pattern and made a few interior design changes. I lined the inside with foam and fabric to create a nicely fitted glove for the hand. The puppet has amazing control and comfort.

I also decided to not use reticulated foam (which is propably one of the best materials you can use for these puppets) and I used basic poly foam. Why you ask? Well two reasons. First, I find working with poly foam more difficult to hide errors and thus more challenging. And second, I know most people starting out may not have access to the reticulated foam (although Project Puppet.com does sell it here) and I wanted to show people what can be done with basic materials like poly foam.

I simply added plastic dome eyes, used electrical tape for the pupils. I used acrylic paint for the painted details and ployester fleece for the costume. Other than that, I just followed the instructions.

I am very pleased with these puppet patterns. I would recommend them to anyone. Needless to say there will be more Star Wars puppet characters coming (as soon as I have more time to build).

"May the Force Be With You".

Chensational Muppet Audition!

2005-11-08T18:57:00.000-05:00

Well it was very interesting indeed this audition that I went to. Recently there was word about auditions being held for The Muppets Holding Company. The specifics were unclear, like exactly what the successful candidates would get out of it.

I decided to go anyways at least to see how my puppeteering skills held up in an audition. I don't claim to be a master impersonator, but I have always played with a few Muppet voices. Kermit and Pepe seemed to feel the most natural for me. I am a huge fan of Muppeteer Bill Baretta who performs most of my favourite Muppet characters.

So I went on audition day and did my paper work then waited around for instructions. I spoke with a few people and then then started to call in people in groups of ten. I was in the third group. We did some basic lip sync using our bare hands and ping pong ball eyes, to a rock song that was pretty fast. I don't know the name of it.

After that, six people in our group were dismissed and four were asked to stay. That group of four then went on to use the monitors. I was one of the four, so I had a turn at the monitor. It was cool because in front of us was Kevin Clash who performs Elmo (Kevin is the one on the right) on Sesame Street. The four of us were invited to the Sesame Street "workshop". I don't know what that means, but I assume that it is a chance for us to work on puppetry skills, who knows?

Anyways, I made it past the first two parts and I was asked to stay for the afternoon to try my character voices. If they liked your voices they would ask you to come back the next day and the if they didn't you would be sent home. After lunch, I went in and did a few voices; Statler, Waldorf, Kermit and Pepe (okay!?).

I guess they liked at least on of my voices, because I was asked to come back the next day.

The second day of the audition was crazy. I got to see and perform using actual Muppets! I used Kermit and Pepe. Plus I got to see a whole bunch of other Muppets. The day was a real blur. We were told at the end that they should be in touch with us in about a month or so to let us know what they decided. I am not sure what will come of all this, but it was a good experience.

I will try to keep all posted about what comes next.

Chensational Puppets to hit the big screen

2005-10-23T19:53:00.000-04:00

Well Chensational Puppets has just made a big step in its company accomplishments this past year. Here is the most recent part of that journey.

This is the face of a little cat character I have been working on for the past month. What is it for? Well I was approached a little while back by the prop master for a new film being shot in and around the Greater Toronto Area. The movie is called It's a Boy Girl Thing and it is the latest project for Elton John's production company called Rocket Pictures.

The film is described as having "American Pie" type humor and the cat is going to be involved in a little stunt scene. The slap stick type humor will use the puppet/prop in the film for a scence where the cat flys down a hallway and bounces off a wall. I am happy to be able to provide this stunt double for the little kitty in the movie.

I will post more information soon. The process of building the cat was a fun journey of experimenting with design ideas. Stay tuned for some a future blog entry with pictures and steps that I used in the building of the cat.

Puppets Up! Day 2

2005-08-31T09:26:00.000-04:00

Well, on the second day I got to do some more balcony puppeteering. Both of these puppets were built by Noreen Young and I performed the little grey OPP dog on the right (that is a scarecrow on the left). I am surprised how much I enjoyed doing the balcony puppeteering.

We were even able to get a few passing cheerleaders to stop and do some cheers. I made it a point to challenge their spelling skills. No simple "Gimme' a W-I-N here!". They were great. In fact moments later I had the puppet complaining about being hot and wanting a "freezee" (these are really called MrFreeze ice pops, but all my life I have known them as "freezees") and these young ladies happened to be selling them in their blue cooler. Well wouldn't you know it, a kind little boy came out of the crowd and brought one up for me. He ended up doing some puppeteering for a while himself. It was a very memorable moment.

During my (and my wife's) stay in Almonte, we shared accommodation with one of the puppet troupes. I was told that a couple of puppeteers from Vermont would be in the same bed and breakfast as my wife and I (Menzies House B & B). I knew nothing about the pair so I decided to go and see their show at the end of day 1.

Their names are Jamie Keithline and Bonny Hall and they are amazing performers. Their company is called The Crabgrass Puppet Theatre. Hands down their show was one of the most entertaining puppet stage shows I have ever seen. Done using shadow puppets and marionettes (all created by Jaime and Bonny). Their show was called The Breman Town Musicians and it was awesome!

The music was top notch (new lyrics to oldies favourites) and each show they did was live. No pre-recorded stuff here. They are true artistic professionals and after talking with them it is clear that they are as passionate about puppetry as they are talented. It was great meeting them and I wish them continued success.

As the day came to an end, their was a final parade down main street. Many of the people who had been keeping the buzz around town came together and showed some of the wonderful puppets and costumes that they used. This was a time for me to sit back and take in all of the craziness that had been around me for the past two days. As well as some of the amazing artists that I had the pleasure of seeing perform over those two delightful days.

There was/were...

Shop owners with their look-a-like puppet counterparts.

Bob Stutt and Iggy the Iguana...

Jacob Blue Jay and Stephen Brathwaite...

...aliens...

...clowns...

...and dogs.

Dogs?

And flying bicycles?!

But that's not all! There was/were...

...local television personalities...

...the town mayor in shorts...

...children...

...stilt walkers...

...and...

...Noreen Young with Gloria Gopher, news media, mascots...

...more mascots, and cheerleaders...

...and a pair of fuzzy dice.

It was a beautiful day and a wondeful little parade. As the festival started to come to and end and the streets began to empty I was able to reflect on the day and catch up with other performers.

One last picture of myself, Matt Ficner and ZipE the clown (a.k.a. Adam Zimmerman).

I was honoured to be a part of such a great first ever event like Puppets Up! I highly recommend attending this event in the future and I hope to see more new faces next year.

Puppets Up! Day 1

2005-08-25T16:06:00.000-04:00

Well this post has been long overdue. Here is some of the stuff that happened. The first thing that I did was set up my puppets for display in one of the town windows. All of the organizers were amazing and really did a great job to make me feel at home. Hats off to them all.

The day had a variety of puppet performances and I was able to see almost half of all the shows on the first day.

One of the first shows that I saw was by Rag and Bone Puppet Theatre from Orleans, Ontario. Performed by Kathy MacLellan and John Nolan, these performances used some wonderful open manipulation puppeteering. This is a style in which the performers are in full view of the audience.

I must admit that I had never seen this style before in person and it was an amazingly different way of performing puppets than I have been used to.

The show I saw was called The Nightingale you can see some of the puppets used for the performance in the picture above.

As usual, I became so wrapped up in all of the excitement that I failed to take pictures of most of the shows that I saw. Some of the shows that I did get pictures from were some of the buskers and street performers that were all over the downtown core. But I had to work as well. You see I had agreed to perform with puppets from one of the downtown balconies.

I know that the picture is hard to see, but that is me with the grey puppet (Zeek) talking to a bunch of event goes. I must admit that it was a lot of fun to do. And I met some very talented puppeteers in the process (many of them novices). We would pretty much just bother people (in good fun) as they walked by.

That evening was the adult cabaret. I was all excited and had my camera ready. In fact I had charged the batteries to be fully prepared...or so I thought. The batteries went completely dead. Oh well here is one of the only decent pictures I was able to snap just before the batteries died.

Here is a blurry picture (sorry) of Noreen Young and Stephen Brathwaite, both gifted puppeteers. Noreen is also an award winning puppet builder. I was amazed and impressed to find out that in addition to being a great puppeteer, Stephen does amazing art pieces with glass.

A few moments later they were performing their characters from Under the Umbrella Tree.

Jacob Blue Jay and Gloria Gofer together again.

The whole night was amazing. It was great to see the variety and wealth of puppet talent all in one room. I must admit that this night was perhaps one of my favourite parts of the whole festival. With many of the performers I did not know their work very well.

Some of the evenings highlights (for me) included a performance by Ottawa puppeteer and builder Mike Artelle. Using these incredibly detailed hand puppets, Mike presented a short puppet show that reminded me of how real my He-Man action figure seemed to me when I was little. Mike performed with a great "dead-pan" delivery that made the show very entertaining.

Steffi's Picnic the Musical. Now this puppet troupe just about blew me away. They perfomed during the cabaret and did some sketches from the Broadway (puppet) musical hit Avenue Q (note the pictures above are from their busking performance and not the evening cabaret). The puppets were built by Ben Durocher (amazing work!) and along with Steffi Didomenicantonio (Yup! That's her last name) they performed their own musical shows using puppets.

Now I know that Steffi's name has more letters than most, but I think people had better learn to pronounce it because these performers are going to be something big. Oh! Did I forget to mention that they are only 16 years old and still in high school! Are you kidding me?! With this much talent at such a young age. If you get a chance to see them please do. You will be blown away.

Day 1 was great. Check back soon for my post about Day 2.

Chensational admission bracelets!

2005-08-05T08:01:00.000-04:00

Well I am not allowed to post this until the event is over but the admission bracelets for the Puppets Up! festival look amazing. Here are a few samples of what they look like. Of course you won't see these until after the fact.

(The colour on these pictures are off. The top picture is more accurate)

There has been great communication between the Puppets Up! organizing comittee and Chensational Puppets. Thanks for all of the quick replies.

I look forward to seeing lots of people at Puppets Up! this August 6th and 7th in Almonte, Ontario.

"Backing up" some new fashioned Mŏd-Vŏd

2005-07-22T13:56:00.000-04:00

What is Mŏd-Vŏd? Well is stands for modern vaudeville and it is perhaps best described in this news clip covering the event.

At the beginning of this year I did some background puppeteering to help out fellow puppeteer and puppet builder Matt Ficner and his new project with Elliot Smith and Ian Quick. They were creating a show that was a throw back to the old vaudeville comedy routines with a splash of technology and a pinch of puppetry.

The live stage show was combined with pre-recorded segments that ran throughout the course of the show. I was a part of the video shoot for the production and I puppeteered a couple of roach puppets, as well as doing some other odd tasks behind the scenes.

The show was being created for the Casino du Lac-Leamy as a stage show for their Theatre du Casino. The show ran during February/March (2005) and unfortunately I was unable to see the show. I did however hear that it was very entertaining.

For more information about the show please visit their website here.

Heeeeere's Johnny!!!

2005-07-12T14:34:00.000-04:00

Or rather a puppet that looks like him.

Who is Johnny? The Johnny I am referring to is Johnny Gardhouse. Haven't heard of him? Well I'm willing to bet you have seen him before. If you are Canadian and live in Ontario, you may know him as "the mailman from the Cash For Life commercials. Faaaantaaaastic!", or "the guy from the Sensodyne commercial" where the guy throws the boomerang and as it comes back it is blocked by the Sensodyne tube (before hitting the guy in the head).

For the rest of the world he may be better known as one of the Blockheads, a Canadian Improv troupe who went on Jerry Springer and tricked him (by coming on and selling the world a completely made up story).

For anyone in the comedy scene, Johnny Gardhouse is a mainstay at the local Toronto Comedy club called Yuk Yuks. He is a widely respected comedic talent who has been in a variety of television and commercial spots.

Now that we know who Johnny is, "Why on Earth did I make a puppet of him?"

Well, many months ago I was contact by producer Scott Rondeau. Scott is the CEO/Executive Producer of Hell Creek Entertainment Inc. who are perhaps best known for their edgy gameshow called "Gutterball Alley" for The Comedy Network. Scott informed me that he wanted me to build a puppet of his colleague and good friend Johnny Gardhouse. When asked what he needed it for , he informed me it was for "Johnny's wedding". As a great wedding gift the boys over at Hell Creek decided to do a video for Johnny's wedding, staring none other than Johnny himself. This is all great except for the little fact that he didn't know any of this was happening.

This puppet build offered some unusual challenges. The first is that the decision was made to have Johnny's puppet sculpted with a big smile, raised eyebrows and friendly (but mischievous) grin. Structurally it made the shape of the face a little hard to keep the movement clean, but it ended up working out very nicely.

Another design problem is that Johnny's face seemed to look different in almost every picture that I saw of him. For all I could tell at times he was a different person. For example, Johnny 1, Johnny 2 and Johnny 3. Some cool things that happened is that after seeing the long hair I initially applied to the puppet, Scott decided to leave it on for some "Flashback" scenes of when Johnny was younger. I eventually cut and styled his hair to the way it looks now. What a difference. It really looked much more like him with the hair styled (I will try to post pictures).

Scott was super cool to work with and by all accounts the final video turned out great. Scott has informed me that he intends to use the puppet for one or more future projects. I haven't met Johnny in person yet. A situation that will be remedied in the near future. Although I did meet with Darren Frost, another great guy over at Hell Creek. I have just made plans to meet with "the guys" at the end of this month. Hell Creek Entertainment Inc. and Chensational Productions will have much to talk about. Perhaps a joint project is in the cards.

Chensational sponsor of Puppets Up!

2005-07-09T07:39:00.000-04:00

Well I have moved to my new home and have been trying to set up my new workshop. Things are taking much longer than I thought and I have been without the interenet for about a month so my blog entries have been very scarce. But that does not mean that things are not been happening with Chensational Puppets.

Chensational Puppets has decided to support an amazing puppet event happening in the province of Ontario, CANADA. The event is called Puppets Up! and it is happening just outside of the city of Ottawa, Ontario in a small town called Almonte.

The two day event will involve a variety of puppets and puppetry from all over North America. Each day, professional puppet companies will perform 20 shows in large marquee tents located throughout the downtown core of Almonte. Puppet making workshops, amateur puppet shows and video performances will take place in smaller tents and indoor spaces. Surrounding the performance core will be a constant buzz of street activity including balcony puppet performances, interactive kiosks, buskers, musicians, storytellers, sidewalk art, puppet exhibits, window displays, workshops, skits, face painting as well as souvenir and food vendors.

Chensational Puppets will be at the event both as a sponsor and as a participant. I have agreed to perform a variety of puppet characters from the balconies in the dowtown core of Almonte. I look forward to the event and I hope to see some of you there as well.

For advance ticket sales go here.

SlickSilly.Com Launches!

2005-06-06T09:08:00.000-04:00

This is some exciting news about the children's interactive DVD. The official website has been launched and it looks amazing! I spoke recently with Producer/Director Nic Sulsky who has informed me that there are some final things being done with DVD before it will be officially released.

Nic tells me that the show is going to be shopped around in the next three weeks or so. It seems that the general word coming from most distribution companies is that getting a show with puppets created is not so easy. Many people have the opinion that puppets are not popular. I would need to see the statistic before I ever believed that.

I have a lot of faith in the potential of this show. It is something special.

This leads me to say a few words about the director/producer of the show Nic Sulsky. It really isn't until a performer has the opportunity to work with someone so gifted and down to Earth that they truly appreciate the role of a director. Nic was nothing short of awesome. I have worked with some great directors in my time, but Nic's ability to get across what he wanted, keep track of the production, deal with any problem that came up, and assemble one of the best teams of talent I have ever worked with is beyond impressive.

Currently Nic has started a new media company called Media Cravin'. If you have a television or media project that you want done with the most amazing value possible, get in touch with Nic.

I am currently meeting with Nic to develop a few ideas that I have. I will post any information on those projects as they develop.

Big smiles on TLN shoot

2005-06-04T12:19:00.000-04:00

Well the commercial shoot has been completed and it was an amazing experience for a variety of reasons. The series of commercials is part of a Dental Medical Clinic (owned and operated by Dr. Nelly and Simha Mendelsson) and TLN joint project. The ideas was to help create a series of commercials that served to educate and promote "Dental Med" and its services.

Like with most projects I have done, the challenges on this project were excellent learning opportunities. I had the opportunity to work with some amazingly creative people. The director for the shoot was Jaime Escallon-Buraglia. A young and talented director who has produced and directed a variety of projects including a well received documentary titled "Sanctuary", which has been aired on CBC's Momentum documentary series. Jaime has worked with such companies and organizations as TV Ontario, OMNI TV, The National Film Board of Canada, Bravo!Fact, CBC and TLN. I look forward to the opportunity of working with Jaime again in the future.

This shoot was unique in that the voice for Tino was chosen to be a talented Colombian actor by the name of Carlos Congote. A well known actor in Colombia, Carlos has started to do work in Canada and cretead a wonderful personality for our little friend Tino.

The obvious challenges for the shoot were, first that Carlos was a voice actor and not a puppeteer. Second, I was a puppeteer (and a voice actor), but I didn't speak fluent Spanish. And third, it was decided that live recordings offered a greater amount of impact than pre-recorded voice tracks.

The solutions was this. Carlos was to be set up on location with a script and mic. I was to do puppeteering by listening to Carlos' live dialogue and try to lip sync the puppet with him as we both performed live.

The result was nothing short of amazingly challenging and wonderfully exciting. I needed to sync my puppet's mouth movements (as well as puppeteer the rest of the puppet) to a live actor, speaking Spanish, that (due to live performances) had slight variances each time. I was ultimately happy with the shoot and all those involved had a lot of fun. I am waiting to see the final commercials and I hope that when I see them I will not bee too hard on myself. After all, how many people can say they have done this type of puppeteering?

Chensational Puppets go Spanish

2005-05-15T21:30:00.000-04:00

Several months ago I was approached by the Telelatino Network (TLN) here in Toronto. They wanted a character developed that would represent a local dental clinic in a series of commercial spots. They hired me to build a beaver puppet named "Tino".

After a series of several fabric choices, TLN decided what the puppet should look like and I went ahead and started building. I chose to build the puppet using both patterned sheet foam and carved foam. My main focus was to keep the puppet as light as possible.

I was extremely happy with the final result. Tino was the lightest puppet I have ever built. He is incredible comfortable and I am very happy about that. The hands and ears are made with antron fleece and the nose and teeth are made from latex rubber.

After delivering the puppet to TLN the reaction was amazing! People just loved it. There are few things more satisfying to a puppet builder than to see people smile and connect to one of your puppets. I really do love building puppets!

Get Ready for Slick Silly! (part 2)

2005-05-04T04:53:00.000-04:00

I thought I would post a little more information regarding the "inside scoop" about working on this project. As I said, the inside footage was shot against a green screen background. The puppets were large puppets. Each puppet had anamatronic mechanisms that moved either the eyebrows (Willy) or the eyelids (Slick). The puppets were beautiful, but there was one issue that the puppeteers were able to give feedback to Damien James about. The weight.

You see Damien took the weight into consideration by using light weight foam and a variety of other techniques. The bottom line is that these puppets had heavy metal gears in them and there is only so much you can do to make them lighter. The result is that my arm (and shoulder) got a workout that I haven't had since varsity football. Damien is a great guy and took the feedback very well. Much like myself he cares about how his puppets perform. He even sent an instruction video for the two puppets. It was a really nice professional touch.

The green screen shoot took place inside Snap Media's office building. The people there were great and the setup was very functional. We performed the puppets by sitting on rolling chairs. I started out doing all the basic things a puppeteer would do with a puppet. Making sure there was a slight bounce to the walk, etc. By the end of it both Jay and I were using a contraption to hold our arms up.

I did a bunch of prop building for the production as well. Here is a picture of the Monkey Dance map that I made. It was another great experience for me. I have been doing my best to expand my services so that I will be able to offer future clients more that just puppet building. I am personally very happy with the engine that I built.

The music for the show was equally as awesome. The music was composed by Ben Rogalsky and Luke McKay. The voice actors (for the trucks) and the puppeteers went into the sound studio and sing these songs for the final edit of the shows. I thought it was funny enough for me to make my voice sound like a ten year old money, but then to have me sing in the voice, that was no easy task. What a great challenge though. I loved it! Two of my personal favourite songs has to be the song I sing (Slick sings) called Moment and the song Dig-Push (that Dylemma sings). To hear all of the rough cut tracks (performed by the composers) click here.

One of the toughest critics of my work (much like most performers I know) is myself. During a few of the song segments while shooting we didn't have the music to lip sync to. Jay had one part where he had heard the song over a cell phone and had to try to lip sync to it using the cell phone. Not an easy task, but really it was his only option.

Otherwise it would be like hitting a target blindfolded after being spun in a circle ten times. Speaking of which, the most painful moment for me is to watch myself trying to lip sync to a song that I didn't have the words, tune or tempo for. The final edit did a great job at trying to cover up the fact. Although I know it is not a knock on my puppeteering (how could I have known what the song sounded like without ever hearing it) but puppets whose mouths are out of sync is a real pet peeve of mine; so it is still difficult to watch.

But what production doesn't have its own set of challenges? They all do and the thing that matters the most is the final product. I was very happy with my performance and I can't say enough about what a great puppeteer Jay Williams is. The crew that was involved was like none I had ever worked with before. All were extremely talented.

After speaking with producer Nic Sulsky he reports that the final interactive component is practically done and is absolutely amazing. I trust his opinion and I can't wait to see it. If it is as good as the live action stuff then I will probably flip, because as I said before I am so impressed with those final edits.

The next step is to announce the release of the final 5 DVD set and then have the show shopped around as a possible series. I can't wait until the disks finally come out. I'll post when they do.

Get Ready for Slick Silly! (part 1)

2005-05-02T19:44:00.000-04:00

I got permission from the show's producer to post information on one of the most recent projects that Chensational Productions has been a part of. Over the past year, I have worked on an amazing project that was produced by the Gemini Award winning media company Snap Media.

Snap Media has decided to venture into the television/video production arena. One of their inaugural projects is a five DVD interactive series about a couple of ape mechanics. The show was initially called Slick Silly and the Big Trucks. The show was filmed against a green screen for all of the internal shots and on location for the exteriors.

I was cast as Slick (a young excitable monkey; although I always though of him as a chimp) and his old orangutan uncle named Uncle Willy (played by Jay Williams). The puppets were made by a talented puppet builder out in Edmonton named Damien James. The puppets looked amazing especially on close up shots.

The Backgrounds were provided by talented Toronto based illustrator Jim Graves. I met Jim a few years ago and I was profoundly struck by his high level of integrity. It was clear that not only were his drawings absolutely amazing, but his level of professionalism was something that I truly respected. Jim also goes by the name The Cartoon Guy and even shares the name with his company. Check it out here.

Filming for the video component was finished filming in August and was fully edited by December. That part is completely done, and the interactive components are reportedly amazing. I have seen the edited video component and I am very excited. For the small budget we worked with the results are simply fantastic. It is a show that I am extremely proud to be a part of.

Hats off to Nick Sulsky (producer) Matt, Chris and the amazing crew!

I will keep posting as news becomes available.

Chensational Puppets on The Eleventh Hour (CTV)

2005-04-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

Talk about an old story. Truth be told I really wish I had been blogging during the whole thing, but I am forced to give a post report on this great experience. In November 2003 I was contacted and asked to show my puppets for a possible job for the Gemini Award winning Canadian drama called The Eleventh Hour on CTV. I remember meeting with Executive Associate Dave Hayman and showing him a few of my puppets.

Later I received a phone call asking to show the puppet to the director/producer. A few days later I made my way back to the offices and I waited in a room with my puppets. I was nervous. I mean here was the director/producer of this big budget (in Canadian terms) television show and I had to show him my puppets. I tried to relax and think about what I was going to say. I sat at the end of this giant boardroom table and I had moral support from my (now) wife Stacy.

After a while Dave Hayman came in with three people. He introduced each one and their job descriptions. I was a little more nervous. I didn't realize that I had to pitch myself in front of four people. Slowly more and more people came in. All with impressive titles, "Art Director/Head of Department", "First Assistant Director", "Costume Designer", "Set Decorator", etc. The parade of people was unbelievable. Finally, David Wellington the Creative Producer/Director came in. In all it would seem that there were about fifteen people sitting at this long table waiting for my pitch.

I did my thing, pointing out why I thought my company was the best for the project. When I was done David asked me a few questions, tried on a puppet, thanked me for my time and quietly led the procession of people out of the room. I sat there a little worried and stunned by the whole thing, but a few minutes later Dave Hayman returned and informed me that I was hired.

What a thrill! The episode was titled The Revenge Specialist and I was asked to build two weird looking bunny puppets. As a side note, the episode was nominated for a Gemini award for the acting talents of Waneta Storms in her role as Isobel Lambert, Producer.

To build the puppets I worked from illustrations designed by Nelvana Animation. The episode was about a popular children's television show (starring these two bunnies) under investigation for inappropriate actions by the creators of the show. I puppeteered for the episode along with fellow puppeteer Jay Williams.

It was an awesome experience. I hope to post more about it sometime in the future.

Making a theatre puppet

2005-04-25T18:06:00.000-04:00

I started thinking about the considerations I used when designing the Maurice puppet for Andrew MacDonald-Smith. I have often heard the argument of using hand stitches instead of a sewing machine when making puppets. There are two sides to this argument. I know that sewing by hand (which I tend to do) hides seams extremely well on a puppet, but there are benefits of sewing by machine. I find machine seams (although easier to see) are extremely superior in strength than a hand sewn stitch.

One of the considerations I had when making this puppet for Andrew was about the durability. As a result I chose to go with a machine sewn puppet.

I started with antron fleece which I dyed to a light blue colour.

I cut out the body pattern and glued the pieces together.

The head was assembled and I added a sleeve inside the puppet to make it more comfortable during hot performances on stage.

The eyes, nose and head are all ready.

The pattern for the fabric skin is created and traced on to the fabric.

The pieces are cut out and organized together. These happen to be the human arm pieces.

Pieces are sewn together with a sewing machine (making sure that each part is as strong as can be).

The final result is a puppet that is extremely durable. Reports are that Maurice has been used a tremendous amount and he is going strong. Everyone has their own thoughts on using a machine instead of sewing by hand. I have found that both are quite acceptable in different circumstances and when all is said and done, the results can be quite pleasing.

A Chensational puppet on stage!

2005-04-24T21:01:00.000-04:00

I just finished getting an update from Edmonton actor Andrew MacDonald-Smith about the puppet that he had ordered from me over a year ago. Initially Andrew said that he was inspired by Muppet type puppets that he had seen in the smash stage show called Avenue Q. After I explained to him that I would not be willing to build any of the characters from the show for him, he understood and hired me to build a style of puppet that had a similar cartoon look.

I was given a great amount of flexibility in terms of design, although Andrew did want the skin to be blue and the nose to be green. I sent him a very rough sketch and he approved it. I started to build the puppet and before long he had his very own stage puppet.

Andrew reports that his puppet has been named "Maurice" and that they have both done quite a bit of acting over the past year. Andrew has used Maurice in a variety of improve shows including something called the "After Intermission Special". Andrew describes the show as being "like and after school special, but for an 11pm crowd. It still has the spirit of an after school special but with a slight adult edge. He (Maurice) learns a lesson, but it's somehow twisted."

It is always personally satisfying to hear about any of my puppets getting used the way they were intended. It is even more gratifying to hear that the puppet is holding up very well. As a builder it is important to have a product that can stand up to the challenges of day-to-day use. It seems that our dear friend Maurice has done smashingly well.

If you are ever in Edmonton be sure to stop by Oh Susanna! to get a little taste of the unique entertainment you are sure to find. Who knows if you are lucky enough you might get a chance to see Andrew and Maurice doing their "After Intermission Special" on every month.

Materials vs. Imagination

2005-04-17T09:18:00.000-04:00

I talked about this before but the issue of puppets and the materials that are used to build them has many different areas of debate. I have already explained that the costs of a puppet has less to do with the material costs and more to do with the time and labour involved in building them.

As a teacher I always try to incorporate puppetry into my classroom in one way or another. A while back I was doing a puppet building unit with my grade 1 students. I believe in free creativity when building puppets so I taught my students about materials, reusing materials and about thinking of the different body parts they would need for their puppet character and then encouraged them to use their imaginations to help make their puppets.

The issue of materials struck a very interesting idea for me. You see my students were disappointed that they would not have access to all of the fabrics, polyfil, craft eyes, etc., that I used for my puppets. Instead they had a giant box of every imaginable material that your could think of. My students were unconvinced that even with all of the "stuff" in the box that they could make a cool puppet. I made them a deal. I said that I would work along side them to make a puppet and use the same materials that they had.

I was in charge of the hot glue gun (can't let those little fingers get hurt) and my helpers walked around and answered questions for the students. I would glue the requests from my students and in the down time I would cut and glue materials for my own puppet.

I pointed out to my students the huge quantity of dark grey foam in the box. Some students use the foam others focused on boxes for heads and bodies.

As I built my puppet I had students ask me questions like "What are you going to use the styrofoam tray for Mr Chen?". My answers were very straight forward "I will use them for the top and bottom parts of the mouth." and I was often met with a smile and the little student would run off (actually walk...and I do make sure they are careful with the scissors) and start making a mouth of their own.

When all was said and done the students had made some of the most amazing puppets. I wish I had taken pictures but during the actual building I just was so immersed that I forgot to. What I do have is the grey gargoyle puppet that I built out of foam, stryofoam meat tray, hot glue, scraps of fabric and two round plastic toys that I cut, oh and some whiteout and black permanent marker for the eyes.

At the end of everything my students understood that it really is not the materials that you use. I mean really puppets are just foam, fabric and plastic. It is much more essential that you never forget to use the most important element for puppet building. Your imagination.

Grumpy Tiger, Hiding Dragon

2005-04-16T21:30:00.000-04:00

It was a while back, but I remember an old high school friend of mine contacting me and giving me the heads up that a friend of hers was interested in having some puppets built. Sure enough I received the phone call and agreed to meet Carmen Gillespie at a downtown coffee shop. She told me about this little independent film she was doing.

The concept was very simple. A little annoying dragon harasses a grumpy tiger and at the end of the film...well...I hate to ruin the ending. I guess I will leave it at that.

At any rate Carmen proceeded to show me the storyboards and the character designs for the puppets. I loved the dragon design right away. Carmen was yet another great client in that she also allowed me some artistic freedom when it came to the final designs of the puppets.

I really loved the idea of the short and I agreed to give her a great deal on the puppets, but I wanted to be a part of the production. She agreed to let me puppeteer and I went to work right away.

The dragon was very cute. Carmen Gillespie puppeteer the dragon. I was very impressed with the puppeteering abilities of Carmen. It is not often that people are so easily able to pick up the ability to puppeteer, Carmen nailed it.

The orange tiger ended up having a moving eyebrow mechanism built in to the design and was accented with two human arm gloves. The gloves allowed myself and another puppeteer to operate the puppet with realistic arm movements.

The black tiger was a nice challenge, because I was forced to keep careful notes with my first tiger puppet design. It was essential so that I could build the second tiger to the same specifications as the first.

When all was said and done the shoot was about two full days and was a great experience. As of now Carmen has not yet attempted to submit the film to any festivals. It is within the plans, but not just yet. As soon as anything happens with Grumpy Tiger, Hiding Dragon I will post information here.

Challenging yourself

2005-04-16T20:53:00.000-04:00

It always amazes me how my interests in puppetry always seem to be changing. When I am building I always take in to account my desire to take on new challenges as well. When I was asked by ventriloquist and performer Tim Holland to build a new puppet for him I was intrigued.

You see he asked me to build a severed head puppet that also had the illusion of being held by a false hand. I had never done anything like this before and I jumped at the chance to try it. The result was a pretty cool puppet that had a built in blinking eye mechanism.

If you would like to see Tim and this unique puppet, then please check out his company called Foolesque. Tim is also available for festivals and corporate clients as well.

Wonderful little workshop

2005-04-10T10:19:00.000-04:00

I thought that it might be worth the time to share a few things about my workshop. It is far from ideal but it works (for now). In a few months I will be moving and my workshop set up will look a little different. For now it is a converted space in my basement.

The setup is pretty basic. I have a ton of shelves all along the walls loaded with plastic bins full of materials and puppets (some of which have been sold since this picture was taken). In my basement I have the option to open the window (which I do) when working with contact cement and other toxic fumes. I personally choose to use rubber disposable gloves as well as wearing a respirator. As one last added feature I installed a powerful hoodfan over my gluing area to help take most of the toxic fumes outside. I have a few puppets that are works in progress lying around as well.

Here is a little kitty puppet that I have been working on for a show idea that I will be developing through my company Chensational Puppets. He will be the pet of a crotchety old man who takes pleasure in tormenting door-to-door salesmen.

These two little snake puppets were to be a part of a great show pilot. At the last minute the executive producers decided to go with traditional animation rather than puppets, and the team that had been assembled was suddenly out on their ears (Ouch! The business can be tough).

Finally, this is an eel puppet I made for a New York area comedian. It was an updated version of an old sock puppet he had been using. Sometimes I take on jobs just because I like the challenge involved. This puppet allowed me to take an old character and give him a modern facelift. Pretty cool I think.

Like it or not this is my workshop. The basics are here and I have made many a puppet during my year or so of having it set up like this. I look forward to moving and I know that my new workshop will be just as nice...and a whole lot brighter!

A small town with lots of puppets

2005-04-09T07:28:00.000-04:00

If you are not from the Ottawa area chances are that you have never heard of the town of Almonte. It was the birthplace of basketball inventor James Naismith, but it's streets are not adorned with basketball sculptures or basketball themed paintings. No this little town is a haven for a variety of talented artists and has several small art galleries within its small borders. But walking through the town it slowly becomes apparent that this town is also full of puppets. They smile to you from almost every store window.

Now why would a small town like this have so many puppets? It is also the home of puppet builder Noreen Young. Noreen has used her love of puppets to help bring a wonderful vitality to the town and has helped to make it stand out from most towns that I have been to. It has become almost a right of passage for each store owner in the town to purchase a custom puppet built by Noreen to be displayed in their window.

Noreen contributes to the town in many ways including with her annual Noreen Young Bursary Dinner and Gala. This event helps raise money to offer financial support to young people from Mississippi Mills and Carlton Place who are pursuing post-secondary studies in arts.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of yet another wonderful puppet project put on by Noreen (which is no longer showing). This time she had organized and curated a beautiful puppet exhibit in the town of Almonte's newly built Chamber of Commerce. It was truly an honour for me to have my puppets along side some of my favourite builders'.

Here is one of my chimp puppets along side Iggy from Under the Umbrella Tree (one of Noreen Young's puppets) and a roach puppet built by Matt Ficner.

The exhibit also showcased puppet marionettes built by master puppet builder/puppeteer Ronnie Burkett.

Here is a great picture that demonstrates Noreen's uncanny ability to capture the likeness of people. This is a Ronald Reagan puppet cozying up with a creature built by Trish Leeper. Patricia (Trish) Leeper is a puppet builder/puppeteer whose puppets many Canadians have probably seen on television and not even realized it. She is an amazing builder (and puppeteer) and these little creature puppets are extremely affordable. They are great for the aspiring puppeteer to get the feel of a well constructed performance puppet and at a good price.

These bat puppets where probably my favourite puppets in the entire exhibit. These were built by puppet builder Vicki Veenstra. Used in the television series the Longhouse Tales.

Ultimately this little town is something very special. So, if you have a love of puppets or the arts in general, make it a point to stop by Almonte on your way through to Ottawa. Who knows, you just may come back with a deeper love of puppets.

Is puppet building art?

2005-04-08T19:59:00.000-04:00

I have often heard people say "Are you kidding me? For a puppet?" when they hear the answer to the classic question "How much would it cost for one of those puppets?" The reality is that a good quality puppets costs money.

I will often hear the retort "It's only fabric and foam." Yes this is true. But would you go to an art gallery look at a painting for $3000.00 and then remark "It's only paint."? Of course not. The art is not valued for the simple materials it is made from, but rather the artistic energy put in to creating it.

One of the best building companies around is a company called Puppet Heap in the United States...Hoboken, New jersey to be exact. Their puppets are nothing short of beautiful. I have started collecting puppets myself from other puppet builders that I respect and if money was no object then Puppet Heap would be on the other end of my phone taking a few orders from me. Are their puppets made from anything different than a cheap factory puppet. Maybe some higher quality materials, but more than that they are made by truly talented artists.

Puppet builder Rick Lyon has done a great job summing up the differences between a mass produced puppet and a custom designed puppet here.

What ultimately holds true for me is the simple fact that a puppet which I desire to own has all of the same elements to any piece of art that I have ever wanted. There is a connection with the piece. Some way or some how that piece speaks to me (I will stay away from some easy puns). To me puppet building is an art. A way for me to express myself on many levels. Through my puppet builder eyes I am now able to see a whole new world of puppets and can truly appreciate this ancient art form.

Where ya gonna' go? Follow me to Clown School!

2005-04-07T17:54:00.001-04:00

At least those are some of the lyrics to the television series pilot that has been developed by Ronald Czajkowski. Clown School follows the crazy adventures of a group of mismatched clowns.

When I was approached by Ron to build "Mr. Giggles" (the only puppet character in the show) I was given a lot of artistic freedom. It was a great build for me because I was able to work with very few restrictions. I was told that the puppet had to be a middle aged, orange, spider monkey, who was cute. The rest was up to me. I was happy with the final result.

Ron has demonstrated himself to be extremely committed to the concept and has done some impressive things to help make the show viable. He has gone out and hired Sam Henderson of Spongebob Squarepants fame to help write the scripts for all of the pilot shows.

What is happening with the show now? When last I heard, Ron had set up a pitch session with the president of Nickelodeon. I wish him the best in his production dreams and I look forward to hearing more good news on the show's status. I will post more when I hear something.

Alistair Ant back to his old tricks

2005-04-04T17:54:00.000-04:00

After a rest from the showbiz lights and fame, Alistair Ant is back to performing. Alistair Ant Productions is the live performance children's entertainment company that is owned and operated by Rob and Soli Joy. When Rob and Soli first asked me to build Alistair, they were very clear that they did not want a traditional "muppety" looking puppet. After a while I came back with a latex puppet that still had a unique cuteness to him. It was then that Alistair Ant was born.

After the initial success of their first Alistair show entitled "The Bigger the Better Said Alistair Ant", they then went on to create the latest Alistair adventure called "Double Trouble for Alistair Ant". For his latest adventure I was asked to build an identical Alistair Ant puppet and a new character named "Sluggo"(a yellow slug).

Rob and Soli are amazing talents and their shows are not to be missed. Even though the shows are clearly geared to young children, I have been completely enteretained during each show I have seen. That is not the case for most children's shows I have seen. I must say that after seeing their shows live I am left with only one major question. Why are these performers not on television? They are equally as talented and any Canadian children's performers currently on television, and I would say they are better that most of them. It will only be a matter of time before they are on television. I can't wait! I would love to see it happen. If you want to check out their shows, or hire them please visit them at their website here. It is well worth it!

The Spadasheo puppet builder

2005-04-03T20:44:00.000-04:00



All of my memories have been flooding back since I found that Spadasheo picture. The first thing I noticed about the puppets from Spadasheo was the shading and the variety of colours they had. They didn't look like other puppets I had seen before. I could see that the builder had used an airbrush and markers to add depth and shading to the puppets. It was an unusual effect.



It was something I had never see before, but it was all in a days work for the builder. You see it is just a part of the amazing style of puppet builder Matt Ficner. You may or may not have heard of him, but most would agree that his work is unforgettable.




He was the builder of the puppets for the Spadasheo pilot, and his style is quite distinct. He has used his artistic eye and combined that with an intelligent curiosity to use a variety of found items when he makes his puppets. Where some builders choose to make slight changes to pre-existing puppet patterns and call them custom puppets, Matt is truly a custom puppet builder. He starts from the ground up and uses whatever he can find to make it work. Latex, springs, plastic pieces, cut up Halloween masks, mouse pads, you name it and you just might find it on one of his puppets.

The amazing thing is that as strange as these object may seem to have on a puppet, they are seamlessly a part of the entire puppet aesthetic.

Matt has his own company called Matt Ficner Productions, Inc. Check it out.

Spadasheo Flashback...Where are they now?

2005-04-03T10:00:00.000-04:00

From the front left clockwise: Jay Williams (with the turtle), Andrew Young, Neena Bickram, Mike Artelle, Joey Rodriguez, Marty Stelnick, Samara Nicholds, Megan Spencer, Kanja Chen and Anastasia Danyliw

Wow! I was going through the files on my computer (because I am getting ready to reformat the whole thing) when I came across a whole bunch of pictures I haven't looked at in years. To be honest I forgot I even had this picture. I am not sure how I got it but...ta-da!

This is a picture of the first puppet production I ever worked on. It was a pilot for children's television show. I don't know what happened to it, but I assume that it was never picked up.

Look at all of these puppeteers. I started to wonder what happened to all of them and I decided to post what I know.

Jay Williams: Jay has had a lot of success since Spadasheo. He was a part of a great online video site called the Ruty Tooty Show (which is no longer online). The show was picked up by the Comedy Network and they produced a few episodes for them. He has done several puppeteering jobs since appearing often on television. Currently Jay has just finished being a principle puppeteer for a new 5 disk DVD series from Snap Media (more info on this later).

Andrew Young: Andrew has become a large contributor to the Muppet Central puppetry community. He is currently working on personal puppetry projects including a Star Wars fan film. He has his own blog called the Puppet Vision Blog.

Neena Bickram: Neena has been quiet with her puppetry work. The last information I have is from her website that is dated 2002. I had a chance to see some of her puppets and they were quite good. After the Spadasheo shoot I believe that she work for a short time with Andrew building for different projects.

Mike Artelle: Mike has continued to pursue his love of puppetry as well. Mike is still an active member of the Ottawa Puppetry Club and has his own puppet company called Artellephant Productions. Recently Mike has been screening his documentary about John Conway and his puppet Uncle Chichimus. Mike has also been keeping busy with the Ontario Puppetry Association as the OPAL (newsletter) Editor. You can read more about the OPC here.

Joey Rodriguez: Joey had big dreams of working with the Jim Henson Company and becoming a muppeteer. Well wouldn't you know it. Joey auditioned for Bear in the Big Blue House Live and he was cast as a puppeteer for the character of Tutter the mouse. I am not sure what he has been up to in the last year or so, but here is an article talking about his experiences puppeteering for the touring show.

Marty Stelnick: Of the entire cast Marty was one of the most experienced. He had long been doing puppetry for television including giving life to Lickety Split for YTV Treehouse's Ants In your Pants. Marty was an amazing talent and continued to work on a variety of television programs including Backyard Bug Adventures and Nanalan on CBC.

Samara Nicholds: Sam has continued to be involved in performance. She has done a variety of jobs including working for her own theatre company called Eldritch Theatre that presents "original Canadian plays with strong narratives, involving elements of the uncanny or supernatural." Sam has also worked at Studio 180 and most recently at The Heart House Theatre on the musical Godspell. Sam is currently studying to be a teacher at OISE and hopes to be teaching next year. Hey, maybe we'll run in to each other!

Megan Spencer: It was bound to happen. There had to be at least one person who I was not able to find out about. Megan is that one. What can I say? Megan was a real trooper. She never complained once in those cramped spaces (she was puppeteering in a little nook right behind me). I hope she is doing well with what ever life has offered her.

Kanja Chen: Well that's just silly! I already know where I am and what I am doing. Hopefully this blog with keep others up to date as well.

Anastasia Danyliw: Anastasia continued to work on building a variety of puppets. How do I know? Well at the time she was married to Andrew and together they put their creative energies in to all of their projects. Anastasia is an excelent builder. I have a lot of respect for her when it comes to the puppets she makes. I am not sure if she is still building with Andrew, but I am sure that her talents are being put to good use somewhere.

Having a successful business

2005-04-03T08:52:00.000-04:00

I have always been interested in why some puppet businesses have been so successful and why other fail. I came across an article online that outlined the 7 Principles of Admirable Business Ethics.

One example of a successful small puppetry business is Noreen Young Productions here in Canada. For those of you who do not already know Noreen is a well respected and celebrated puppet builder/puppeteer/producer. She was awarded the Order of Canada which is one of the highest Canadian honours that can be awarded.

When I look at my own business I ask myself how do I rate when looking at those 7 principles? The truth may not be as stellar as I had hoped.

I started my company in 2000. It was and (still is) just a part time business. Over the past 5 years I have worked to create a solid reputation in the local industry and I feel I have done quite well. However after reading the article I can see where my business falls short in different areas.

It is clear to me that my community involvement has been practically non-existent. One way I hope to help remedy that is creating this blog. I will try to offer my own perspective on puppetry, my company, the challenges and success that most of us face.

I am very happy with my work to establish a trust worthy, open minded company that consistently meets its obligations. Have I made some great leaps? Of course. Do I need to work on some more of the practical and financial aspects? Without a doubt.

In the meantime I am left looking at where I have been successful and I must say I have done a few things right. For me the first 3 principles are ones that can never be compromised. When a company has these things the others will not take long to acquire.

Oh...I also wanted to note that the illustration above is the work of Al Rodriguez. He is an amazing artist. Check out his website here.

It's alive!

2005-04-02T21:21:00.000-05:00

The official Chensational Blog is now open! Now this may seem like no giant accomplishment, however I am definitely not computer smart. Don't get me wrong, I have some good basics when it comes to computers, but getting this to look half decent is quite a small miracle to me.

Up and running?

2005-03-29T18:17:00.000-05:00

Well this is really not meant to be a real blog. I am actually just testing it all out to see how it looks. I will let you know very soon.