I was just thinking about why I got into this and was wondering if anyone else was as spontaneous as I.

I started about 5 days before last thanks giving. I had come across the infamous disassembled Kermit the frog photo floating around the net and said to myself I would really like to put that back together. It's odd I know but since I was a child I have had a fascination with puzzles and taking things apart and re assembling them. So right then at 9 AM I went to the store bought ping pong balls, apple green, lime green, black, red, and pink felt and teddy bear stuffing. Got it home and with in 6 hours I had a full sized Kermit the frog. Soon after I thought to myself "That was fun. I bet I can do that with my own characters." And since I have done 2 of my own. I want to do more but I am waiting to buy a sewing machine.

When I made Kermit I didn't sew him at all but instead used a hot glue gun.  So just a warning when I decide to post him just know I have no experience in sewing or fabrics what so ever and that he was put together with hot glue and made of cheap felt.   



So now that I have told you my story, what is yours?

Well for the most part my story is in my Profile.   I did start at a very young age around 5-6.  I really started getting into puppets hardcore in junior high.  That is when I started doing what you did.  I would get puppets and take them apart then figure out how to put them back together in my own way.  I was lucky enough to have a mom with a sewing machine and she taught me how to use it.  In fact not sure they had glue guns then. 

Wow 5 or 6 years of age? I'm new to this and I'm 25 lol.

If you click on my name you can see my Profile.  It has the full story.

My story is in my profile to.

Those were great stories. Wish my life was as interesting.

I was a great art student from an early age. In middle school I was in academic art and won awards up through high school for sculpting and illustrating. In 2003 I went to Kendal College of Art and design were I failed and lost my funding for my education. Since then I have been struggling with depression and not knowing what to do with my life.
I feel that puppets could get me back into the arts and entertainment world.

While I don't want to discourage folks from going to college,  I never stepped foot in one.  That being said, I did study under a wonderful master puppeteer at the time I would have been going to college.

I know that depression can be hard to conquer at times but if you can really put yourself into something and work at it I think it can help.  I know that when I am idle a with out a focus I tend to get down in the dumps.   Keep on plugging along!

I started making puppets at the beginning of this year.  I did it with my fiance's encouragement (we're getting married in 3 weeks!) and because I had a renewed joy in the art of puppetry thanks to a lady I met doing improv. 

When I was a kid my parents encouraged my love of puppets and bought me a puppet theater and lots of puppets which I would play regularly with.  I put on puppet shows with my cousins for my family.  As an adult (around age 23 or so), I got into making short films and comedy sketches with a group of my friends.  This was always something I wanted to do and had dabbled in some before.  I had an idea for sketch comedy with puppets and so I got my dad to pull all my old puppets out of the attic.  I never ended up filming those sketches, but it was nice to get my puppets out.

Then I got into live performance doing improv and sketch comedy on stage (around age 27).  After a while of doing this I met a woman who was doing improv in town with puppets.  I showed her my childhood puppets (which she used some of for a run of kids improv puppet shows).  Around this time, I was playing with a teddy bear at my fiance's house trying to cheer her up, making it do various silly things and she was impressed with my manipulation and encouraged me to do more with puppetry and building puppets.  The lady running the Puppet Improv Project was teaching some workshops on puppet buliding and puppeteering so we signed up for those and my fiance coordinated buying a lot of puppet making tools and materials for Christmas last year.  We started making puppets after the new year and now we've built about 18 puppets (with a lot more started and another 10 or so close to being done).  She and I also have a comedy variety act which we perform occasionally at some of the alternative comedy venues in town performing with our puppets.  It was a way to bridge our passions and find something we could do together.

Similar to Shawn, I'd say I started at age 5, after seeing my first marionette show (I had also been watching the Muppets since birth, but I didn't acknowledge they were puppets until an older age :P). MY first puppet was a egg carton snake me and my dad made after seeing said show. I used to tell everyone "when I grow up I'm going to be a puppet man".

And it's stuck with me my whole life. I got picked on a lot as a kid, so I didn't perform much until I was older. It wasn't a realistic career goal in rural Alberta (Canada) I guess haha.

I read EVERY book I could find over and over, often stayed up all night building puppets....then the internet came around circa 1997 (for me at least) and puppet websites starting popping up with all sorts of awesome info, and I continued to learn and experiment.

I also practiced my heart out (performing puppets is my true passion) and know one really new about my skills until after high-school when I felt brave enough to do my own show. All my friends were like "where did this come from and why does he know so much about it?"

 I do a lot of other things in theatre, but between that stuff and my puppet gigs I haven't had a "real job" in near 6 years. I love how excited other artists are when you tell them you build/perform puppets, everyone kind of freaks out. It's opened up so many doors for me and hopefully my career as a freelance puppeteer and puppet builder will continue to grow and bring me as much happiness/satisfaction as it has already!

Neat. The first puppet I remember making as a child was a sock puppet. It was for 3rd grade art class. I had used felt to make ears and a tongue and two small buttons for eyes and one wide button for a nose to make a dog. Then the teacher showed me this (at the time) strange concept of gluing cardboard in the mouth of the puppet. This is where I first learned about mouth plates.