Hey there, everyone!  So, I'm designing a pirate show here in NYC and just had a meeting with the director.  He wants a parrot puppet to do the pre-show, and since I'm doing scenery and props, this falls under my domain.  With a low-ish budget, and a lot of other, more important elements to spend my money on, I'm looking for somewhat inexpensive solutions.  Because of my other duties, I simply don't have the time or energy to create something from scratch, but I don't like what I've found online.  I haven't put too much thought into it as of now,  but I certainly don't want it to look like a toy store find.  Make sense?  On the other side of that, I found a few great parrots with lots of personality, but they're waaaay out of my price range.

Any input or guidance is much appreciated!  Have a parrot laying around you want to get rid of?  Try me!

Thanks, guys!

Do you have links to the parrots you have found that you do like?  Maybe that would give us some place to start with ideas on how you can attain the same cost effectively. My first thought actually was starting with perhaps the Glorified Sock Puppet pattern but since you mentioned you didn't want it to look like a stuffed toy that may not work.

I sent you a PM.  We'd be happy to give you a quote.

Julie

Julie...I'm email you!

As for this thing not looking like a stuffed animal, I was mostly referring to the Folkmanis animal puppets.  While they're of a nice quality, they just look like a good quality stuffed animal.  They don't have much personality or expression.  Plus, I would hate for a kid to see it and realize the same parrot is in his toy box at home.  Talk about killing the magic!