You are getting me excited for you.love them bears.

wow these are awesome puppets. the bears are cool! and the snake is awesome! I am excited to see more of your work as it progresses. nice!

When you're finished, will you do a video *please, please,please- I'd love to see them in action!*?

Wow - that snake is great! I don't know how you managed to have the patience for all that detail, I would have given up after a few minutes

As for the bears.... sigh... I think I'll hide under a rock for a while. Wish I could come up with things that good.

Wow you have some great stuff! How are those made? They almost look like taxidermy. Are you sure you not a professional puppet builder in masquerading as a newbie.

I am/was a professional monster/creature/FX make-up etc. maker. I'm working my way into semi-retirement (I hope) and this project is forming into a family project with my wife and daughter(s) and whoever else we can entice into the game. I do have experience with puppets, but not much in the simple puppet area. Almost all of my puppet work has been with intricate, sculpted, animatronic puppets and creatures.  I think that's why doing simple fabric-skinned human puppets for the project will be my undoing. I really am a bit of a novice there. Creatures with fur are pretty easy compared to doing realistic creatures with skin, scales, etc. The bears are all done build-up with cut foam and faux fur, very similar to many of the puppets I see being built here. The substructure is a little more involved, but the bears were done very cheaply and relatively simply. My hope for the project is that we can come up with a fun gallery of simple puppet characters and just have fun with them.

I had a feeling that FX was in  your background.   I agree that simple can be very hard to accomplish at times.  I think you'll be able to get it though.

It is kind of funny. Many folks here are looking for the advanced methods you use in your profession. I try to guide them to the simpler puppets first so they can learn the basics.  You have the advantage of knowing the basics and now it is just a matter of simplifying your designs.

I am/was a professional monster/creature/FX make-up etc. maker. I'm working my way into semi-retirement (I hope) and this project is forming into a family project with my wife and daughter(s) and whoever else we can entice into the game. I do have experience with puppets, but not much in the simple puppet area. Almost all of my puppet work has been with intricate, sculpted, animatronic puppets and creatures.  I think that's why doing simple fabric-skinned human puppets for the project will be my undoing. I really am a bit of a novice there. Creatures with fur are pretty easy compared to doing realistic creatures with skin, scales, etc. The bears are all done build-up with cut foam and faux fur, very similar to many of the puppets I see being built here. The substructure is a little more involved, but the bears were done very cheaply and relatively simply. My hope for the project is that we can come up with a fun gallery of simple puppet characters and just have fun with them.

How interesting! I would love to see your process of building one of these "simple creatures" I hope we can learn from each other.

I hope we can learn from each other.

THAT is exactly why I'm here and paying close attention! I've learned a tremendous amount just by spending time going through the gallery. Some fantastic stuff there.

I love the idea that it's really the simple stuff that's hard
Next time I come up with a simple concept I'll rethink and aim higher