Howdy everyone. My name is Stephen from Memphis, TN.

Little about myself:
I am an avid hobbiest. From beer brewing (won a few awards), to offroading in my heavily modified 4 door jeep (think rock crawling, not mudding), to puppetry, and everything in between.

I am an award winning puppeteer, and have been in numerous local shows involving puppets. Most notably, I have been the puppet (not voice), of Audrey 2 in Little Shop of Horrors 7 times with 4 different voices. I even had the pleasure of being invited to an audition for a tour, but due to some personal reasons that came up, could not accept the part.

My love of puppetry started as a child. I still have every puppet I've ever had, and my collection consists of marionettes, the entire sesame street collection (I've had these since I was 3, so...24 years or so), and a few rod arm puppets.

While I've had to do repair on numerous puppets (mainly Audrey 2s that were mishandled by the previous puppeteer, or damaged in shipping), I've never built a puppet before.

I'm about to embark on the building phase of puppetry, beginning tonight actually. I'm not working with any patterns, or any pre-built components. It will be 100% my imagination at work. Now, is this a good or a bad thing? I'm not sure. But I bought the foam to build the head and body, and when thats done, I'm going to buy the fabric. I know I'm working backwards from what a lot of people are used to, but because I'm not working from patterns, or videos, and I suck at drawing, I don't know what the end result is going to be. This is basically jumping head first into the deep end, and then learning to swim. I know the basics, but thats it. Whatever happens happens. The fabric, and color, and clothing will all be done based on what i come up with for the head and body.

Over the next year, I'll be creating a set of Audrey 2s that I will rent out, or use when I'm hired as puppeteer for that show again.

Anyway, once I get started tonight, I'll be sure to take pictures of the progress and start a build thread.

Go for it !!!

I've made several puppets without patterns. It's interesting to see how they turn out.

> It will be 100% my imagination at work. Now, is this a good or a bad thing?

It's a GREAT thing!  I'll be at the Mad Monster Horror Convention in North Carolina (March 23rd-25th) with an Evil Puppets booth - showcasing Ghoulies, Critters, puppets from Full Moon Studios and I will tell you now, for 2013's show, I'd love to rent your Audrey 2 for display.  Good luck and have fun! - Anthony

Hey welcome to Puppets and Stuff! 

I think you are starting out fine.  It is kind of how I've always built puppets. Even when I've had sketches to go from I've never really used patterns unless they where bits and pieces of ones I've made off of past puppets of my own.  I always enjoy the organic approach to puppet making where you just start and see where it leads me.

Welcome to Puppets and Stuff.

Greetings from the old world... Sounds like you're just one of those people who can't fail- you'll do great!

Welcome! How exciting - we rarely get people here who are beginners and don't use some sort of pattern or tutorial to start with. It sounds like fun

Thanks for the welcomes everybody. After 5 hours of work last night, I'm happy with the direction I'm going.

Link to the build thread:
http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?topic=7186

If I'd known how much fun I was going to be having, I would have started doing this stuff a long time ago!

Anyway, check out my build and let me know what you guys think.

Welcome to Puppets & Stuff! While I enjoy making puppets from scratch I also like using patterns. I learned a lot of valuable techniques both ways. I love what you're doing so far and I can't wait to see what develops! Keep up the great work and have fun!

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