When asked to write a letter to Santa, o

When asked to write a letter to Santa, our son produced this list:

Happy Presents!
Platypus, Thanksgiving, Lighthouses
a Blue Car & Purple Truck
a spoon table
a picket
crantookey
light switch
a cannon with a monster
a dinosaur
a head
a bouncy head
picture of claudia
dog
pink piggy
$5
TV
a cup
nose
crayons
mask
cake
garbage bags

While that’s a well composed list and not just a Mad Libs party tray, I was intriguied by this ‘Crantookey’ . As a result, a fit of inspiration on Christmas Eve brought me to…

Somewhere between Avian and Q-tip, I guess.

While we were corrected that indeed, a Crantookey is a crayon that you can color on. Still, he proudly presents the wild beast to anyone that visits. That Santa….

Puppets Rising

Puppets Rising

Pescalito Reigns Supreme

“I really liked the fish puppet the best.”
The fish puppet, a crowd favorite, featured a huge blue head with exposed white bones, purple eyelids and huge red eyes.

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100412/METRO/4120322/Paper-puppets-dazzle-Ann-Arbor#ixzz0ktlyjoEz

The fish wins Miss Congeniality!

Pescalito Rising

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Originally uploaded by wguru

We had a great time.

An eye is upon you.

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Originally uploaded by xenomorphpuppetfoundry

Three Days to go.

Body layout

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Originally uploaded by xenomorphpuppetfoundry

With the spine finished we’re getting all three components (Head, body and tail) ready for assembly. We have conceived the puppet to break into three parts for storage and transport.

Scalebeard

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Originally uploaded by xenomorphpuppetfoundry

The head is getting more deco as the body is assembled. Entering the final week means we have a flurry of puppet activity as everything comes together.

Head deco

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Originally uploaded by xenomorphpuppetfoundry

Getting the head painted this early puts us in good position for the parade. Two weeks to go!

ShakesFish construction!

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Originally uploaded by xenomorphpuppetfoundry

Our boy tries out the Zombi Shakesfish-head prior to papier-mache.

Zombi ShakesFish, sparks a-flying!

This year was my attractive graphic designer wife’s turn to start our puppet project with an initial design pitch. A fish of dubious taxonomical origin began to emerge.

Given the head will be the focus of the puppet and be much more three dimensional than last year’s dorso-ventrally flattened alien, I resolved to find a new way to create a sturdy frame that wouldn’t require a miniature mountain of styrofoam. Since we had a surplus of used tomato cages lying around, we gave that a try:

I highly recommend using the proper personal protection equipment when working with power tools.