Hellyer's Puppet Workshop

Dwayne the REINDEER Puppet!

2011-12-10T17:39:00.000Z

Dwayne is a brand new professional half-body puppet hand made in England by Hellyer's Puppet Workshop. He measures approximately 21inches (53.5cm) tall from the top of his antlers to his waist. He also has an excellent arm span of approximately 40inches (102cm) allowing real scope for expressive arm gestures. Dwayne is a 'live hand' (or Human Arm) puppet - so you can put your hands inside his to enable him to pick up objects and use props during your show without the need for elaborate sets ups. He's a great fun character who will really engage audiences of any age... his character is of a juvenile, oddball reindeer!

Like all the puppets made in Hellyer's Puppet Workshop Dwayne has been made out of great quality materials. Dwayne's body is made out of durable and lightweight mini-cell foam and his head is made out of durable and flexible reticulated foam. His body is covered completely in two colours of 1" pile natural coloured deluxe faux fur fabric. He is lined in dark brown polar fleece for added comfort and his neck is separated from his shoulders to allow greater flexibility of movement.

Check out more photos of him on eBay!

European Puppet Ministry Festival 2011

2011-11-04T17:06:00.000Z

I can't quite believe I went to my first puppet festival 15 years ago - and have been to one every year of my life ever since!

This year One Way UK's EPMF was held in Derby and Reading and I was fortunate enough to be invited to teach at both festivals. I was running workshops on a variety of subjects including puppetry for YouTube and a range of basic and advanced puppetry techniques.

I love visiting or working at puppet festivals as there is always so much creativity around the place which always help to accelerate my own creative process for my own projects. These festival was no different, but they were tiring too! It's tough teaching classes all day, I think across the two events 500 puppeteers attended, which is cool. After the second festival a bunch of us went out for a post-festival feast and hilarity ensued!

Sesame Street Live: Review

2011-08-13T10:50:00.000+01:00

So yesterday I took my boy to see Sesame Street Live: "Elmo Makes Music"and I thought I'd write a quick blog about it.

Firstly I should mention my son is 21mnths old... so he doesn't have the longest attention span in the word, but he loves Elmo and Sesame Street. My wife and I thought we'd take a bit of a gamble and see if he would sit the a show. My son watches clips of Sesame Street on YouTube all the time (he has his own 'favourites' playlist of them!) so whilst Sesame Street isn't on normal TV in the UK he knows the characters (We occasionally get to see the Northern Irish 'Sesame Tree" which is good... but it's not the same).

As soon as we walked into The Capitol Theatre in Horsham I knew we were in for a good show, the stage set (even with curtains closed) was impressive and clean. The show was only on for one day at The Capitol... but it looked like a full house, there were certainly no spare seats anywhere near us. Just seeing the Sesame Street Live logo above the stage at the start made my son feel the need to randomly shout "Elmo"and point, which was encouraging, at least he knew why we were there!

Once the characters came out on stage I was completely relieved... the characters were brilliantly made and very clean - in fact I am tempted to say that these suits were brand new they were so clean. Back in 2008 I was invited to help out with a short stint on Rainbow Live (initially as Zippy, then George). Whilst it was great fun to work on, and obviously I am thankful for the experience I have to say that the characters and costumes were all showing their age... at points embarrassingly so. Anyway the Sesame Street costumes were fantastic!

There were a couple of little slip ups, but otherwise the show went very well, certainly my son thought it was fantastic. During a group dance in the opening half Zoe got a little over-excited and slipped over right at the front of the stage, but recovered well. Big Bird also lost a piece of foam halfway through the first half. The foam fell out of the costume and Bird Bird walked off, not to return until the second half. Having not seen the show before I don't know if this is related or merely coincidence.

I'm not sure how many costume changes happened during the show, but Cookie Monster played a bigger role in the first half than the second... and having selected his cookie-jar shaker to be included in the band... it was a shame he didn't appear to play it! The only other slightly negative comment would be that Zoe and Abby Cadabby's voices were a little hard to understand because of the speed, pitch and accent.

However this is all nit-picking. The show was great and it held my son's attention all the way through. The crowd were getting involved with all the songs, clapping and singing along. I would love to see the show again, and will certainly keep my eye out for more Sesame Street Live's in the future!

Take Care - Dave

Turtle Puppet

2011-05-25T21:03:00.000+01:00

Recently I made a Turtle puppet for Surrey County Council. It was for an annual Childminders' Network meeting they host. They didn't request a turtle specifically - they told me to make whatever I wanted to. It was great to get the opportunity to make something totally new and without any limits on what I could do.
Why did you choose a turtle if you were allowed to make anything Dave?
My son is 18months old and last week he started saying 'tuh-tull' whilst sitting on his "finding Nemo"baby-changing mat. Simple really.
So here are a couple of photos of the Turtle under construction and a video of the completed character. I hope you like him.

This is is the turtle with the basic head built and the shell still under construction

Here I'm finishing off the lining of the shell - you can see the fins already stitched in place

Wonnacott Wolf's Antique Valuation Challenge - Episode 1

2011-03-08T19:27:00.000Z

It's a bit of fun - I hope you like it :)

Pierre's new show

2011-01-16T09:37:00.000Z

It's 2011 and Pierre the great is back on the Tube of You... enjoy :)

take care - Dave

'Terry' the Urban Fox - full body puppet

2011-01-03T16:17:00.001Z

If you'd love a fun fox puppet, then you're going to want to meet:

Terry the Urban Fox

Terry is a brand new professional full-body puppet hand made in England by Hellyer's Puppet Workshop. He measures approximately 34inches (86.5cm) tall from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. He also has an excellent arm span of approximately 40inches (102cm) allowing real scope for expressive arm gestures (two arm rods with elastic bands are included!). He has a bushy tail which follows him everywhere he goes... it has a wire inside it to help give it shape and also to allow you to pose it just the way you want it. He's a great fun character who will really engage audiences of any age... he's a friendly urban fox!

Terry is an unusual character and as such he has an unusual mouth action. He is designed so that his upper jaw does all the moving when he talks rather than the much smaller lower jaw. This is the opposite to many other hand puppets you will see but it enables him to 'sniff out' what's going on in town with a much more believable action.

Like all the puppets made in Hellyer's Puppet Workshop Terry has been made out of great quality materials. Terry's body is made out of durable and lightweight mini-cell foam and his head is made out of durable and flexible reticulated foam. His body is covered completely in 1" pile chestnut brown faux fur fabric with his head and tail being covered in 1" pile chestnut brown deluxe faux fur. Details on his ears and hands are in 1" white fun fur, Terry also has a keychain on the waistband of his trousers and a dog-tag round his neck. He is lined in polar fleece for added comfort.

Note: This professional quality puppet has been hand made by Hellyer's Puppet Workshop for adults, it is not a toy. Hellyer's Puppets are used in many countries in shows and films to enthral and entertain. If you'd like to find out more about our puppets and how they're made search online for: "Hellyers Puppet Workshop"

We hope you love this character as much as we do - Happy Bidding :)

Happy New Year from Hellyer's Puppet Workshop

2010-12-31T09:57:00.000Z

So we've successfully reached the end of 2010... a year packed full of great memories!

This year in the summer I was fortunate enough to visit the United States again to teach puppetry at I-Fest (you can buy DVDs of the workshops I taught from OneWayStreet.com). Despite the festival being fantastic as usual (and being looked after so well by the One Way Street team - Thanks to Todd and Susan!) the highlight of the trip this year had to be the visit to see the Blue Man Group in Chicago! Dave and June Privett from Playsoup took us along and we had a fantastic time!

Also in the summer I was able to visit my friend Phil Fletcher again who is a fantastic puppeteer and puppet builder. We've known each other since the good old days when MySpace ruled the earth and Facebook hadn't even been invented :) Phil is now working at the BBC in London and he (and Warrick - also a puppeteer at the BBC) were kind enough to show us round TV Centre and their studio.

Later on in the year I also taught at the One Way UK annual puppet festival in Reading, I have been teaching at that particular festival for the last 13 or so years so it was great to be asked back again (must be doing something right).

And all this activity has been squeezed in between puppet builds and some fairly major planning sessions for the future of Hellyer's Puppet Workshop (the fruits of which will be seen in 2011). I'll leave you with two videos... the first is Pierre's big end of year 2010 quiz:

The second is a wrap up from me and a possible New Year resolution.

All the best for 2011!
Take care - Dave

Sid the Cyclops

2010-12-03T20:25:00.000Z

If you love fun monster puppets, then you're going to want to meet:

Sid The Cyclops!

Sid is a brand new professional half-body puppet hand made in England by Hellyer's Puppet Workshop. He measures approximately 21inches (53.5cm) tall from the top of his yellow mohican to his waist. He also has an excellent arm span of approximately 40inches (102cm) allowing real scope for expressive arm gestures (two arm rods with elastic bands are included!). He has a cute little pot belly and just the one eye (but hey... he just wouldn't look the same with two!). He's a great fun character who will really engage audiences of any age... he's a friendly monster!

Like all the puppets made in Hellyer's Puppet Workshop Sid has been made out of great quality materials. Sid's body is made out of durable and lightweight mini-cell foam and his head is made out of durable and flexible reticulated foam. His body is covered completely in 1" pile electric blue deluxe faux fur fabric with details in 3" pile yellow fun fur. He is lined in polar fleece for added comfort and his nose and eye-lid are covered in hand-dyed antron fleece. The fleece covered hump in Sid's mouth will help you grip it while manipulating him, and his neck is separated from his shoulders to allow greater flexibility of movement.

We hope you love this character as much as we do

Happy Bidding :)

Take care - Dave

Hellyer's Tag Cloud

2010-10-11T10:58:00.000+01:00

My friend showed me this recently and i thought it was pretty neat... wordle.net can generate a pretty tag cloud of your blog. Here's mine:

It's heavily influenced by that fact I was recently at I-Fest and was writing reports of what happened the night before (as you can see)... but it's a bit of fun :)

Take care - Dave

2010-09-10T10:57:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update today:

Listen!

take care - Dave

How to make money with puppets... a new book

2010-08-25T22:05:00.001+01:00

As a rule I'm not a fan of posting adverts on my blog... but Paul Louis sent me a link to his new book recently and I thought it would be helpful to a lot of the people that read my blog (judging from the questions I get emailed). I'm guessing most of you will have seen his videos from eHow on YouTube so you'll probably know who he is, but for those of you who don't know him check out his bio below:
Paul Louis has been a professional puppeteer, filmmaker, award winning actor, writer & composer since 1981. He is a now popular Internet Video Puppetry Guru, featured on eHow.com, TVlesson.com, 5Min.com and all over YOUTUBE. As a power seller on eBay, Paul has built more than 4,000 custom puppets for theaters, ministries and film/video production. He is a "direct call" listed puppeteer with The Jim Henson Company, and the creator of the former nationally syndicated children's puppet TV series, "Jelly Bean Jungle" (Which President Clinton called, "High quality children's programming"). Louis has performed as a puppeteer for more than 30 TV & Film productions, including the hit cult film, "Team America: World Police." He now teaches puppet building and performance workshops all over the world, and collaborates & advises producers on their own puppet related projects for TV, film and theatre.
If you'd like to check out the book for yourself then please follow the link below:
Click here to view more details

take care - Dave

2010-08-17T10:52:00.000+01:00

I'm back from I-Fest and have had a little break - but now it's full speed ahead in the workshop again!

One thing I did realise when I came home from the States was I never showed a video of Wolfgang - I just posted his photo on here. Now don't get me wrong the video isn't going to be an Oscar winner or anything like that... but i like it. It doesn't even feature any good puppetry... but it's fun: enjoy!

I-Fest 2010 - Friday

2010-07-10T14:43:00.001+01:00

So yesterday was my favourite day of I-Fest so far! last night we had two fantastic feature performances, one by Maegan Bruce and another by Ferrel Marr. Both of these performances were very different from the rest of the feature performances of the week - not least in terms of the number of performers, but also in terms of style of delivery. Every time I come to I-Fest there is one night when I watch a performance and say to myself "that is what I came to I-Fest for"... last night was that night for me.

Maegan Bruce is a ventriloquist, puppeteer and artist. Her ventriloquism and puppetry were technically excellent, but that wasn't really what caught my eye... she finished her performance with a brilliant piece of painting. It was fantastic. What stuck out to me was not the technical or artistic ability with which she painted but the fact that you could see that she was doing it with a raw, honest passion. I love the fact that sometimes the simplest things can make the biggest impact.

Ferrel Marr's performance similarly blew me away. You know when you have a family get together there is always that relative who has the rest of the family eating out of their hand when they tell a story, seemingly without making any effort? Well last night Ferrel did that to I-Fest! A beautiful mix of marionettes, puppets, blacklight painting and song made up his beautiful patchwork performance.

Both performers last night did not have any real glitz or glamour about what they did, they didn't have a massive show stopping routine with hundreds of performers involved... but they were true to themselves and they did what they wanted to do, excellently! If there was an object lesson hiding in the feature presentations last night it would have been: don't ever try and be who you're not, be yourself - you have a unique gift.

Each one of us has a unique gift and we should all be different when we perform, after all variety is the spice of life :) Don't ever feel under pressure to emulate someone else because their style is more popular than yours. Both Maegan and Ferrel performed brilliantly engaging pieces last night with techniques others people wouldn't think twice about using... it was great to see!

This is my last blog about I-Fest "on location"... I hope you've enjoyed them.
Take care - Dave

I-Fest 2010 - Thursday

2010-07-09T13:48:00.001+01:00

OK so Wednesday was hard for me as the jet lag caught up with me... but Thursday was great fun!

The day started with a LAB workshop working through a song routine, it was all pretty simple stuff but the group responded really well and they are going to perform what they came up with on main stage Friday morning. After lunch I got to teach my favourite workshop "Getting to grips with arm rods". It was very well attended and I felt it went well... I am pleased to report I keep on getting stopped in the corridors here being told how much people found it helpful which is always very encouraging!

Thursday afternoon was special for a whole other reason though... we took a trip to Walmart! It's sad I know but Walmart is super cheap in comparison to the UK. I bought my son a few cute little outfits and even got a couple of surprise gifts for my wife which she might like (I hope she does). The highlight for me was I picked up the new Sony Bloggie HD camera for cheap. The exchange rate worked in my favour and I got a good deal.

When I got back to I-Fest Dave Privett had launched his new Puppet Building DVD... another purchase was made! His series is fantastic - if you haven't bought them yet I would advise you to, go to www.playsoup.com for details.

Thursday evening was the blacklight competition which is always a highlight of the week too - so all in all it was a great day!

Take care - Dave

I-Fest 2010 - Wednesday

2010-07-09T00:35:00.001+01:00

So Wednesday was a hard day for me. As you can tell I'm doing this update a lot later in the day than I would normally... it's because jet lag kicked in! Yesterday afternoon I felt like all of a sudden my body switched back to UK time and just couldn't make it through the rest of the day - not good!

So Wednesday was internationally day at I-Fest, the evening performance was dominated by all the international guests. We saw performances from teams hailing from Puerto Rito, Canada, Australia and the UK. The international guests also had a reception in the President's dining hall after their presentation whilst the Improv invitational went on... sadly I had to miss out on both these fun things as I was utterly shattered and did the very rock-n-roll thing of going to bed early!

Anyway looking forward to writing up Thursday already... I have made some exciting new purchases!

Take care - Dave

I-Fest 2010 - Wednesday

2010-07-07T14:06:00.000+01:00

It's 7:50 and I'm sat at the PC again next to Mr Barrett as we both check emails and try and work out what the time is in England.

Yesterday Gene Cordova and the Bonilla family performed on the main stage in the evening... It was cool. Gene had a nice style of storytelling where he started a couple of threads and kept switching between the two stories. The Bonilla's did some great work too, my particular favourite was the part when Jason explained how to do some silk magic with the assistance of his lightening quick son - he tried to convince us that the reason the silk disappeared was because his son shot across the stage faster than light and stole it from his hand (they even did a slow motion action replay to show how it all worked).

I did my first workshop yesterday morning which was "learning great lip sync", 68 people attended and as far as I'm aware it went pretty well. Everyone that I spoke to had a good time. Today I am on a Q&A panel with Dave Privett and David Pannebecker. That should be fun, but these are the two people who inspired me to start building in the first place.

Yesterday I watched the Lip Sync Challenge in Kresge auditorium, and sat with the Smile Puppet team (from England) who had two puppeteers who had entered... both made it through to the final! We'll find out in chapel this morning how well they got on but they are at least guaranteed 2nd and 3rd place which is excellent!

Today is international day at I-Fest so there's the reception tonight... I'm not sure I can make it yet - but I'll try.

Take care folks speak to you soon
Dave

I-Fest 2010 - Tuesday

2010-07-06T14:14:00.001+01:00

It's 7:58am, I've just had breakfast and now it's time for a cheeky check on the computer before the day kicks off in ernest. Paul Morley is checking his emails next to me (and probably the football transfer gossip too if he's honest).

Doug Nearpass and Lenny Corliss were spreading the good news of MacBooks at breakfast today... and following both my brothers making the big switch from PC to Mac the strength of the case in becoming overwhelming (now I just need a spare $2,000!).

It's funny the things that stick out at you when you go someplace new (sorry I'm already adopting my American English vocabulary which I slip into all too easily these days), but my parents have joined me this year for their first ever I-Fest. This is their first visit to America since 1999... so day 1 of I-Fest, what stuck out to them most? Fireflies! I was taking them over to the competition in the Kresge Auditorium from the Ludwig Centre. Just as we were leaving Ludwig I said "of course when you go out at night here the thing you want to keep your eyes open for is fireflies"... as if I had planned it 8 or more fireflies began to dance away in the bush right in front of us. My parents love gardening and wildlife etc so they nearly feinted!

FYI Paul just left and was replaced by Harry Barrett checking his emails... Harry is definitely not checking up on football gossip! I don't know why I feel it's necessary to share these facts with you - I just am :)

On a more puppet related note S.T.A.G.E.D. Puppet team from Omaha, NE performed on the main stage last night with some really great blacklight routines. Also Joe Bruce from Weatherford, TX did a great ventriloquist routine with a really neat quick draw in the middle of it. This is my 7th visit to I-Fest and the performances in the evenings have always been a highlight for me. I am quite a visual learner so I love to see new things and new ideas.

Well today I have my first workshop that I am teaching this year. It's "learning great lip sync", it should be fun. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

Take care folks - Dave

I-Fest 2010: Monday

2010-07-05T15:46:00.000+01:00

So here we are again at ONU waiting for the start of I-Fest. It's great to be here again and I'm really looking forward to spending a week with some really creative puppeteers and performers.

I'm excited that a puppet festival in the USA has attracted so many puppeteers from the UK - there's loads of us over here! There are 11 from Smile Puppet Ministry, 10 from St Peters Puppets, 2 from Upbeat Puppets and 1 from The Puppet Factory (and me of course). This is probably the biggest English contingent that I can ever remember being over here in all the times I have been to I-Fest (this is my 7th visit).

This is going to be my busiest I-Fest to date too... I have lots to do in terms of workshops and the occasional performance, but the thing I looking forward to most has to be the performances. I love being at a creative one-stop-shop! There are so many talented performers here, it's a great place to pick up ideas and get inspired.

Hopefully I'll be able to sneak onto a computer often enough to update this blog throughout the week to keep you up to date with what's going on. I'm sorry to say the YouTube videos will probably not be flowing this week as my Kodak camera has died on me again! If I can I'll borrow a camera I will.

Anyway - see you soon, take care!
Dave

What's inside the bag?

2010-06-25T13:54:00.000+01:00

So recently I opened "that" bag that has been under my desk for the past year - just to see what was inside.

enjoy :)

Hellyer's Puppet Giftshop

2010-06-21T12:42:00.001+01:00

Some of you may have spotted it already... but in case you haven't: I recently opened my Zazzle store!

It's great fun and I hope you enjoy checking it out. If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see featured in the store be sure to let me know.

Take care - Dave

Wolf puppet building video diary

2010-06-03T09:22:00.000+01:00

So over the last couple of weeks I've been making a video diary of one of my puppet building projects. The character is Wolfgang the Wolfhound. You can check out the series of videos below to watch him being made:

So he is all finished up now and this is what he looks like. As you can see he has large and almost bulbous yellow/cream round eyes. I was slightly concerned whilst building that these would make the character look mean or evil but I think you will agree he has kept a very open and happy face despite the eye colouration.

You can't quite see them in this picture but Wolfgang has two moulded teeth that sit right below his whiskers on his top jaw... he has quite a large overbite on the top so that they can sit there happily without fear of them being knocked off by the lower jaw.

This character is one that I have build specifically for I-Fest which I am going to in 6 weeks... it's always great to build new characters to show when you go and visit fellow puppeteers. If you're going to I-Fest I look forward to seeing you there... be sure to come and say hi to Wolfgang!

Take care - Dave

Summer of fun

2010-05-27T22:18:00.001+01:00

I am pleased to say that just in time for the weather improving the orders are winging their way into the workshop. It already looks like it is going to be a busy summer of building. I am really excited to be trying out a couple of new techniques… I have a bunch of mental sketches in my mind’s eye which hopefully will become puppets before too long.

Also coming up is I-Fest, I received my conference schedule this morning… it’s going to be great! It’s a brilliant opportunity to meet other puppeteers and puppet builders to share tips and techniques. I have been 6 times already and I can easily say it’s the best puppet festival that I have been to. I’m really looking forward to catching up with old friends and making new ones.

If you’re going… see you there!
Take care - Dave

My Son continues to AMAZE me!

2010-04-22T23:00:00.000+01:00

So I've been a Dad now for almost 6 months... which means I've spent the past 6 months in amazement at my son Samuel. However this week he raised the bar on himself!

We recently went away on a little family holiday to Poole in Dorset. We had been planning on going to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Bosnia... but due to the Volcanic Ash floating over Europe all flights were cancelled so we had to holiday closer to home. Whilst away on holiday we decided to play catch with a rustly ball we had bought to entertain Sam on the plane... we decided to give it to him anyway even though we weren't flying - he LOVED it! check out the video below to see how well he reacted to it:

I-Fest workshop leading confirmed

2010-04-14T12:06:00.000+01:00

I have confirmed with the events team at One Way Street the workshops that I am teaching at I-Fest this year... it's really exciting!

I was delighted to spot that the brand new One Way Street blog that they have written a post about Hellyer's Puppet Workshop [and me :)]. It's great to get support from an organisation who have helped me so much over the years - so thanks guys it's much appreciated!

If you're going to I-Fest I'll see you there!
Take care - Dave

www.hellyers.com is now LIVE!

2010-02-10T09:28:00.000Z

I've written before about my new website that is about to go live... well now it is live finally! Below you can see a sneak peek of what it all looks like. Click on the image to visit the new site - enjoy!

New site ready to launch

2010-02-05T12:49:00.000Z

I'm very excited at the moment for a number of reasons... but one of them is my new website. Those of you that follow my blog here will know I have been trying to update/improve my website since 2007 so this has been no small effort! As these things seem to work in my experience you wait ages for any progress on a project at all and then it seems like the floodgates have opened and all of a sudden you're ahead of where you had anticipated being.

Rather than updating my website I've built a completely new one which I will be able to change myself without needing to ask others to do it for me (which is something that pleases me no end!). At the moment I'm beta testing the site bus what I can say for now is I'm really happy to have finally moved out of the dark ages and into something which better reflects me and my work.

I'll post a link next week to the site so you can go and have a nose around it.
Take care - Dave

Meet Geoff the parrot!

2010-01-11T09:28:00.000Z

So I've shown you photos of Geoff already... but here's a brief video explaining how he works:

Don’t put yourself at the top of the Christmas tree!

2009-12-23T18:22:00.002Z

Both as an individual and as a puppet builder (or puppeteer) you should never put yourself at the top of your Christmas tree!

What do I mean by that? Simply this: you need heroes, role models… or at the least people you respect and look up to. If you live your life thinking that you are the “bee’s knees” and that you are untouchable you quickly develop a truly abhorrent arrogant streak in your personality. If you want to move forward as an individual or in your art you can never allow yourself to rest on your laurels safe in the knowledge “I am it”. The old phrase says “It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive” – you need to keep a goal ahead of you in order to move forward.

At Christmas time many people start to think about the holidays and some people even discuss what the reason for the season really is. I believe Christmas is a chance to take a look around and see what other people have done and allow ourselves to be inspired into action. Jesus was born in a stable, not a Hilton. He came to give his life for people who often despised and rejected him. He did not come for the rich and the wealthy – but rather associated with the broken and needy people. It’s inspirational stuff. It’s completely the opposite of what we would do if we were to plan how to “save the world”. I would remind you - don’t put yourself at the top of your Christmas tree. Always have someone to look up to!

Even if you’re not celebrating Christmas this year, the motto still rings true for you too! Look at the work of others that you admire… don’t allow yourself to become over-proud of your own achievements but instead prefer others. Look up to other people who inspire you and let them spur you on to greater things.

Do I have any puppetry heroes or people that inspire me to build better puppets? Of course! I know my limits and I am constantly seeing other people’s work and being amazed by it. Here are some neat links which will help blow the lid off your comfortable world of shop bought puppets!

Dave Privett – Fantastic puppet builder… first inspired me to build puppets over 10 years ago.
Phil Fletcher – Great puppet builder and performer! Helped me take some massive steps to improve my puppet building.
Philip Hatter – Another great puppet builder who keeps turning out puppets that make me say wow!

Lastly, I saw this video online last week from Furry Puppet Studio – it was a bit of an inspirational moment for me… so here it is (enjoy):

Take care – Dave
Happy Christmas!

Geoff the Parrot's view of The Great Adventure

2009-12-23T13:39:00.002Z

Here's a quick back stage tour of The Great Adventure... This video isn't going to change the world, but you won't understand my next video unless I upload this one :)

Take care - Dave

Geoff the Parrot puppet!

2009-12-15T19:35:00.008Z

Regular readers will know that I have been working on a project called The Great Adventure... you will have seen already that I helped to design the cooker for the show, which I was responsible for animating. However the cooker was not my main reason for working on the show - no no... the main reason for me working on the show was Geoff the Parrot!

You can see here that Geoff is a friendly looking parrot who has movable wings. My challenge with Geoff was to build a parrot puppet whose wings could flap, but without any visible rods.

What I ended up doing was creating L shaped wire skeletons for the wings which pivoted at the edge of the foam body of the puppet. The short end of each L shape has a to rod attached to it which hangs down the inside of the puppet's body. This enables both wings to flap either together or individually depending on how you pull them down.

This is all made possible because the body is is quite simply huge! You can see from the photo of the cast below the size of the completed puppet. The puppet wasn't simply large to fit in all the mechanics, practically speaking it needed to be large as The Great Adventure was performed in a 600 seater auditorium stuck right at the back of the stage... Geoff needed to be large just to be seen!

I am pleased to say Geoff was a huge hit with the live audience - I hope you like him too!

Take care - Dave

The Great Adventure - cooker update

2009-12-13T22:02:00.003Z

So last time I told you how my good friend Steve had built a cooker for our Christmas production called The Great Adventure. Here's a short video of the cooker at work. It worked a treat in the show... it looked really smart and got some good laughs!

take care - Dave

The Great Adventure

2009-12-02T09:44:00.006Z

So i've been building the Parrot for The Great Adventure lately... and I also have to build a stove that is animated. Well I use the term "I" in the loosest possible sense here: Steve have actually built the thing, as I have been on Paternity leave for almost t

he entire construction process. I have however graced him with my presence to offer some friendly advice and cut the odd piece of wood here and there.

So here's the artists impression of what we had to build. A kind of "beauty and the beast - esque" cooker which we needed to bring to life with bubbling pots and pans etc. Steve has built the whole body of it and finished it off brilliantly - I am just tinkering with the finished product and giving it some visual interest by animating parts of it.

Here you can see our progress so far:

The window in the middle that you can see is the "wood burning" section of the cooker. This will have a false fire in it which I can show you when completed. The pots and pans on the top of the cooker will bubble and jostle on the top of the stove to indicate a real live cooker is on stage. The small rectangular shapes you see resting on the top on the cooker are the door fronts for the cooker... these will be loosely fixed so we can "leak" smoke out of the doors o show that it is working hard.

This photo shows you how much work we still have to do... we open next Thursday! However we are confident that this will be an excellent asset to the show ans we're looking forward to seeing it completed!

Take care - Dave

I-Fest 2010 is ON!!!

2009-11-19T09:09:00.003Z

OK, so regular readers of my blog will know that I love I-Fest and have been quite a few times before. This wouldn't be such a big deal if it wasn't for the fact that I-Fest is held in Bourbonnais, Illinois and according to daftlogic.com's distance calculator... I live over 4,000 miles away!

Anyway - the good news is that after taking a break in 2009, I-Fest is back on the calendar for 2010! They have already announced some of their guest speakers and I can tell already that it's going to be good. Check the One Way Street Events fan page on Facebook for all the latest updates.

I can tell what some of you are thinking "that's a Christian puppet festival - why would I want to go to that?"... I would say that you would be in for a pleasant surprise! I find that the standard of teaching and performance by the pros at I-Fest is as good (and in many cases better) than that I have seen at other puppet festivals. Many of the teachers are experts in their own fields and can offer brilliant insights into how you can improve your puppet performance/construction skills. I have written before on here about how much I have enjoyed the festivals, i always associate I-Fest with inspiration and an opportunity to be stretched as a performer.

If you've never been - or never considered going... do it!

Take care - Dave

Puppet Blog Recommendations

2009-11-03T15:05:00.006Z

As my paternity leave looms large on the horizon I have taken a moment to skip around a few of the puppet sites that I try and check in on regularly. There are two that stand out for me as good ones to recommend... so if you're looking for good puppetry blogs - pay attention!
Puppeteers Unite was on of the first puppet blogs that ever really interested me enough to check back regularly. I have always found that there is a good variety to what is written on their and Tom seems to be one of the most interested people in all forms of puppetry. He is constantly linking to other sites and flagging up things for attention that I would definitely miss otherwise!
So if you have a moment - head on over to puppeteersunite.com

Another blog which I check often is that of Thistledown Puppets. Philip Hatter is definitely one of the best puppet builders I know! Take a minute to check out the range of styles and characters on his site and you'll see what I mean. Some of my favourite characters that he has made come from a musical he wrote called "Bull a puppet musical": check out the video of these characters on this local news website.

So while I'm off learning how to be a dad... take a moment to read these blogs! You'll not regret it.

Take care - Dave

Hellyer's Puppet Workshop is a NURSERY??!?1

2009-10-21T16:23:00.003+01:00

OK so those of you who watched the short video series I made over the summer will be aware that in August we had to relocate the Workshop because my wife and I are expecting a baby at the end of October!

It's an exciting time for us as it's our first... hence why puppet related posts have been few and far between recently. I will return to puppet related posts once the impact of this life changing event has settled :)

Take care - Dave

Hellyer's Puppet Workshop - Relocation Project

2009-09-06T17:17:00.003+01:00

Some of you who follow me on twitter and youtube will know that over the summer I relocated my Puppet Building Workshop. It was a massive move - but great fun to do! Below is the full playlist from the whole week... enjoy:

Hope you're all well. Take care - Dave

Hellyer's Puppet Workshop Etsy Store now open!

2009-08-30T15:28:00.004+01:00

I've been experimenting with Etsy recently with the project I'm leading called Spraid (the spray paint urban art for good causes)... and I've really enjoyed it. So much so I've launched today the HellyersPuppets Etsy store!

The store only has one item so far as it is brand new and I am still trying to work out how best to use it... but that one item is a HPW favourite: Moe.

Moe is a live-hand (or human arm) puppet who is 21" high and has a total arm span of 44". If you want to check him out in his legendary status of first ever item in our Etsy store please click this link :)

Take care - Dave

Monster Puppet: the handover!

2009-07-01T14:49:00.003+01:00

So today is the day of the handover! After a week of frantic building the Green Monster (as yet un-named) he is ready to be handed over to the J247 team! Dave (not me.. another Dave) is going to be performing him. It's Dave's first time performing a real puppet character so he is obviously a man ready for a challenge... it's not an easy task for sure!

So what is special about the Green Monster? It can swallow small objects - unlike the majority of hand puppets the back of its mouth is open rather than closed. This alteration enables the character to swallow objects rather than just chew them up and spit them out.

Initially this was not an easy build to get my head around... but once I realized how I should go about it it all fell into place reasonably quickly. I decided to build the body of the puppet first so I could get into the build rather than continually sketching out ideas. I worked backwards in some ways, I completed the whole body and head before I even built the mouth... If I had waited until I had it all figured out before starting I would probably still be here tapping my pencil on a blank sheet of paper!

The J247 team is going to use the Green Monster as a part of their summer program, and if they find he works well they will roll him out as part of a more regular performance. It was a fun challenge to build and I learnt a lot whilst building him. I look forward to making another character that swallows items now I've figured out how it all works :)

Take care - Dave

Monster in the making!

2009-06-23T16:18:00.008+01:00

Recently I've been fortunate enough to have been performing and making videos for clients so I haven't needed to build many puppets. But just recently I had two commissions come in which I am excited about so I thought I'd write about them. The first one is a big green monster for a Children's Church group called J247 it's going to be a fun character when it's finished... especially as it's going to be able to eat things (including swallowing them!).
Swallowing was the main challenge to this character as it cuts across (literally) many of the conventional building techniques used for this sort of character.
Normally I would have the fabric lining the mouth plate double up as a hinge so to make a mouth that didn't need that made the old grey matter work a little more than usual.

In this picture you can see him in his current unfinished state (no features or hands at present). I have lined his mouth in black to disguise what it really is... basically it's a chute which allows small objects down it. It's only a first attempt at making a character like this, but so far it's working out well.

I'll post completed pictures soon to keep you up to date with how it all works out in the end!

Take care - Dave
ps if you're interested, here's my twitter details: @hellyersonline

crex81: a simple explanation

2009-04-27T10:56:00.003+01:00

OK so many of the regular readers of my blog (well done to both of you!) will know I run a couple of YouTube channels.

hellyersonline is my own vlogging channel… it is anything and everything that I see and do in everyday life. Some of this will be puppet building videos and some of it will be silly comedy ideas and other bits will be holiday and family days etc. This channel aims to please 1 person only – me . I know the quality is mixed and I really don’t mind, I do it for my own amusement… and it amuses me that other people watch.

crex81 is a collection of puppetry videos that I have uploaded. There are no people (real humans) featured on the channel as regulars. I have had human guests and puppet characters interacting with humans… but the star has always remained the puppet. I have never intentionally shown my dace on this channel (it has sneaked into shot once or twice… but that’s another story). One question I do get asked from time to time is - what is crex81 – what does it mean? As you will have picked up from my Spraid blog I wrote a short while ago, I am really into spraycan art. I used to travel a lot and take photos of graffiti all the time. When I first started designing my own tags etc I came up with a name: “Creative Explosion”. Very simply crex was already taken as a username… and I couldn't be bothered to write out CreativeExplosion as a username all the time so I shortened it to crex81.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the latest video offering – Pierre playing Tennis on Wii Sports… it was filmed live and I was genuinely playing it with him. I hope some of the fun of the game translates to the screen it was a real laugh.

Take care - Dave

Horse Puppet for SALE!

2009-04-16T15:06:00.003+01:00

It seems that the Horse Puppet I designed a couple of years back is still quite popular... I've put one up on Ebay this week, so if you're interested please do check it out.

If you can't bid on this auction but your interested in having a horse puppet like this made for you please email me on: info@hellyerspuppetworkshop.com

Take care- Dave

Spraid

2009-03-09T16:30:00.003Z

Some of you may know that I do more than just build puppets... I run a community youth work project called the united bus and I'm also a keen footballer & mountain bike rider in my spare time.

However today none of that is the subject of this blog. Today we talk about spray can art! Last summer my Sister-in-law, my wife and I painted up 63 canvases 59 of which we sold for charity raising over £350.00. Because we received such a positive feedback from the work Spraid was born. Nearly 9 months later I am busy preparing for this summer's big push. I am hoping to raise enough money to not only send it to one charity this year - but to three!

If this is the sort of thing that interests you and you'd like to see some of the work I have been doing over the last couple of months search for "spraid art" on facebook. On the Spraid Art profile you'll see lots of photos of some of the art that will go on sale this summer.

Take care - Dave

FRENZY 09 introduces it’s first ever intern: Freddie Frenzy!

2009-02-27T12:32:00.001Z

It’s always nice to see real puppets win out over CGI characters… and Frenzy have joined the list of companies that see the benefit of having a “real life” puppet character on staff rather than a cartoon character or CGI. They are releasing videos on youtube in a series to promote their event starring their (Jamaican) purple highland cow called Freddie Frenzy. Check out their launch video for Freddie below:

Puppet Building Race!

2009-01-19T22:34:00.005Z

This past weekend we had Phil Fletcher from the Gluvets visit for a weekend of puppet building and banter! Phil last visited in late 2007 and has been a good friend of David and Shelley over the past few years. You can see from the video below that we had quite a lot of fun. Check out some of the characters Phil brought with him on the visit.

Pierre even found time to hang out with Paul Potts… watch out for him on Britain’s Got Talent later this year!
Over the weekend we planned out a couple of new puppet characters… one of which was at risk of not getting finished until inspiration struck – let’s have a race!

The idea was simple; Phil lives at the other end of the country from Hellyer’s Puppet Workshop so it would take him 4 hours to get home. This was the time given to me (David) to finish off the monster puppet they had started to build. It is important to note at this point that the monster puppet we were building is the trademark Gluvets Monster. Phil has been building monsters like this for years and he is very experienced at making them… I on the other hand have never built a character quite like it. The challenge then was for me to finish building Phil’s puppet before he got home. For those of you, who don’t like building under pressure, do not attempt this challenge! However if you’re up for a laugh and you like a bit of pressure in your workshop – try it! It really was great fun and I’m pleased to say I’m happy with the final puppet too!

To find out how the challenge went please watch the video below:

Take care – Dave
Ps - Dave and the completed Patterson Monster:

Video update

2008-12-16T18:23:00.004Z

So this may seem like a cop-out... but I assure you it's a real blog!
Like everyone in the world i've been busy recently, here is my attempt to get you up to speed with what is and isn't happening in the workshop right now. First of all I need to make an apology of sorts, which is best summed up in this video:

Things have calmed down a bit since making that video, but the Christmas break brings with it hectic activity too so I i'm taking a moment to enjoy the lull before the next storm :)

The annoying thing is I am working on a really exciting project which I am nowhere near being able to show to you all - and because it's very incomplete I can't really even talk about it which makes it worse! Anyway... all will be revealed soon I promise!

Last weekend my wife and I went on a weekend break in Barcelona. It's a great place and I certainly had some fun making videos as we were going around the Tourist sites. My video making habit is more tolerated than celebrated... but being a YouTube partner I feel a sense of duty :)

Here's a video from the weekend which I made in the Sagrada Familia:

LAST but not least - This video may well be of interest to some of you... please email me on united@kingdomfaith.com if what I talk about (in this video) interests you!

Take care and have a great Christmas - Dave

EPMF - Festival report

2008-11-22T16:58:00.006Z

So I promised a EPMF report a short while ago. Today is the day it has arrived! I have been helping to lead workshops at the EPMF for just over 10 years now, so it's become a old favourite of mine over the years. Below you can see me (in black with the red shirted puppet) leading a workshop at the Reading leg of the festival.

One of the great things about going to puppet festivals is meeting old friends and fellow puppeteers. Debra Fader (seen here with Vernon the Wolf) is a very talented puppeteer and puppet builder. Debra is based in Maine (USA) so it's more of an effort for her to attend then most... but Debra has become a favourite workshop leader and her classes are always packed.

Below is a picture for old times sake... This is me pictured with Harry Barret owner of One Way UK. When I first left college I worked full time with Harry for just over a year.

Something new for the EPMF 08 was the Puppet Academy Team. This was a new concept for 08, the team met applied online (one the One Way UK site) and met for 1 week in August. Then after that one week prep time they had to perform at both the EPMF festivals. Considering they only had one weeks preparation time they did really well. If this sounds like the sort of project you would like to be part of you can apply to be in the Puppet Academy 09 team online now.

Take care - Dave

Recognition for Wannacott Wolf

2008-11-20T13:10:00.003Z

Lots of puppet characters have made their way into peoples hearts and lives over the years... but few become fully adopted members of the family. Wannacott Wolf has recently been adopted by Wannacott.org as an official part of the Wannacott family. Take a look at the link to see for yourself :)

Take care - Dave

Puppet Festival Update

2008-10-27T16:49:00.004Z

So the very first EPMF in Derby happened this weekend just past. It was a great time with about 150-200 puppeteers coming together to learn, compete and perform. I was teaching workshops on both the Friday and the Saturday, as well as judging some of the competitions so it was quite a tiring weekend... but it was fun! The venue was Derby Community Church which is almost opposite Pride Park, the home of Derby County Football Club. It was a lovely ground which looks to be very well kept and relatively new.
It was a positive weekend with lots of interest in the puppets that I took, and I am hoping to follow that up with some commissions and sales in the weeks and months ahead. I am looking forward to this weekend in Reading for the second installment of this EPMF double header... it's gonna be good.

If you're going - i'll see you there!
Take care - Dave

European Puppet Ministry Festival

2008-10-22T11:55:00.005+01:00

It's that time of year again!

That's right people One Way UK are hosting their annual European Puppet Ministry Festival in Reading (England). It's a great opportunity for puppeteers to get together and share ideas, learn and also watch some great performances. As the name of the event suggests the majority of the puppeteers who attend are Church based, or sympathetic to Christian puppetry. However the festival is by no means exclusive and other performers can and do come along to join in the activities.

This year however there is a twist - there is not just one festival as there has been over the past 15 or so years... for the first time ever One Way UK are running back to back weekends! One in Derby and the other in Reading. This should help more people from Scotland and the north of England to be able to come and join in. If you are coming, be sure to let me know and i'll keep an eye out for you.

I'm going to be leading workshops at both weekends and I'm excited to see what will happen. I'll try and get some good pics to show those of you who can't make it.
Take care - Dave

YouTube Partner Program UPDATE

2008-10-06T14:47:00.003+01:00

So back in February of this year I wrote a blog about the Partner Program on YouTube. I stand by what I said, but there are a couple of points that need to be updated.

YouTube is not designed to help you make money... but you can do it. As YouTube and Google optimise the Adwords adverts that get displayed in the box to the right hand side of your videos the more chance there is of you getting clickthoughs and ultimately that means there is a greater chance of you getting paid. I know this because in the early days I was receiving no clickthoughs (you can monitor this through the Google Adwords tool) but now I am ticking over with a few clicks a day, which has led to me receiving my first cheque from Google this morning! I am considering framing it... but to be honest I actually need it (the Lord moves in mysterious ways).
So how do you get clickthroughs? Is it linked to views or content? surely the answer has to be both. My brother recently posted a video which was viewed by 70,000 people in a single day (not massive by "most viewed" standards, but very respectable really when the average video must only receive 1000 views I would imagine). That video generated half the number of clickthroughs needed to qualify him for a paycheck through the Adwords scheme. In that case I would say that views caused him to get clickthroughs... however I have received my first cheque from Google today without any stand-out success videos in my back catalogue. This means that my slow burning videos just tick along gaining a few views but they must be linked to adverts which are relevant to the videos. My vids normally get 500 - 5000 views total (there are exceptions above and below that) so how can it be that I am getting paid? It must be that Google's system for matching the advert to the video has improved. I am noticing a lot of Jeff Dunham's (Achmed the Dead Terrorist) adverts next to my videos... which makes complete sense. I am a puppeteer/puppet builder and Jeff Dunham is a ventriloquist. It stands to reason that people interested in my videos would be interested in him. Previously I have had gay dating sites and Reebok advertised next to my videos... neither are lifestyle choices I endorse!

This discussion makes me wonder whether slow burning videos or big overnight successes are better for you in the long run. Would you prefer 100,000 people to view you video overnight or over a year? You could argue that either is better depending on your point of view i guess. As for me I am beginning to favour the slow burner.

All the best folks - take care!

Dave

New Job!

2008-09-24T10:37:00.002+01:00

OK so most of you guys know that I'm not a full time puppet builder... I'd love to be but for now that's not reality. However I have just got myself a new job which is the reason why I haven't posted a blog in a while. Two months ago I started to work for Kingdom Faith Church as a Community Development Officer - my main responsibility is looking after the United Bus, which is a mobile youth centre which travels around our district offering help, support, advice and (arguably most importantly) FUN to over 100 young people each week. More on all that another day, nut i thought I had better explain my absence.

Since my I-Fest reports were posted Blogger have enabled "following" on their blogs... so if you want to get updates of all the times I post a blog check that out!

As I haven't posted a workshop update for a while this video will bring you up to speed with everything that is happening at the moment.
Take care - Dave

I-Fest Inspiration, the final roundup!

2008-08-29T23:42:00.004+01:00

OK so for those of you who didn’t go to I-Fest… or don’t have any intention of going I appreciate my last 5 blogs will have been of little interest to you. However I think the basic topics of the blogs could be applied to any puppet festival. For instance for the last two years I have been to the May Fayre (the celebration of Mr Punch’s birthday) in Covent Garden. I have been inspired and excited by puppets I have seen there… also I have met people who have inspired me and in some cases revolutionised the way I build and perform my puppets. So don’t get too hung up on the festival, look at the principals.

If I were to list my inspirations I may not be able to finish this blog post this week… so I will give you some potted highlights.
Dave and June Privett run Playsoup. They are both fantastic performers and Dave is a very talented puppet builder! Simply if you haven’t checked out there work you need to!
Todd and Amie Leibenow are the new owners of One Way Street. Todd is a great performer and he also voices many of the pre-recorded scripts released by OWS.
David Simpich wasn’t at I-Fest this year… but I have been fortunate enough to see him perform a couple of times. He is a marionette artist, and an exceptional one at that. It’s great to see someone filling theatres with an “out of favour” form of puppetry. I hope to see him perform again soon.
Christy Watkins (POWER Company) was the Dream Team director the first year I was on the Dream Team. She is a great puppet Director who adds a professional touch to any show. Christy retired from directing the POWER Company this year (the team that taught Todd Leibenow) but she plans to continue teaching at regional festivals in the US and hopefully the UK to.
I think it’s important that whoever you are and whatever you achieve you still look around you and allow yourself to get inspired by other artists and performers. I look forward to meeting more inspiring individuals in the weeks and months ahead!

Take care – Dave

I-Fest roundup 4 (only one more to go)

2008-08-25T10:02:00.004+01:00

The thing that really makes experiences like I-Fest special is the people you meet and the friendships you make. As always it was great to meet up with friends from all over the USA who we would never normally get to meet up with. Dave and June Privett, Todd and Amy Liebenow, Paul and Christine Morley to name but a few. This year however we travelled all the way to Chicago and spent the majority of our time with a Puppet team from Essex! Essex is just an hours drive from home… so we certainly took the scenic route to meet up with Smile Puppet Ministry. John and Ella Havell lead Smile Puppet Ministry. There are a really active puppet team who perform all over the world. I am really looking forward to meeting up with John and Ella now we’re all back in the UK. It is one of those strange situations… I knew John and Ella before I-Fest, I think I first met them about 6 years ago, but I had never really worked with them on anything. John and I were both conference assistants over the week and really hit it off. John has an automatic head start in life – he is a Spurs fan!

Here you can see being very long-suffering enduring one more of my many stories. Hopefully within the next couple of months I will be able to bring you more about Smile, as we are hoping to meet up towards the end of the summer.

All the best – Dave

Puppet Gladiators... I-Fest roundup 3

2008-08-21T20:13:00.001+01:00

One Way Street staff Ryan Spittler and Branden Treu created a brand new event competition for I-Fest 2008: Puppet Gladiators!

The contest brought about some great drama and was really a great addition to the festival feel of the week. The two gladiator rod style puppets are equipped with a sword in one hand and shield in the other. As far as my memory serves me the joints of the hands, elbows, shoulders and necks are held together by magnets. The point of the game being once combat starts you aim to “disarm” or behead your opponent, whilst keeping your own gladiator in tact. Sadly I was leading workshops during the preliminary rounds of competition so I couldn't join in the contest, but it certainly looked like great fun!

I have tried to search the Internet for clips… I know someone who was watching the event would have put it on YouTube. Above you can see the best clip I could find.

All the best – Dave

I-Fest report 2

2008-08-15T15:35:00.005+01:00

OK - yes I realise that there has been a long wait for this... what can I say? I've been kinda busy.

Right where were we?

So at the beginning of July I posted a blog from I-Fest, I can't honestly say if this was me writing up my workshop notes or me blogging... but this is certainly me on the computer at I-Fest! During the week I was working as a Conference Assistant and a workshop leader. I have lead lots of workshops in the UK and quite a few around Europe as well but I had never taught in the USA before and for some reason I found myself to be very nervous. I think this was because I-Fest has played a huge part in my puppetry career and many of the "defining moments" I can think of in my puppetry experience all happened there.

I am pleased to report that the workshops went a lot better than I had expected them to go. By the end of the week the "Getting to grips with Arm Rods" class I lead went so well I would rank it alongside some of my best ever workshops... which was nice. This pic shows me mid flow in the workshop ...it was really fun. I had prepared this workshop just for I-Fest and actually turned out so well it will be a workshop that I will teach more often.

For some reason when I first said I went to I-Fest some people emailed me saying "but aren't you English?" ...Well yes I am, but my wife and I travelled out to Chicago specially for it. BUT if you are in the UK or Europe and you would like to be part of something similar to I-Fest with great puppetry teaching and lots of resources available I recommend you make an effort to get to the European Puppet Ministry Festivals in either Reading or Derby this year! I will be teaching at both and we are expecting to have a great time. Check One Way UK's website for details.

Take care - Dave

I-Fest report number 1

2008-07-16T23:21:00.003+01:00

I'm gonna have to do a couple of these to try and explain how the week went. It was a great time and I want to try and share different aspects of the week with you.

Firstly it was great to take Pierre and the gang outside and see them in different surroundings. Here you can see Pierre hanging around on campus. I also managed to get some photos of the other puppets we took out and about (see bottom of post)

My wife and I were invited to take part in the performance on the international evening, this was a fantastic opportunity to share our style of puppetry with the whole festival crowd. There were about 35 people at I-Fest who were international guests so it was nice to have been one of the three teams chosen to perform. You can see a picture of Pierre on stage on Puppetgirl's blog. After the International evening there was a reception for all the international guests... this was a great chance to meet other puppeteers from all over the globe. Possibly the most bizarre thing was meeting another couple from the UK who are full time puppeteers who I had never met before! Funny how these things happen.

More to follow, but that's all for now.
Take care - Dave

Checking in from I-Fest

2008-07-11T20:10:00.001+01:00

I'm sitting here in a computer room in the College where I-Fest is being held... and i've just found Internet access so I thought I would post a quick blog on here.
It's been a great week so far with loads of great feature performers and lots of workshops and competitions to join in. It's great to meet so many other performers and share ideas and experiences (there are about 750 people here). I really look forward to getting home and down loading my photos so I can share some of the experience with you a bit better.
Last night was the blacklight (UV puppetry) competition and there were 10 entries! all in the competition took about 2 hours to get through... that's a lot of blacklight! I didn't even try to get any photos as using flash photography spoils the effect and sadly they all get camera-shake unless the puppet is standing perfectly still (which isn't going to happen).
We leave on Sunday so we will probably not be posting anything up until about Tuesday when we have recovered, but photos will follow that's for sure.
Take care - David

I-Fest here we come!

2008-07-04T13:03:00.004+01:00

I have mentioned before that I will be going to I-Fest this year with my wife Shelley. It's going to be a great time and we are really looking forward to it. I have just got home from visiting the local post office to pick up some US dollars in anticipation of picking up a bargain in the exhibits hall. As I was picking up the money I had a bit of a think back to all the visits to I-Fest I had made before when I was younger. I went 5 times between the ages of 16 and 21... it was great, it was a really good place to watch and learn from very experienced puppeteers who were happy to help and encourage you on. I will try and take lots of photos over the next week so I can share some of the moments with you all... and i'm sure there will be time for a quick video at some point.

If you're going to I-Fest, i'll see you there!
All the best - Dave

ps Happy Independence Day to all across the pond!

Parrot Puppet

2008-06-10T17:27:00.004+01:00

I was contacted 2 weeks ago by someone on facebook and was asked to build them a parrot puppet. I based the new character on the previous birds i have designed, but i decided to make this one a bit more flamboyant.

As you can see here whilst the finished Parrot is still small it makes a big impact with the Mohawk and bright coloured markings. Although you cannot see them in this picture i hand dyed some ostrich feathers and glued them into the Mohawk. They are dyed to match the colour of the eye surrounds. I will be shipping the Parrot tomorrow so i am writing this blog post as a way of enjoying it while i still have it.

On a completely different note for all of you puppeteers and puppet builders out there who have not yet signed up to Puppet Hub, i recommend it!

Take care - Dave

On Tour

2008-05-29T18:08:00.003+01:00

Last week I had a bit of a whirlwind week... but it was great. I am working on a touring show at the moment. It is great to be performing in theatres again, I have spent lots of time more recently performing for video and building puppets so to be out and about on the road again it's great.

I am very fortunate to be working on a really well known show, partly because it's great experience... but also because the set and puppets are really fun to work with. I hope to post some pics next week. In the mean time below you will find a video blog I made whilst in my hotel room last weekend.

Take care - Dave

Unimog Wheelie and Car Crush

2008-05-19T11:33:00.003+01:00

Some of you will know that in my spare time I like to DJ... this past weekend I was DJing at a great event called "Ultimate Car Ultimate Life?". It was organised by my local church and is not at all what you may expect a church car show to be like (if you even think a church would organise a car show).

The highlight of the day for me was definitely seeing the Unimog wheelie and then crush two cars from the vantage point of the scaffolding tower I had been DJing from.
Check it out, take care - Dave

Horse Puppet

2008-05-16T09:06:00.005+01:00

You may remember the Horse Sock Puppets I made last year. They're not real "sock puppets" as you can see... but the idea for them came to me when I was thinking about sock puppets and what a large puppet in the style of a sock would look like. Basically if you were to turn the puppet upside down you see the colours are broken down into the shapes of a classic sock. It's a bit of fun.

I was asked to build a Horse puppet last week for someone who was interested in the Horse Sock Puppets but wanted to also see a more "realistic" horse as well. I enjoy making cartoon style characters so I didn't go very far down the realism route but I did make another character again using roughly the same pattern. You can see here that basic shape remains the same but all the playschool colours have gone and instead fur fabric takes its place. I kept the eyes much the same because I like the open cartoon eyes and I think they are a key part to making this character style so friendly. The new style horse wound up being called Smoulder because for some reason I burnt my fingers a lot on the glue gun finishing him off! Despite this I am pleased with the outcome... I hope you like him too.

Take care - Dave

The May Fayre

2008-05-12T22:06:00.002+01:00

You may or may not be familiar with the good old English tradition of Punch and Judy. If you'd like to find out more about the history and tradition of Punch and Judy there's plenty of info out there - Google it! I don't think I have got what it takes to be a Punch and Judy professor... saying that i've never tried it (it's a safe bet though to say i'd be rubbish at it).

But there is more to the May Fayre than Punch and Judy shows, there was also a mini gathering of puppeteers from the Puppet Hub website. Some of the puppeteers I met yesterday included: Phil Fletcher and Carl Chadd (of the Gluvets), Ronnie Le Drew (of Zippy fame), Warrick Brownlow Pike (Oucho from CBBC), Darryl Worbey (the list is endless) Justin Tai, Tony Sinnet and Jan King - all great puppeteers please check out their sites!

It really was a good day out. For the most part I completely forgot I had my camera with me, but I did make a short video on my phone about the day... check it out below.

Take care - Dave

Muppets Rick Rolling!

2008-04-30T21:37:00.004+01:00

You may or may not be familiar with the internet phenomenon of Rick Rolling. If you don't know what it is never fear you're in good company... YouTube managed to Rick Roll about 7 Million viewers on April Fool's day!

If you're sitting at home wondering what Rick Rolling is - Google it!

In a new twist on this old trick the YouGotRickRolled channel on YouTube have released a fantastic Muppet version of the video. Check it out for yourself below:

Puppet Update

2008-04-16T22:09:00.004+01:00

I was experimenting with some new techniques the other day so I thought the best way to work out if they were successful was to make a new character... so ladies and gentlemen please give a warm welcome to Konk!

Konk is made almost entirely from antron fleece. His arms are long pile fur fabric. His head is made completely from reticulated foam for extra durability. I carved his nose out of a block of square foam, and dyed it to suit the rest of the character. Konk is all complete and I am pleased to say I am really pleased with the results. If you would like to take a closer look at him you're more than welcome, in fact he's sitting on ebay at the moment waiting for someone to collect him :)

All the best - Dave

Kite Surfing

2008-04-11T23:16:00.002+01:00

It's a long standing Hellyer family tradition to visit Worthing beach. Worthing is about 25 minutes drive from where we live and my family have been going to that beach for generations... in fact my Grandma lives in Ferring which is right next door to Worthing. Grandma Helen is a living legend, she turned 100 last summer! Needless to say that was the cause for much celebration in our family. Check out the video below if you want an insight into what went on that day:

However back to the main point. Following in my family's footsteps my wife and I made the short drive down to Worthing this evening. Today was a very windy April day and the Kite Surfers were out in force! I counted 8 of them in a 200 metre stretch. We sat on the beach and watched them for a while - they were very entertaining. Video below... apologies in advance for the quality, I shot this on my phone so it's not quite broadcast quality :)

Take care - Dave

Thank You!

2008-04-07T09:44:00.003+01:00

OK this is just a quick note to say thanks to all those of you who do read my blog. It seems the majority of visitors are just interested in my blog on the YouTube Partner program and how much it pays... but my google analytics tells me that's not all thee traffic. I would like to hold an impromptu awards ceremony for blog views!

The countries which have spent the longest average time viewing my blog are:

Morocco
Ukraine
Bolivia

The countries which have explored the blog the most are:

Belgium
Turkey
Romania

and the countries with the most page views are:

USA
UK
Canada

I know this will be of very little interest to many of you... but it kinda tickled me. Have a great day! - Dave

Puppet building bonanza!

2008-03-24T17:50:00.005Z

Over the last few weeks since returning from holiday i have gradually been getting more and more busy. This past Easter weekend saw the activity hit an all time high. I'm working on a project at the moment that requires lots of characters all of a similar size and shape, as a result i am patterning universal body parts wherever possible. You can see in this photo a pile of arms ready to be glued into shape. I don't normally "mass produce" anything, I guess I prefer the personal touch, but it has been a fun learning curve.

It's been an extraordinary project in many ways. Today i have dyed more fabric than ever before... two hours were spent slaving over a boiling dye pot! It's not easy work let me tell you, but it's very satisfying knowing that you have created something from scratch, even down to the hand-dying the fabric. I am at the final stage of construction before the first character is finally ready to be covered, work on that will start in a couple of hours once the fabric has dried out. Here is the blank head of the character "Naymlap". I hope to have him completed tomorrow, I will be posting pictures once he is finished.

I hope you've have a good rest over the Easter holiday period, take care - Dave

Is it just me?

2008-03-19T18:05:00.004Z

Is it just me or is this year flying past? I keep on meaning to write updates on here and whenever i get the chance i check the date of my last post and i am shocked it was so long ago.

I mentioned before that I have been in talks with the Museum in Peru about building some characters for them... that's all still in progress. I am building prototypes for approval at the moment. It's nice to be involved in a project which is challenging because it is completely different from the norm. Normally people want cartoon style characters with lots of stand out features etc, but this job is different. The museum quite rightly has a very clear goal of what the want to see made, and it's a great challenge to work towards this. Apart from anything else it's a great discipline!

This summer I will be attending I-Fest for the first time in 6 or 7 years! It's really exciting and I hope to learn a lot. I am excited to be teaching my first ever workshops out there this year, which is a great honour for me because I am someone who has learnt so much at I-Fest workshops down the years. I have been fortunate enough to be on tow puppetry Dream Teams at I-Fest in the past so I have some very fond memories of that particular puppet festival and I am really looking forward to meeting some old friends while I'm out there. I am planning to travel with Harry Barrett from One Way UK, so it looks like it's shaping up to be an old school reunion!

Have a great Easter - Dave

The Peruvian Connection

2008-03-09T10:47:00.003Z

So I must apologise for being slack in posting recently... I have been really busy and honestly haven't had a chance. I am hoping for things to calm down a bit in the next week or so.

Before I went away on my holiday I received an email out of the blue from a gentleman in Peru. This in itself is not completely out of the ordinary as i have been fortunate enough to receive emails from people all round the world saying how much they enjoy Pierre's videos etc. However this email was different, whilst he had seen Pierre's videos that wasn't the point of the correspondence. He is a representative from the National Sican Museum of Peru, and he has commissioned me to build the puppets for the Education Centre at their museum. This project is not going to be a small one, and will probably be the subject of many more blogs in the future. It is a real honour to be allowed to be a part of this project. I will be creating some really unique characters for the museum over the next few weeks and months, and i will show them to you as and when they are complete. The concept sketches that have come through look great so i am really excited about turning them into reality.

I'll keep you posted.
All the best - Dave

The Happy Hamster

2008-03-03T00:19:00.003Z

I've just got back off my holiday and I will be updating you with all the latest happenings very soon - but first I have to share this video with you. This afternoon we popped round to my parents to say "hi" to Mum (what with it being mother's day and all) and my Dad introduced us to his new Hamster!

All the best - Dave

YouTube Partner program explained...

2008-02-17T11:52:00.006Z

When did you first use YouTube?

2005 possibly if you were really quick off the mark.
2006 is quite likely... Myspace was expanding rapidly at that time and the video hosting it offered was rubbish. As a direct result YouTube profitted hugely by enabling people to use the "embed code" to place their videos (hosted by YouTube) on their Myspace pages.
2007 saw YouTube firmly establish itself as the market leader in online video, now with many people starting to call online videos "YouTube" videos regardless of which site actually hosted them.

Well for the old school fans amongst us you will remember the days of the YouTube "Director account". This was a scheme run in 2006 to try and reward the well behaved content producers by giving them some extra rights and customisations on their channel. Typically this included the ability to upload videos longer than 10 mins or 100MB. It also allowed them to display a logo alongside their videos. There was no money involved until the very end of 2006 when several YouTube directors were approached by YouTube to create Christmas and New Year videos. This was the very beginnings of the YouTube Partner Program. Mid 2007 being a Director lost all kudos because the program was opened up to everyone and is now simply achannel type in a drop down menu that you can select... whereas before you had been made to apply and be approved. The hangover from the good old days can be found HERE, the old "/director" page on the YouTube site which is now a graveyard channel which serves only as a reminder of what once was :)

I have recently been approved as a YouTube partner on both my YouTube channels. Almost exactly a year after i was approved as a YouTube director. 1 year on the benefits of these programs are pretty much the same. I will not make any money out of the partner program (it's not actually possible to) the point of the partner program is to give people the ability to customise their channel pages and feel more involved in the site. I have to say that the added features definately improve the look of the average channel page and I think it may well roll out to all channels in a years time (much like the old director channels are now open to all).

How do I know i won't ever make any money out of the partner program? Simple really, I don't receive anywhere near enough views. Top YouTubers like Nalts, LisaNova and Renetto can reasonably expect to get 10,000 - 20,000 views per video regardless of what it is, with some getting far more! Views is the key thing here. BusinessWeek reported this week that click-throughs on social networking sites are significantly lower than that recieved on other sites (4/10,000 rather than 20/10,000). This is significant because the partnership that YouTube offers is one that shares revenue with you from funds raised by GoogleAdwords. A friend of mine recently started a website and has advertised using GoogleAdwords as they are extremely effective. He pays something in the region of 15p per click-through. This means that even if i were to get Renetto's views i would only ever recieve at most 60p per video (assuming YouTube passed on the whole 15p to me - which we both know they wouldn't). Well we all like getting pocket money don't we... any revenue sharing under the current partner program on offer would definately be pocket money. Except YouTube clearly state in their T&Cs that they will not pay out any money due to partners until it reaches $100.00 (£50.00)... that's a whole lot of 60p videos!

So how are people like Renetto and Zipster08 able to talk about geting regular Money off YouTube? The original partner program is a pay-per-view deal. For every person that views their videos for more than 30 seconds they get paid. YouTube claim these partners are able to take home around $1000.00 per month.

So where does this leave you and me? Feeling exactly like we did with the Director channels a year ago.

Happy Valentine's Day folks :)

2008-02-14T07:47:00.004Z

Ever since the Muppets stormed onto the scene puppetry has been a romantic affair... Miss Piggy constantly chasing the affections of Kermit, and Gonzo with his chickens. It certainly is a far cry from the wife beating antics of Punch and Judy.

So today for all the "lovers and dreamers" out there... here is the crex81 channel's valentines day offering:

Loch Ness Monster!

2008-02-12T09:11:00.001Z

For many years people have argued over the existance of the Loch Ness Monster... nobody honestly knows if it is real or not, However you can be sure that if it was real it would probably look nothing like this:I was sitting around in my workshop last week playing with ideas in my head and sketching them out everynow and again... for some bizarre reason i couldn't shake the thought that i needed to build a Loch Ness Monster puppet :)

Well one week later here is Nessie! I hope to make some videos with him for the crex81 channel but that all depends on the time i have over the next week or so. Nessie is my playful interpretation of the Loch Ness Monster, in a classic tourist syle. I visited Loch Ness about 15 years ago now, but i still remember the tacky tourist ornaments of Nessiethat you could buy. This is my attempt to bring one of those ornaments to life.

All the best - Dave

Puppets on sale

2008-02-08T12:22:00.000Z

This past week has been a busy one for me so unfortunately i haven't been able to post much. A week ago today i was busy filling out forms for my YouTube partners application. I managed to make it through the three rounds of the application process successfully, i am now approved as a Partner on both my crex81 and hellyersonline channels.

Billy the emo Kid sold on ebay! He went to one of my youtube friends mbpearce76... if Mike does a video recieving the puppet i will link it to this page. I was planning to put the purple monster on ebay this week as well, but unfortunately for anyone who was eyeing him up (i had had a couple of enquiries when i posted his pictures) I have already sold him! I met with Harry Barrett from One Way UK this week and he bought him as soon as he saw him! I will work on some more characters for ebay soon.

In other news... I attended the Super Bash on Sunday night at Battersea Evolution. It was NFL UK's Superbowl party. Having watched the Giants beat the Dolphins at Wembley late last year i was delighted to see them go on to win the Superbowl. This links nicely to the hot news topic for this week. The Premier League have announced this week they wish to play regular season games outside the UK just like the NFL trialed last year at Wembley. The suggestion has recieved a mixed reaction. I think it is sadly just a tool to get the rich clubs even richer, the clubs with a big enough global appeal will be the Liverpool, Man Utds and Chealseas of this world - not the Derbys and Readings.

Progress in the Workshop

2008-02-04T13:14:00.000Z

I am recovering from Superbowl Sunday... i went up to Battersea Park to the Super Bash hosted by NFL-UK. It was a great night with a turnout of 4,000 people. Following the Giants win at Wembley last year over the Miami Dolphins the majority of the crowd (myself included) were rooting for the Giants. What a fantastic game... two really important plays from Eli Manning turned the game around. A famous victory for the underdog!

Anyway back to puppetry - Billy the emo Kid is on Ebay and going to be sold on Wednesday. Check out the video below to see him. Newbie the purple monster will be going onto Ebay once the sale of Billy has finished. My partnership application with YouTube got approved on saturday. Having read all the small print i doubt i will make any money off it, but at least i have now got control over the banners on my page! I'll be posting more progress soon.

Take care - Dave

Upstaged - take a bow

2008-02-02T09:30:00.000Z

Unfortunately i am having to bow out of Upstaged before it has even started. This is due to a combination of prior work commitments and late notice on their part. If i have really pushed i could have made it work, but to be honest it wasn't worth the effort. What makes this early exit even more annoying is the BBC just activated their rating system today and i was ranked 19th overall out of 150+ contestants.

On a better note YouTube have released their partner program in the UK and i have cleared the first two stages of approval for that... so who knows i may yet become a YouTube partner!

Take care - Dave

Take home a little piece of the workshop

2008-01-30T13:29:00.000Z

Some of you will remember that i started this puppet a while ago but never finished it. Well good news is here! I found myself with some unexpected free time yesterday and i finished him off. And even better i am pleased to announce that he is on ebay as of NOW!

If you are a puppeteer or you are a collector and would like to own a "one-of-a-kind" 20inch boy puppet then bid away :)

It's the first puppet i've ever sold on ebay... so i hope somebody sees it who likes it. If it goes well i will be putting more characters up there for sale.

All the best folks - Dave

Newbie Tuesday!

2008-01-29T12:12:00.000Z

Last night i was very excited to put the finishing touches on my first ever character with a moving eyebrow mechanism. I learnt a lot about what to do and what to avoid... in all the character had 3 sets of eyebrows made for him until i was finally happy with the result. This is a landmark character in a couple of ways really, firstly due to the eyebrows but also because of the fur. I bought this purple fur fabric in a tiny fabric store in Brighton last summer, it's about 4 inch long pile. This is the longest fur i have ever worked with... it was great fun but very messy (despite my best efforts to be tidy!).

"Newbie" as he is known at the moment (it's a phase they all go through) is a single handed human arm puppet - made specifically for a solo performer. This means there is no second hand hanging around waiting for a second puppeteer. Newbie is made for a right handed puppeteer.

Take care folks - Dave

Upstaged update

2008-01-27T12:05:00.000Z

Things are moving on slowly with the BBC3 Upstaged project. There are only 90 contestants so far (correct at time of writing) yet it takes forever to get your material approved on their web site. Needless to say this has been frustrating for many of the performers who are waiting for their content to clear. Those who were fortunate enough to get their videos cleared first are receiving good viewing figures on the site... whereas those whose videos took longer to clear are receiving very few views. It strikes me that the BBC didn't do too much research of other video hosting sites as because the video content is actually quite hard to navigate. There are three options for filtering the videos: newest, top rated and most viewed. That will only serve to propel the people with lots of views even higher up the chart... but hey, that's life i suppose. I guess as a regular YouTuber i take for granted the many search options: most viewed, most discussed, most rated not to mention the fact that you can filter by sort (comedy, entertainment, travel, blogs, education etc etc). The thing that made me laugh most was i posted my pitch video on YouTube the same night as on Upstaged, it took 14 hours to clear on Upstaged and only 14 minutes on Youtube - lol

Brand new characters will be coming to you from the workshop very soon... i am working on a very exciting project at the moment. It's my very first character with animated eyebrows. I will post pics in the next couple of days.

all the best folks - Dave

UPSTAGED pitch video

2008-01-25T10:48:00.000Z

Well the UPSTAGED website is live and lots of people have started uploading their pitch videos etc. Well i am no different, please take a minute to check out my pitch below.

I am not holding out much hope of getting through to the next round because nothing in me wants to go round begging for people to vote for me... it just seems tradgic. If you want to check out BBC3 and the UPSTAGED project please do, but if you don't i won't be the least bit offended :)

take care - Dave

BBC3's Upstaged

2008-01-22T22:57:00.000Z

I heard about a BBC3 show called UPSTAGED which is happening online on the BBC website and their TV channel BBC3. Basically it's a talent/popularity contest where the winner wins £10,000. It seemed like a good enough idea to me so i signed up today. If you want to check out my profile on their site you will find it HERE! I will be uploading a pitch video shortly, but i need to decide my final plans before i do that.

That's it for today really, check out the site if you get the chance...

all the best - Dave

Diddy is Finished!

2008-01-18T18:30:00.000Z

The sewing machine was fixed yesterday and in no time at all Diddy was completed. I'm really pleased it all worked out so well despite the unplanned interruption in the middle which could have really knocked me off course. Diddy is the smallest puppet i have made at only 12 inches in height, but he makes up for it in having bundles of character. I really like his colourful and open face.

I made him based on a couple of photos i found on the internet... but having learnt from my lion puppet i remembered not to worry about being too lifelike but to concentrate on the key features. For me this was made easy by using a simple technique which we all used to use at school - tracing! I loaded the photo into Microsoft Publisher (don't ask why i use it... but i use it for everything) and used the line art tool to trace the basic shape of the Puffin. This automatically edited out any complex and unnecessary features (shading etc). It was a great way of working out the essence of the character without going into too much detail and making the project too hard. You can see here the sketch that i made up is realistic but quite cartoony.

I am pleased to have him finished and look forward to showing him off in future :)
Take care - Dave

Brief Techy Update

2008-01-17T23:28:00.000Z

Hi folks - really sorry i haven't posted in the last week. I will probably be posting this weekend with pics from my latest project. This is just a brief update to say that i have added two new features to the blog. Firstly the YouTube video bar in the bottom right. This video bar automatically updates with my latest crex81 videos, so if you're not the sort of person that uses YouTube you can catch all the latest vids here instead. Also "Hello" to all the Facebookers out there! I have added a live update from my Facebook page. This is just a bit of fun, but if you're a regular reader and you have a Facebook why not drop me a line - it'd be great to hear from you! (same goes for Myspace - the link's in the side)

That's it for today, the puffin is 90% complete so i will post pictures soon.
Take care - Dave

2008 has been a crazy year... and it's only the 11th!

2008-01-11T18:14:00.000Z

My year started on a bad note - my trusty sewing machine decided to break again! It's with the menders at the moment and i am chomping at the bit ready and waiting for it to return so i can finish off my latest project (a puffin). I have been talking to people about it and they all ask - "why a puffin?" to which the only honest answer is "why not?". Whilst they are loevly birds i have no particular emotional tie to them... i just liked their colourful beaks i think so i decided to make one. Below is a video i made in the heat of the moment about the sewing machine.

I will pick up the sewing machine next week if all things go well. Since then my week has been fantastic. I have recieved some really encouraging emails from people who have been watching my YouTube videos as well as having been contacted by two TV networks who are interested in using my puppets on their channels! So even though i have only lived 11 days in 2008 i have already decided this is gong to be a good year!

all the best folks :) Dave

Vernon

2008-01-05T13:44:00.000Z

Vernon is the name chosen for the new character. Check out the video below to see him in action. I'm just checking in briefly today to say whilst i have started another new character i have managed to break my sewing machine yet again so it amy be a week or so before it gets finished unfortunately. I will of course keep you posted with any updates.

All the best - Dave

Out with the old...

2008-01-02T11:20:00.000Z

...and in with the new year!

Happy New Year to everyone (and anyone) who reads this! So in a mad dash of creativity before 2007 ended my wife and i decided to make one last puppet. Because time was against us we decided to make another wolf but in a totally different colour scheme and with different furs. It was a great challenge which was very enjoyable and kept me up until 2am 3 nights running but Vernon is now complete! You can see his head here (on the left). I had managed to pick up the beige fur really cheap in the local market by chance about 3 weeks ago so i was thrilled it turned out so nicely and also that i got a chance to use it. You can see from my expression i was pleased with my achievement... this photo was taken at about 2am Saturday morning and i hadn't got to bed yet - i'm not sure if i was more pleased at having finished the head or the fact that i was finally going to get some sleep. The next photo is a full body picture of Vernon, he is a human arm puppet.

2007 was an amazing year for me... full of highs and lows. However i can't help but be positive about the steps forward i have taken in the past year with my puppet building. Characters like Vernon were the sort of character i used to aim for but never achieve, but times have changed and thanks to help from some great friends (Dave Privett, Phil Fletcher and Harry Barrett to name a few) i have realised my ambitions! This one triumph is of course not the end, but it is a great first step along the way. I look forward to a fantastic '08 and hope to be bringing you more great characters very soon!

All the best - Dave

The Perils of Puppet Building

2007-12-29T18:55:00.000Z

Nobody can deny that building puppets is one of the most frustrating and fun things to do all at the same time. For me, things go wrong and go right in equal measure... but it's always a surprise to see which things work and which don't.

I am working on a project at the moment (pics coming soon) which i though would be really hard, in actual fact it has gone very smoothly and is coming together much quicker than i had anticipated.

Today however i would like to briefly talk about the Perils of Puppet Building. Last night i was using the hot glue gun to attach some fur trim to my new project... and tagged my finger big time! The glue gun had been on for a while and was at the stage where it was smoking when i applied it to objects. I was just thinking i had better switch it off and let it cool down for a while when i spilt some glue on my finger. I looked down and to my surprise i saw the end of my finger shrink a little bit in front of my eyes... No kidding! The skin shrank back - needless to say i spent the rest of the evening running to the tap every 10 minutes to cool my finger down. Now almost 24 hours on i have a blister almost 1cm long on the end of my finger.

Now i am happy to admit that i have accidents all the time (i know there no point pretending otherwise)... but the funny thing is as i have been wandering around cyberspace reading other people's puppetry blogs i have noticed that everyone has at least one post like this on their blog somewhere! So to all the puppeteers and puppet builders out there with glue gun blisters on their hands - We salute you!

I'll post the pics of the new character very soon, have a great New Year!

take care - Dave

Christmas & New Year

2007-12-22T12:10:00.000Z

So it's nearly hear... it seems like you wait all year for it and then it's over all too soon. I don't know if it's just me, but i always seems to get more excited about New Year rather than Christmas. Don't get me wrong - Christmas is great, and i'm all up for celebrating Jesus coming to earth, but personally i have always thought there really is something special about New Year.

It could be the promise that next year you have a clean slate again... the year is what you make it.

It could be the feeling of optimism that seems to be in bountiful supply at this time of year.

It could be that i am welcoming the prospect of closing the chapter on the year just gone.

Of course it's none of these and all of these at the same time. In some ways no one feeling is more important than the other... all are equally important. However before some of you look at my thoughts and think must have had a really bad year, that just isn't true. Here are a few of my personal highlights of the year so far:

Seeing my brother and his family twice in one year, including seeing my nephew for the first time ever!

I was able to meet up with my extended family to celebrate my Grandmother's 100th birthday! (that's something not many people can say)

I made some great friendships at work, despite the fact that many of these friends have moved on.

Thanks to the help of some great friends i have made some huge steps forward in my puppet building and i look forward to expanding my puppetry in the year ahead.

I would like to thank everyone who has supported my videos on YouTube, i know they are random and sometimes a little crazy, but they have come in very handy. In the past year i have been approached a couple of times by TV companies looking for new performers and new ideas... thanks to you all watching my videos! I am considering combining both my channels into one "super channel", but the jury is still out on that one.

Thanks for your support, have a great Christmas and New Year!

All the best - Dave

December update

2007-12-18T16:34:00.000Z

Sorry i haven't posted in a while, it's Christmas soon which means the whole world seems to step up a gear. I worked at not one but two Christmas parties on Sunday, and i have a few more before i can finally put my feet up for the holiday.

This however is a quick note to say "hello" and "yes, i'm still alive". I have posted a little pic which shows the new character i'm working on with the ears i mention in the video added. I think there is a certain "Dennis the Menace" quality about him at the moment... not Dennis himself, but he looks like he could be at home in one of those cartoons for sure.

Take care - Dave

I got my baby back!

2007-12-12T14:01:00.000Z

Yesterday my baby returned home after a week away from me... i am of course speaking about my sewing machine :) (snappy headlines just help you get interested in the blog that's all)

So here's a pic of me and my Singer re-united. It's bizarre i have worked without a sewing machine for years, i am a really quite quick and hand sewing now after all the practise... but as soon as i got my sewing machine i became dependant! As a result i have got very little work done since my partner in crime left me.

It was kinda fun trying to find a sewing machine repair man for an old Singer 507... a lot of the new machines are all digital and able to be computer programmed, so it was important to find an old fashioned repair man. Thankfully i did find one after a recommendation from a local fabric store. The chap who fixed it was a nice retired gentleman who asked me a few questions about my machine over the phone and said straight away that it sounded like one of the cogs under the footplate had stripped and would need to be replaced. I booked the 507 in for a service reassured that the repair man told me it was "a good machine - well worth repairing" (well he would, wouldn't he) it's all fixed now and working good as new! He also proudly presented me with the stripped cog at my front door when he returned my machine... it was a lovely "i told you so" moment :)

take care - Dave

Wonnacott Wolf

2007-12-08T10:42:00.000Z

Wonnacott Wolf is finally finished and i've posted his first video onto YouTube (see below). You will have seen before that he was very nearly completed but there were a couple of details that were not yet complete. Now with a set of half moon specs and a smart collar and tie Wannacott Wolf is ready to face the world.

I think the process of building puppets is fascinating... at what point does this collection of foam and fur stop being raw material and start being alive? The obvious answer is when the puppeteer picks it up, but sometimes that isn't true. I think with some characters you form and instant bond, you "know" them as soon as you see them. You are able to pick up the character and immediately start performing with them. I found this with Spam, the second i started to use a Scottish accent with him everything fell into place. Other times you have to work at developing a character for them. Wonnacott Wolf for me has been a "grower". You know those songs you hear which you don't pay much attention to at first, but after a week or so you think they are fantastic. It's not that the song has beaten you into submission and you are forced into liking it... you just needed time to get to know it. It's the same thing with certain characters for me. Pierre is so much a part of me that i don't even have to think when performing him. I never need scripts and it's all ad-libbed, Spam and Mooney are the same. Wonnacott Wolf will become like that once i have made a couple of videos with him and settled down into the character a bit more.

I have posted two videos below, one of Wonnacott Wolf's introduction to the crex81 channel and the second is a short piece of video which is me ranting at the camera between takes whilst making Wonnacott Wolf's first video.

All the best - Dave

Wonnacott Wolf - almost completed

2007-12-03T16:07:00.000Z

By now if you have been keeping up with things in the workshop you will be well aware that i recently met up with Phil Fletcher from the Gluvets to exchange puppet building tips. The upshot of this means that the latest character to leave the workshop is going to be a heavily "Gluvet" inspired puppet.

"Wonnacott Wolf" will be hitting the small screen soon! the very small YouTube screen that is. Wonnacott is still awaiting some final details to his body, a tummy patch and a nice bow tie should finish him off nicely. Of course you will see him in action as soon as he is ready to roll.

I had hoped to get him finished off quicker but sadly i managed to break my sewing machine during construction so i have shipped it off today to the local repair man... hopefully it will return soon with a clean bill of health. I am now back to having 3 sewing machines which don't work. I was fortunately able to borrow my mum's machine to stitch up the last few odds and ends (not without breaking one of her needles off her machine). Sadly this has also had a knock-on effect on my next project which i have already started... let's hope the repair man is skilled and speedy!

All the best - Dave

New Puppets!

2007-11-28T15:51:00.000Z

Hello again folks!

So this past weekend i have the opportunity to see loads of great puppet characters which had been made by Phil from the Gluvets. You may have watched some of the videos of our meet-up which was a blast (as our American cousins would say).

I have not finished anything from the weekend yet - in fact i have just called the sewing machine repair man to get a quote for fixing my sewing machine. However as soon as that is fixed i will be posting pics of the new characters. One will be a wolf (that's an exclusive... you heard it here first) and the other i have only just started so even i don't know what it is yet!

Seeing loads of different characters opened up my mind's eye creatively and has really made me think about making characters i would have possibly not considered before. Hopefully you will see this reflected in the next few characters that i produce. As for now take a look at the many different characters that were on display this weekend. Some you will have seen before on my videos but many of them you will not.

All the best - Dave

Wonders in the workshop

2007-11-26T16:47:00.000Z

This past weekend we have played host to our good friend Phil from the Gluvets. Phil is an expert puppeteer and puppet builder, and this was a wonderful oppurtunity to meet up and exchange ideas. Over the course of the weekend we worked on a brand new puppet project which you can see very soon. This puppet will be finished off shortly - as soon as the sewing machine recovers from its over active weekend!

One of my personal highlights of the weekend was getting to "meet" some of Phils great charaters. Here you can see me with a brilliant dragon puppet Phil made recently. I think you will agree that the character is very special!

I was also pleased to introduce Phil to Pierre and the crex81 crew. On the left you can see Phil meeting Moony for the first time. Phil and I made a couple of videos with Pierre and Lab Rat, but as i spent most of the time laughing it's hard to know how much of them will be useable. We did however get plenty of great photos which will doubtless find their way onto the Hellyer's myspace and The Gluvets' myspace.

Keep your eyes open over the next week or so as I try and get the best pics and videos online. Also there will be a brand new character getting a crex81 debut as soon as he is completed.

In the mean time check out this timelapse from the workshop. You can tell by the work - joke ratio that it was a productive, but very funny weekend!

All the best - Dave

The Muppetcast (lost in translation)

2007-11-20T17:01:00.000Z

Many of you who are muppet fans will already be familiar with a weekly podcast called The MuppetCast. It's a great informative show put together and hosted by Steve Swanson. Last week i thought i would email Steve and let him know how much i have enjoyed listening to the podcast over the last month or so since i found it. I was then delighted to hear him read out my email on this weeks show!

I have been to the states 5 or 6 times and i have always got on well with pretty much everyone i have met. There is absolutely no doubting that there is a difference in world view between Americans and the British, but that is nothing compared to the difference between our vocabulary. I was reminded of this very quickly when i heard Steve read out my email. I had told him that i had "been a puppeteer since i could remember, and i had recently started designing puppets. At the moment i am majoring on puppet design".... that's where the problem occurred. I am often very naughty and type as i would speak (in a conversational style). Steve now thinks i am studying for my Major in Puppet Design - when in fact i have never even been to university! I guess i could have used any number of words to replace "major". I could have said i was focusing, or concentrating... but sadly i didn't. I would like to clear this up and apologise right here to anyone who thinks i may have been trying to "big myself up"... that really isn't the case, i'm just a little lazy when i type (how many capital "i's" have you spotted?).

George Bernard Shaw is credited with having said: "England and America are two countries separated by the same language".

This weekend i will be meeting up with Phil Fletcher from the Gluvets again, so watch this space for collaboration videos and new characters around the corner!

All the best - Dave

Spam - but in a good way

2007-11-18T12:17:00.000Z

Spam recieved his crex81 debut two days ago and I am glad to say has thus far been well recieved. I look forward to making some more videos with him... I think he has good potential. I learned a lot whilst making him, I definately have a few changes to make to the next character i make in his style. But that is what it's all about, building and learning. I have intentionally experimented with different styles of puppet, and very different shapes. I want to stretch myself to ensure I don't get stuck in a rut creatively. I think it's important to keep pushing forwards.

Below are Spam's first two appearances on YouTube, firstly on my vlog and secondly on crex81

all the best - Dave

I Hear With My Little Ear!

2007-11-12T16:04:00.000Z

Ladies and Gentlemen allow me to introduce Spam! (Shelley chose the name) Spam has been made entirely out of off-cuts and fabric samples. This was more out of necessity than any big eco-friendly drive on my part.... but it did make me think a lot about how easy it is to throw something away which you can actually still use. Spam was an adventure from start to finish. Because of the confines of only using scraps (hence his working name of scrappy) Spam's shape and size was very much dictated by what odd bits of foam i had left. This was a nightmare at first, but as soon as i got into it i really enjoyed the challenge, in fact i am glad to say there is at least one more puppets worth of off-cuts laying around - watch this space!

This photo shows Spam's skull before it was covered in fabric. It was a great fun shape to cover, but not one i would choose again :)

You can see from the picture that the pieces of foam are not very large, one of the things i did to make this interesting for myself was try and cut the foam as little as possible. This pushed the design in a direction i would never have gone normally. All i did to trim them foam was to make the pattern symmetrical. As you can see here Spam gets his name from the vast expanse of forehead he has!

Despite the unusual head shape the mouth is very easy to use and is not restricted at all by the over sized forehead. Although at first this looks like a really unnatural shape... think for a minute about male Orangutan and they often have large folds of skin on their cheeks. I'm not sure if they get bigger with age... i'm not a zoologist (but i did want to be as a kid).

So this is what Spam looked at when i initially covered him with fabric. His face was a puzzle for me, it took me a long time to find eyes i was happy with... in this pic i have some half cut ping pong balls which i am using to experiment with eye placement. I basically finished Spam in 3 sittings. I made the skull and mouth in one sitting. The came back and worked out how to cover the head in a way which would give him a really nice unique look. Then finally this morning i completed his body and human hand.

I am very pleased with the outcome, i have experimented with some new techniques during the construction process. The most radical change to the construction process with this character would be the fact Spam is the first puppet i have ever made completely using a sewing machine! For most people this would not even be worth mentioning, but i have hand sewn everything in my puppet building career to date so it was a great relief to see the total build time decimated by the introduction of the Singer!

Let me know what you think of Spam, don't forget to check him out on the crex81 channel where he will be hosting a competition called "I Hear With My Little Ear".

all the best - Dave

Tried and tested or old and boring?

2007-11-10T18:08:00.000Z

I'm pleased to say that people have read this blog from all over the world now! From Thailand to Portugal, and Iceland to Spain people interested in puppetry are coming together. Thanks to those of you who have taken time to comment. It's great to get feedback from people! In honour of those reading along for whom English is not their 1st language:

Hallo und herzlich willkommen!

Olá e bem - vindo!

Hola y bienvenidos!

Salut et bienvenue!

OK i need to come clean about something, i don't really speak any of the above languages... but Google Translate does! Well i studied some Spanish at school and college, but i am nowhere near good enough to be fluent. My comprehension is quite good, but i really lack the vocabulary to enter into any meaningful conversation.

Language is a great tool, comedians often use it to brilliant effect. I love good wordplay in comedy. Mispronounced words that are normally dull or mundane can take on whole new meanings and overtones. I will always remember a comedy sketch with Ronnie Barker when he apologises for "piss-pronouncing my worms". People always said of Peter Sellers that if he hadn't had such a good grip on the English Language he wouldn't have been able to distort it so badly with his character Inspector Clouseau. I love the Pink Panther, i bought the 6 DVD box set a couple of years back. The pace of the comedy is a lot slower than it is nowadays, but that's not always a bad thing.

It strikes me that nowadays we have taken a very definite step back into the kind of slapstick comedy which was all the rage almost 100 years ago. Harold Lloyd and Jackie Chan both share a passion for real, big action stunts, all performed by the artist themselves (no stunt doubles needed). Both are masters of their surroundings and their spacial awareness enables them to make the most of the set/scene they are on. Harold Lloyd died aged 78 in 1971, Jackie Chan would have been just 17 and already making a name for himself in the film industry. Jackie directed his first film in 1980, Shi di chu ma aged only 26.

They always say that nothing under the sun is new. In which case does that make our modern comedy tried and tested or old and boring?

let me know your thoughts

take care - Dave