The Perils of Puppet Building

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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)

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

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