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
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Sunday, 6 September 2009
Hellyer's Puppet Workshop - Relocation Project
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Hellyer's Puppet Workshop Etsy Store now open!
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
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Monster Puppet: the handover!
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
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
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Monster in the making!
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.
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
ps if you're interested, here's my twitter details: @hellyersonline
Monday, 27 April 2009
crex81: a simple explanation
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
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
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Horse Puppet for SALE!
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
Monday, 9 March 2009
Spraid
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
Friday, 27 February 2009
FRENZY 09 introduces it’s first ever intern: Freddie Frenzy!
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:
Monday, 19 January 2009
Puppet Building Race!
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:
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:
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