Self portrait puppet
A few months ago, I entered a design competition at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, and I thought it’d be memorable if I attached a functional puppet directly to my design board. So I went for it—and made a self-portrait puppet.
I designed it in the same style as the puppets I had just finished for Reefer Madness, imagining myself as one of the reefer fiends. It felt like a fun way to tie my recent work into the piece while keeping it personal to me. I actually ended up having people recognizing me at the festival just from seeing my puppet!
The head is a modified pinhead pattern from Project Puppet that I reworked to lay flat against the board while still being fully functional. I used 1-inch poly foam for structure, minky fabric for texture, safety eyes, and plastic serving spoons for the eyes. The mouth is movable through a hidden hand slot behind the board, so it can “talk” during presentations.
One of the trickier parts was figuring out how to keep the face expressive and dimensional while mounted flat, but it came together really well. It ended up being a weird, personal, and super fun way to blend theatrical design, puppet-building, and creature creation.
https://youtu.be/QwBtBED-0Bs?si=3Sq8DU_4nVYIIZtC
https://youtu.be/QwBtBED-0Bs?si=3Sq8DU_4nVYIIZtC1
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