The supports for the animal bodies were milled out of wood and insulation foam. The foam layer was then sculpted by hand, coated in joint compound, and painted.
Decorative scrollwork was painted by hand to gave the puppets a carved stone feel.
In the winter of 2026 I offered to design puppets for a university production of The Magic Flute.
The director wanted a French-rococo style motif throughout the forest in the opera, so I designed puppets around scrollwork patterns.
I designed three forest animals the main character interacts with in a scene, and a dragon that starts off the opera. The puppets had to be simple so they could be manufactured quickly but have enough points of articulation to be reasonably expressive.
I made lips out of poolnoodles and covered the lower parts of the jaws in fabric to represent gums.
The production team added decorative fixtures to detail the face and a black fabric sheet to mouth, providing the illusion of a cavernous maw.
The most elaborate puppet was the dragon, which was a 10-foot wide face suspended from cables so the jaws could move.
All 4 jaw components were hand cut with a jigsaw.
