PUPPETRY FABRICATION - Jnwilliams's Portfolio

Fabrication

Over-sized Puppets

"Cardiff Giant " for IndieWorks's Production of "The Giant Hoax" is L200 foam head with moving mouth mech and articulated hands with fingers mechs made of Eva foam and Etha Foam. Costume by Tyler Carlton Williams.

Photo by Brian E. Long

"Grandparent" Backpack puppets for Artsillery's production of "Dirty Turk" are made of reed, backpacks, and paper mâché.

Photo by Alissa Eykilis

Moving Mouth Puppets

Under the instruction of Pasha Romanowski, who gave the the basic pattern, I developed this character at the Beyond the Sock On Camera Puppetry Workshop 2018.

Working with Pasha, I airbrushed the stripes and altered his original pattern to have more play in the mouth movement.

"Spacebus 9" Live Television Puppet Show for the Children's Hospital

MFA Project

These puppets were designed with a children's hospital in mind. The fabric and plastic interior are made to separate in order for the puppets to be washed. No foam or wood are used on these puppets. Armatures are metal, plastic, nylon, and they are removable. The character designs are all inspired by elements in nature with the custom colors of the hospital used as much as possible. I utilized an online photoshop program to digitally test color branding. I flat patterned and sculpted the plastic canvas for each puppet. I also dyed some of the Antron and fur on this project as well. See the TV Puppetry Section for photos.

Stop Motion Fabrication

Polly and Castor

These puppets were made with plastic coated steel wire, epoxy, balsa wood, latex, PAX paint, worbola, and fosshape with needle felted emblems on their suits. I cast their hands out of latex over a wire armature, and painted them with PAX paint. I sewed in zippers to give me access to their armatures, which did not break even after shooting five thirty second stop motion shorts!

Stop Motion Scenic Design

Inspired by a geode, I used fast mache to sculpt a rugged exterior planet surface on a large carved piece of blue foam. I made two more additional units to give some entrances for the puppets. I then glued acrylic gems, ping pong balls, and lights on the inside to create the tiny world of Polly and Castor. Using photoshop I created a large print for the floor, which covered the steel sheet.

Alice Light + Dark

Stop Motion Photography Exhibit

Alice, Mad Hatter, Caterpillar, and Queen's heads were carved out of sculpee. Alice's head was molded in silicone and cast in plastic. Wig was made of synthetic hair.

Mad Hatter's hair is craft foam. Queen's hair is mini satin roses.

The March Hare is needle felted into Fosshape. Caterpillar's body is Fosshape.

Cheshire Cat is foam and fur.

White shadow was used for the White Rabbit.

White wool roving is used for the smoke effect.

Clay and miniature cards make up the Queen of Heart's guards.

Miniature Props and Costumes

Wired "pom pom" dog. In this short, Polly and Castor make a dog out of pom poms and glue that comes to life, wagging its tail and jumping about.

Miniature Scrapbook complete with tiny polaroid of Polly and Castor for the short in which Castor gives Polly a scrapbook.

"Singing Hand Sanitizer" Bottle was relabeled and spring adjusted so that it could raise and lower per frame. Sanitizer was made from various sizes of dried hot glue covered in clear polish for replacement animation.