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Puppets Magic Studio Blog
Tonight At The London Palladium
The two old ladies we designed ('Ruby' and 'Pearl') are back for another series on ITV. Here you can see them in the theatre's royal box, having fun with comedian Joe Pasquale who has a puppet of his own! These are foam and fleece puppets which we constructed here at our studio, as well as tailoring the mini costumes. Check them out every Wednesday 8pm on ITV.
Study in Blue
Here is one of our latest characters. We were commissioned by the client to design a professional puppet with blue skin for a series of stage performances. The vibe we wanted is a slightly vintage feel to the overall asthetic. We went ahead and custom made the costume from a wonderful geometric print. A pair of sculpted lips, white teeth and two big, doey brown eyes finished her look.
Happy Halloween
You may have seen this little guy flying around recently! Here is one of our latest creature puppets. We took this character out for a photoshoot just around the corner from Regent's Park, London. It was infact within the grounds of a Church yard - very relevant! Whilst Bats are often regarded as 'spooky' or 'vampires', we decided to make our bat furry and cute (even though he has a nice pair of fangs). Onlookers were mainly office workers, sitting in the Church yard on their lunch break. They certainly had a surprise when we got this fella out. The response was great - everyone loves a furry critter, particulary if they're fluffy!
Corporate Puppets
Sometimes simplicity is the best. We were recently comissioned to design and make twelve puppets for a series of corporate films. The client wanted clean lined, minimalist in style puppets, with moving mouths - a popular style used on many television programmes. Here is one of the twelve characters we made. It is always great to design a set of puppets in this style - awesome!
Hello, Dear!
This old gal was great to build - from the initial concept artworks right the way through to the construction of the character. We gave this cheeky old lady a sculpted face and her costume was completely custom tailored in our studio. Big shout out to our fabrication team for pulling this one off. Oh and to our mechanical designer for those big eyebrows that can raise up and down... depending on her mood!
Some Characters with...The Vamps!
Earlier this year we designed and built some old lady puppets for ITV's 'Tonight at the London Palladium', Audrey and Alice. These two old ladies (who you can see in the centre of the photo) worked in the Theatre's kiosk. They got a great surprise when they met the pop band 'The Vamps', who performed on the show. Dressing up from wig to toe in the Vamps's mechandise, Audrey and Alice are The Vamps's biggest fans... ever!
Our Latest Project
We set off to Shadwell, London to take some shots of this guy - a character we designed and built based on a client's photograph. We shot this in a bustling part of East London, near the River Thames. It is always fascinating to see the reactions puppets get when filming. People stopped and looked on, waiting - almost as if a piece of theatre was about to start! This is always fantastic to see. Perhaps if you're ever around London and you see some funny looking characters being filmed, we may just be behind them!
A London Photoshoot
One of our latest character designs. This custom 'rude boy' puppet was developed by our team from the inital 2D concept, through to final fabrication.
Captain Travel
Last year we set to work on a puppet for Disney Maker Studios and Transcendent Films. This wonderfully designed alien puppet was created for a TV Pilot. Having a sculpted head with two mouths, this guy was a challenge to build; the entire costume was custom tailored from scratch. However, the most changelling part was the fact that we only had one week for the build! (we can offer a very fast turn around for projects which have tight timescales!).
The Best Part Of The Process
Our studio has many stages during producing bespoke characters, one of those being the design phase. Good character design can take many forms; it can be either a quick scribble or a fully rendered illustration.