You Pick

Ok world,

In an attempt to keep myself creating I need you to help me push past the wall. I'm good on hand puppets--I have plenty of things to work on there--but in the hours of the day/night when my mind can't handle sitting at a sewing machine and isn't responisble enough to use a dremel, I need to know what to do.

I have 100% wool felt (with all these schmancy vegetable dyes and the whathaveyou--it's quite nice) & I'm not sure what to make with them. I'm thinking kid-friendly stuff with the 100% wool felt and I'll save the acrylic felt (of which I still have gobs) for things like microwaves and nunchucks.

But I need your ideas. This is yet another Puppet Pie Call To Duty. Please post (anonymously if you really want to) what puppet you think I should make. It doesn't mean I'll make it--it means that I'll really consider making it.

Things to keep in mind:

1. I won't make a penis, boogers or poop. (This is a classy operation)
2. I probably won't make a lightbulb or a peanut anytime soon.
3. I'm not an engineering genius--keeping shapes simple is good.
4. It's possible I've done it before. Look at my flickr or my sold section on Etsy to check.
5. Just because I've done it before, doesn't mean I won't do it again.
6. Put it in the comments so I have a place to find it. Telling me on twitter doesn't suffice.


What will you get if I choose to make your idea? Bragging rights. And if you're the first person to have ever given me the idea, I'll mention you in puppet's description.

Where is summer going?

At the beginning of the summer I had several projects laid out for me.

1) make a few videos
2) make some more hand puppets
3) animate *something*
4) finger puppets galores
5) maybe enroll the boy-child into swim lessons

I thought, Wow, I've got a lot of time to kill this summer!

Now its June 7th. Officially 1 week into June. We leave for vacations (and puppetry festivals!) for most of July (anyone want to cat-sit?). That means I only have three weeks left before my time to work on projects comes to an end! Yikes? Yikes, indeed.

First priority- Custom orders. I've got two to finish by the end of June. Totally doable.

Second Priority- Etsy video. To be honest, I'll likely do this sometime this week--before the two custom orders are done. I need to get it up as soon as possible--it's just a matter of writing out an acceptable dialog and then turning on the camera. Writing the acceptable dialog is the difficult part.

Third Priority- Make hand puppets! I've been stalling on making more hand puppets for my etsy shop for a long time, now. It probably has something to do with the fact that I need to clean my craft space.

Fourth Priority- I've been wanting to make some videos with my finger puppets. I want to make them elaborate, but I don't know where to go from there. I just know: Elaborate.

Throughout everything- Finger puppets. This is something I can do every day. I could probably make gazillions of these in a month, but to be honest, it's a matter of not knowing what to make sometimes. I mostly rely on my friends to tell me what they want me to make--if I get inspired from that, usually it's a winner (i.e. safety cone). But if I could, my brain would just make bunnies and puppies and kittens and mice (that, let's be honest, all look roughly the same when I make them). So if you have ideas, go ahead and leave them in the comments. I might make it. I'm trying not to make too many elaborate finger puppets right now, mostly because the price-points are more than anyone is really willing to pay for 2" of felt right now. And hey, I still might make it if it's a completely awesome idea.