Oddsods

Honestly, some of the most fun you can have puppetmaking are those creatures and characters gleaned solely from the leftovers and general detritus remaining from more specified designs.

I often refer to puppet makers as the bottom-feeders of the artistic world for our abilities to work with all the scraps and skerricks which filter down to us from the creative industries above. Some of the best designs are those completely random recollection of off-cuts salvaged from the cutting room floor and woven back into a puppet which might never have existed.

These guys are a perfect example of this, utilising cotton rovings and threads and remnants that might otherwise be thrown away or deemed useless, but now take on life in a whole new range of interactive effigies. But what do we call them?

Odd Sods, Foundlings, Scrappies, Litter-bugs or Woopsies… we’re now open for suggestions!

(The faces, by the way, we’re inspired by a curious mark left on the roof of our truck above our bed, that kind of stain you stare at every night before bed and every morning on waking that starts to take on almost symbolic resonance and power…)

Marionette in doll form is approximately 25cm in height or 60cm when strung.

Squeaky Classics: Original designs for all ages from our early roots til now!

The first puppet I ever made in our standard 6-string design was a little Mummy marionette, a simple bandaged affair which utilised the weight of the clay pieces and the meagre costuming to create a proper functioning prototype which remains the core design behind most of our work to date. By working with some basic archetypes and alternating through gender, age and cultural influences, I developed a classic range of differing characters which are a continuing part of the Squeaking Tribe canon today. As familiar as these characters are to me now, I keep the joy alive by incorporating more details and personal quirks than I did in the past, so each one still retains its own unique identity. For the budget-minded, these are a good starting point to gauge your interest without betting the farm. A perfect launch-pad for the young ones, too!