Dragonettes – Once upon a time, I had yet to design a technique for stringing four-legged beasties and so my first attempts to make dragons were humanoid and thus not quite what people had in mind when shopping for a dragon marionette. The upside of this is they could be colourfully interpreted as other things which did spark a memory in the minds of the viewer, whether that was Alf (the Alien Life Form) from the old 80’s sitcom or one of the anarchic Fireys from Jim Henson’s “The Labyrinth” which I eventually adopted as a working title. Any way you look at it, they do make for their own unique lizard-like manifestations of quirk and a fun experiment with colour and textile.

Doll-form approx 25cm tall or
as Marionettes 60cm hanging.

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!