Welcome to XtheOwlFiles.com. I'm Steve Troop and I've been a puppeteer and a cartoonist for over 25 years. Occasionally, I even get paid for work in these fields. You may know me from such webcomics as Melonpool and as a puppet designer and builder on an episode of Glee.
Ever since I was a little boy, I was fascinated with the Neighborhood of Make Believe puppets from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. One of my earliest memories was of carrying around a coffee can filled with little versions of King Friday XIII's castle, Daniel Striped Tiger's Clock and X and Henrietta's Tree that I made out of Play-doh.
In the last few years, the maker community has exploded with videos of fans building replicas of everything from Iron Man armor to Muppet-Style puppets. Often, I've looked for tutorials on how to build the Mr. Rogers-style glove puppets, but as far as I can tell, no one has ever built anything like this. Or -- if they have, they haven't shared their experiences on a video blog.
At least, until now.
Last week, I built a prototype of X the Owl. It was a worthy experiment, and while I filmed most of the process, there are definitely things I want to improve upon. My background is primarily in hand and rod style puppets (like Kermit the Frog), so there is a bit of a learning curve in this form of puppetry for me. I thought this might be a fun project for others to share in as well. Here's the prototype X in action:
I think with the skills I learned on this initial puppet, I can probably build Henrietta Pussycat, Daniel Tiger and Grandpere. With what I learn from building those puppets (and assuming I still am as obsessed with this project as I am now), I think I can build King Friday and Queen Sara Saturday. And with the skills I learn from those builds, I'm sure I can build Cornflake S. Pecially and ultimately, everybody's favorite, Lady Elaine Fairchilde.
I hope you'll join me! And feel free to follow along!
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