Monster Puppet: the handover!

So today is the day of the handover! After a week of frantic building the Green Monster (as yet un-named) he is ready to be handed over to the J247 team! Dave (not me.. another Dave) is going to be performing him. It's Dave's first time performing a real puppet character so he is obviously a man ready for a challenge... it's not an easy task for sure!


So what is special about the Green Monster? It can swallow small objects - unlike the majority of hand puppets the back of its mouth is open rather than closed. This alteration enables the character to swallow objects rather than just chew them up and spit them out.

Initially this was not an easy build to get my head around... but once I realized how I should go about it it all fell into place reasonably quickly. I decided to build the body of the puppet first so I could get into the build rather than continually sketching out ideas. I worked backwards in some ways, I completed the whole body and head before I even built the mouth... If I had waited until I had it all figured out before starting I would probably still be here tapping my pencil on a blank sheet of paper!

The J247 team is going to use the Green Monster as a part of their summer program, and if they find he works well they will roll him out as part of a more regular performance. It was a fun challenge to build and I learnt a lot whilst building him. I look forward to making another character that swallows items now I've figured out how it all works :)

Take care - Dave

Monster in the making!

Recently I've been fortunate enough to have been performing and making videos for clients so I haven't needed to build many puppets. But just recently I had two commissions come in which I am excited about so I thought I'd write about them. The first one is a big green monster for a Children's Church group called J247 it's going to be a fun character when it's finished... especially as it's going to be able to eat things (including swallowing them!).
Swallowing was the main challenge to this character as it cuts across (literally) many of the conventional building techniques used for this sort of character.
Normally I would have the fabric lining the mouth plate double up as a hinge so to make a mouth that didn't need that made the old grey matter work a little more than usual.

In this picture you can see him in his current unfinished state (no features or hands at present). I have lined his mouth in black to disguise what it really is... basically it's a chute which allows small objects down it. It's only a first attempt at making a character like this, but so far it's working out well.

I'll post completed pictures soon to keep you up to date with how it all works out in the end!

Take care - Dave
ps if you're interested, here's my twitter details: @hellyersonline

crex81: a simple explanation

OK so many of the regular readers of my blog (well done to both of you!) will know I run a couple of YouTube channels.

hellyersonline is my own vlogging channel… it is anything and everything that I see and do in everyday life. Some of this will be puppet building videos and some of it will be silly comedy ideas and other bits will be holiday and family days etc. This channel aims to please 1 person only – me . I know the quality is mixed and I really don’t mind, I do it for my own amusement… and it amuses me that other people watch.

crex81 is a collection of puppetry videos that I have uploaded. There are no people (real humans) featured on the channel as regulars. I have had human guests and puppet characters interacting with humans… but the star has always remained the puppet. I have never intentionally shown my dace on this channel (it has sneaked into shot once or twice… but that’s another story). One question I do get asked from time to time is - what is crex81 – what does it mean? As you will have picked up from my Spraid blog I wrote a short while ago, I am really into spraycan art. I used to travel a lot and take photos of graffiti all the time. When I first started designing my own tags etc I came up with a name: “Creative Explosion”. Very simply crex was already taken as a username… and I couldn't be bothered to write out CreativeExplosion as a username all the time so I shortened it to crex81.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the latest video offering – Pierre playing Tennis on Wii Sports… it was filmed live and I was genuinely playing it with him. I hope some of the fun of the game translates to the screen it was a real laugh.

Take care - Dave

Horse Puppet for SALE!

It seems that the Horse Puppet I designed a couple of years back is still quite popular... I've put one up on Ebay this week, so if you're interested please do check it out.

If you can't bid on this auction but your interested in having a horse puppet like this made for you please email me on: info@hellyerspuppetworkshop.com

Take care- Dave

Return to Rainbow!

One of the real highlights of working with Rainbow was getting to meet members of the original TV cast. When we performed in Telford Malcolm Lord came along to watch the show. Malcolm voices Bungle and performed George initially and then Bungle later in his Rainbow days. Below you can see Malcolm posing with myself and Phil (Zippy’s operator) after the show:When the show reached Barking we were pleased to welcome Ronnie Le Drew as our guest of honour. Ronnie performed Zippy on TV on the original show… and still does perform Zippy on TV specials from time to time. Ronnie was good enough to stay behind after the show and give us a short master class on how he works with the Rainbow characters – a real treat.
I won’t bore you with more Rainbow relater reminiscing; just know that it was a great opportunity which I really enjoyed.

Take care – Dave

Rainbow - Bungle, Zippy and George!

This time last year I was just about to start working on Rainbow Live (the modern stage show of the TV Classic). It was a great job to do and we really had a laugh, however now the tour has ended and the show is packed away neatly in boxes. Seeing as i'll not be giving anything away any more I thought I'd share a few pics with you...

This was the stage set for the show, as you can see it was a brightly coloured set with plenty of hiding places. The blue and yellow breakfast bar behind me in the picture above was where I spent 80% of my time hiding during the show.I performed George through the holes in the top of the breakfast bar.

Below you can see the inside of the breakfast bar at the end of the last show I performed in.
I was brought onto the show at short notice to replace an outgoing puppeteer who was unwell. You can see all their cue points gaffa'd to the inside of the breakfast bar. Also you may spot my drink and the remains of the "welcome home" party scene on the floor. It was a very cramped space to say the least, and hearing your cue points wasn't easy being stuck in a box with the nearest monitor a few meters away... but the effect was great!

I'll try and post some more pics soon.
Take care - Dave

Spraid

Some of you may know that I do more than just build puppets... I run a community youth work project called the united bus and I'm also a keen footballer & mountain bike rider in my spare time.

However today none of that is the subject of this blog. Today we talk about spray can art! Last summer my Sister-in-law, my wife and I painted up 63 canvases 59 of which we sold for charity raising over £350.00. Because we received such a positive feedback from the work Spraid was born. Nearly 9 months later I am busy preparing for this summer's big push. I am hoping to raise enough money to not only send it to one charity this year - but to three!

If this is the sort of thing that interests you and you'd like to see some of the work I have been doing over the last couple of months search for "spraid art" on facebook. On the Spraid Art profile you'll see lots of photos of some of the art that will go on sale this summer.

Take care - Dave