Frosty 3

Here is, you guesed it, another Frosty puppet design. Click here to watch Frosty’s "12 Days of Christmas" podcast.

Happy Holidays!

Frosty 2

Here is another Frosty puppet design. Click here to watch Frosty’s "12 Days of Christmas" podcast.

Frosty

Here is a puppet design I did for Frosty the Snowman. He was designed and built for a Christmas play written by my friend Dylan Campbell. Frosty is now the host of the podcast "Frosty’s 12 Days of Christmas," in which he and his snowball buddy Steve count down to the big day. The podcast features an assortment of guests including Santa’s reindeer and members of the Christmas support team.

Check out all the episodes here.

Al Done

Once I finished Al the Alien’s mouth palate, I painted his skin with a combination of flock glue and acrylic pigment. His eyes were made out of styrene vacuformed over a half sphere and painted with a combination of black and silver spray paint and glossy Krylon clear coat.

Here is the finished puppet in front of the barn on the Jim Henson Company lot.

Hands

Al the Alien’s hands were carved out of soft foam. I inserted a wire armature so his fingers could be fully posable.

Belt Sander

Al the Alien’s head was smoothed out with a belt sander. This is a very delicate process that takes a light touch and a lot of patience. It's a bit like cutting a diamond with a chainsaw. I found this step of the puppet-building process nerve wracking at first, but once I relaxed I got a good rhythm going. As puppet builder Eric Engelhardt told me, I had to be in a focused, almost Zen-like state.

I was warned that if I applied too much pressure, the soft foam could be pulled into the belt sander. Fortunately, that only happed once, leaving a gouge in the top of the puppet's head. Eric gave me some good tips on how to take the foam down and smooth out the damaged area.

Al's Television Debut

I built Al the Alien at the Jim Henson Creature Shop last spring with the help of Jane Gootnick, Eric Engelhardt and B.J. Guyer. Al was based on a character design by puppeteer Julianne Buescher and took about two weeks to build. He made his television debut Monday, Nov. 20 on The Jim Henson Company's Puppet Up! – Uncensored on TBS. He was performed by Brian Henson.

Al the Alien’s head was carved out of a block of super-soft foam. The basic shape was created with a large band saw. I refined the edges with a sharp, bendable razor blade called a Persona.