A Look Inside Furry Puppet Studio
“Byline written by Zack Buchman, Guest Contributor.”
Hi everyone. I am Zack Buchman, the founder and Creative Director of Furry Puppet Studio, a custom-puppet design studio based in SoHo, New York. We design and build custom puppets for television, music videos, and advertising.
I know this community is all about creativity, handmade crafts, and finding everyday happiness. I feel that puppetry fits right into that space. There is something very real and a bit enchanting about being able to have an inanimate object come to life in front of you. Once the suspension of disbelief is there, it is just alive. It is magical.
The Joy of the Physical Process
The process of designing a custom puppet usually starts with us just doing a bunch of sketches and playing around with materials. Often, those initial sketches are what we keep coming back to throughout the process. Sometimes your brain just knows.
We find inspiration in a certain material or synthetic fur that we see. Once we are happy with the conceptual design, we continue by carving the basic mock-up of the puppet out of foam. That is kind of how the magic begins. You cut the foam, you set the eye, and then the character is in the room with you. It has weight, someone can pick it up, and it pushes back. I find that it feels very real, even dramatic in comparison to digital art.
The Blue Yeti
Blue monster puppet: The Blue Yeti puppet we created for a music video.
One project that I think captures this feeling perfectly is the Blue Yeti we created for a music video for the band Herman Dune. The yeti ends up hitching a ride with Jon Hamm. The yeti’s eyes are shiny black hemispheres. It feels like he is seeing city life for the first time with wonder. It is amazing how a simple block of foam with some fur can express so much emotion.
Embracing the Creative Journey
I never went to college, which I believe gave me a unique POV. It forced me to rethink the basics and sometimes approach things from a completely different angle. It also forced me to work extra hard and collaborate with talented people who have the skills and the tools that I did not.
I feel very thankful for those collaborations. Almost everything I love was made inside a limit, and there is some fun in the challenge. For anyone out there working on their own handmade projects or creative hobbies, I think the best advice is to just do it for yourself and not seek validation if you don’t have to.
Thank you to Mary for letting me share a bit of our world with you. If you want to see more of our custom puppet work.
You can visit our studio: https://www.furrypuppet.com/
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Here are some more of the puppets. Stop by and check out the studio!
