Turn That Smile Upside Down!

June 7, 2010 1:09 PM

Greetings from Frown Town! Frown Town is a puppet show about children (but most definitely not for them) by mefi's own Andy Warner and Steven Foundling. They are using Kickstarter to raise funds to build sets and to buy a video camera. From concept to creation, from failure to success, the blog is fascinating. (via projects)
posted by cjorgensen (10 comments total)

This is fascinating! Thank you for the FPP, I would never have seen it in projects.
posted by headnsouth at 3:38 PM on June 7, 2010

It's been killing me to hold off on making the post. I wanted to wait until there was a bit more content there. If you read the posts they are funny, informative, and actually have a story arch. My favorite puppet is that creepy stillborn thing. Reading what they went through to get that functioning was cool (hint: it doesn't work the second time either).

Another puppet site I check out often is furrypuppet.com.

I just love when people live my daydreams. I don't have the patience to do what these people do, but I love reading about them.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:20 PM on June 7, 2010

This is reminding me uncomfortably of "Smile Time" one of a small handful of really good Angel episodes.
posted by angrycat at 4:45 PM on June 7, 2010

Hey, Andy here. I've never seen that Angel episode, but it looks pretty nuts. The puppet designs look kind of similar to that French show, Les Guignols de L'info (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Guignols_de_l'info), which is awesome.
posted by renraw at 10:01 AM on June 8, 2010

These puppets are gorgeous; I hope you guys get enough scratch together so that we can see a full show! Incidentally, I loved all the build-notes. I'd really like to see what kind of magical tiny stitch you use for the fleece.
posted by Greg Nog at 11:30 AM on June 8, 2010

Thanks Greg! That stitch is tough to master. Steve's way better at it than me, so I sewed all the hands and arms that didn't matter if they looked a bit wonky. I'll get him to post a quick tutorial on it some time in the coming weeks.
posted by renraw at 12:36 PM on June 8, 2010

That would be wonderful! Thank you so much!
posted by Greg Nog at 12:38 PM on June 8, 2010

I remember noticing Frown Town in MeProjects a while back and getting pretty excited. It combines two of my favorite things: puppets and a dismal outlook. I'm looking forward to seeing something beyond the pictures but I like what I see so far.
posted by chairface at 3:23 PM on June 8, 2010

I stupidly want to make a puppet. This is what got me onto this site. There really are no decent puppet making books out there. I love the individual posts. I almost feel like I am getting a puppet education from reading the site.

I have learned I don't have the kind of patience these guys have. The post on eye creation drove me nuts to just read. I don't think I could get myself to spend more than about an hour making eyes.

I like to think everything creative should take about am hour.

An hour to carve, an hour to make the eyes, and hour to put in the mechanisms an hour to sew the skin/fur on. You should be able to have a functioning puppet in an afternoon, right? Then I read this site and I lose my mind! I think I'd just kidnap a puppet maker.
posted by cjorgensen at 4:09 PM on June 8, 2010

These puppets are really good! I can't wait to see a production!
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 4:55 PM on June 12, 2010