Do you have a dream?

[Yahnke]

How many of you dream of being a self supporting puppeteer? How many of you have tried it? In theory I could see someone building their own puppets and performing for schools, libraries, birthday parties, etc.. and making good money at it. Have any of you tried this? OR do any of you besides puppet planet have a pretty a puppet building business?

just curious. thanks

 

[robinthecrow]

I like the idea.

I'm tempted to give puppet building and selling 'em off a go. Seems good money. But I'm sure what I end up selling the puppets for will pretty much cover their material costing... cropping into an issue which has been covered here many times before.

I'd love to do it! Time spent learning new things and knowing and hoping the person at the other end will look after the things! :-p

 

[ravagefrackle]

you know it seems like a good idea, but it is rarely easy,

getting cleints is a hard thing to do, and finding ones who are willing to pay what it costs to have a professinal puppet built is even harder, i have been freelancing for the last 2and a half years and i can tell u it is no picinic, unless you are lucky enough to get involved witha big production, or are able to mount your own sucesseful one.

 

[Whatever]

I dreamed last night that my mom crawled into bed next to me, and I couldn't figure out how she got into the dorm without a key.

 

[scarylarrywolf]

I dreamed last night that my mom crawled into bed next to me, and I couldn't figure out how she got into the dorm without a key.

If EVER there was a muffin...

 

[Whatever]

If EVER there was a muffin...

Hey, he wanted to know if I had a dream!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

If EVER there was a muffin...

Most...disturbing...muffin....EVER!

 

[Whatever]

Most...disturbing...muffin....EVER!

LOL!

 

[Show and Tell]

Got a full body shiver from that nasty muffin! ...things that make ya go..BLUUUUGH!

ANYWAY! As for the original topic I actually do have a dream, one I plan to see happen (Lord willing). I'm raising my own puppet team/ puppet and prop building company with my four children that love puppets and puppetry as much as I do. I've started out in my attic which is a little tight for a good workshop but yet adequate to begin with. I'm working off of an extremely modest budget but my dream is strong and I'm convinced I WILL have a successful puppet company on the east coast. The plan is to begin part time self employment this comming year. This should be one of the easiest parts of starting a buisness but I haven't been able to come up with a good name yet. Seems everything else has been pretty smooth but that. Brain block I guess . I think I'm going to need a name for this company to get a tax #. Any suggestions would be of great value and considered. The clients I'm intending on reaching are mostly churches but I want to offer higher quality looking products than most church puppet teams can afford at a price they can.

 

[Iokitek]

Great story I especially enjoy hearing that your whole family is involved. I myself am having problems finding people to help me. There's only two of us here and one is behind the camera so that leaves me as the only puppeteer. Then again I must admit I haven't started asking around yet if anyone's interrested in helping. But I guess it's good to be able to show them what the plan is first. The best way to do this is to make short sketches I think.

My long term goal is to become a puppeteering choreographer so to speak. In all kinds of puppeteering fields. From regular handpuppets to bunraku techniques to the use of animatronics. Whatever gets the job done. My plan is to start a company together with some others wich is responsible for it's own productions. But maybe eventually we would also be open to doing colaboration projects in wich puppetry is needed. Right now I have my own ideas though. besides, I'm not very good at working for others. Unless I really have to.

The biggest problem everyone must face is money ofcourse. You'd have to be able to invest. And I REALLY don't have alot of money. Especially since I've decided to only use legal software it's become a nightmare for me. I'm breaking my head over how to be able to afford these programs but I haven't come up with a solution yet. I've asked my parents if I could borrow the money from them. But then again I'd have to pay that back aswell and I don't know how. Not to mention that it makes me sick to my stomach to ask other people for money. I can get very depressed thinking about these matters.

And then I also need material to build puppets, props, sets, miniatures, etc. So far I've found some solutions though. I can get scraps from lumber companies so I can use the wood to build furniture and stuff. Then I can also get old matrasses of wich I use the foam as stuffing for couches and chairs etc. These are all cheap or free solutions to problems. But it does affect the quality of the endproduct. It can get smelly aswell

So I guess I have alot of dreams. But maybe I really am...dreaming... if I expect all this to work out well for me. So far (especially financially) it doesn't seem like a reachable goal. But I will perservere though. God willing I'll succeed someday.