Announcement    HAPPY 2023! Thanks so much to everyone who helped make 2022 a great year for this shop. I'm going to be adding new things as I get them ready, and here's a requested one hot off the presses: an LG giraffe tee! Build your Little Genius character collection and add this cool tee to your wardrobe.

If you have a favorite character you'd like to see on a t-shirt or sweatshirt, let me know. I'll be adding more soon (the original background art takes time), but if a bunch of friends want a particular character, I'll work on that one first.

WELCOME!
Hi everyone and welcome to my shop. I'm Dave, and I'm a professional puppeteer and puppet builder with over 35 years experience. You may be wondering what the story is behind these characters, and why they're a bit pricier than many puppets you see.

First of all, these are not toys, but 100% handmade and handcrafted characters intended for performance. All the fabric parts are hand-dyed, the eyes and pupils custom formed, and the costumes and detailing custom crafted and applied by me, the designer. The characters range in size from 13"(33 cm) - 15" (38 cm) typically. They are large enough for SM-MED adult hands, and fine for children 7 and above.

I custom make each one to order, so there's no need to worry about the listed quantities.

THE BACKSTORY:
In the early 2000's I was contacted by a producer friend in Denver to upgrade some puppets for a well-known infant video series. I designed and built 5 initial puppets, and the videos were such a success that I wound up making and puppeteering characters for many more of the series titles. Sweet! (As a puppeteer, nothing beats a steady gig)

Eventually they stopped producing the videos so I thought, "Well... that's the end of that."

Fast forward almost a decade to a few years ago when I started receiving messages from a devoted group of fans of the videos. A number of really cool young people on the spectrum loved the characters, and asked if I could make more puppets the same quality as the ones in the videos.

Contractually, I couldn't make exact copies, but I could do something similar, so voila! Here are the "Little Geniuses."

One cool part of this is that some of my clients (these awesome young folk) make viral videos with the characters, which is wonderful. As a puppeteer, I love helping others use the power of puppetry to share and communicate, especially for those who may experience more challenges interacting socially.

So thats the story. If you (or someone you know) would benefit from using puppets like this, please order and support the shop. Your orders make it possible to provide more.

I 'm happy to do these characters in other colors and combinations, and I'm happy to create custom characters, if you're able to pay an extra design fee and production schedule permitting.

Thanks,

Dave