Taught by Erin Pollock
October 17th - 18th, 2026 12 - 6PM
Creative makers of all stripes are welcome to join us in the Puppet Laboratory - No experience required. All you need is curiosity and an eagerness to explore new materials and methods.
In this intensive two-day workshop, you'll design and build the armature for a stop motion
animation puppet of your own design. Completed armatures will have articulated joints for
expressive movement, removable head/hands for easy adjustments, repairs, and future mods, and magnetic foot tie-downs to support stable posing and smoother walk cycles.
Depending on your interest and work pace, you may also learn to fabricate:
● Pliable tails, wings, hair, or other custom features
● Eyes that blink and move within the sockets,
● Magnetic hands/fingers for gripping props or moving on all fours (or… eights?)
● A set of interchangeable mouths for more expressive facial animation and future lip-syncs
● Silicone heads with punched hair
● Simple molds for casting replicas
You’ll leave this workshop with a customized puppet armature ready to be massed and
costumed (perhaps in a future workshop?) More importantly, you’ll go home with skills you can carry into future projects. Our focus isn’t perfect puppets—it’s creative problem-solving, material fluency, and playful experimentation. Join us in the puppet studio and bring your character to life!
MATERIALS:
See attached Materials List for what you’ll need to bring to class (most things you likely already have at home).
All other materials are provided. You’ll receive a comprehensive kit of professional quality materials, tools, and PPE to use throughout the workshop, including aluminum armature wire, brass tubing, epoxy, oil-based and polymer clays, pigments, adhesives, rare earth magnets, silicone rubber, and other specialized fabrication materials. During class, you’ll be able to use your student discount to purchase additional materials from the store.
BEFORE CLASS:
Print the provided character design template (or pull into a digital drawing app like procreate)
Draw your character from three angles (proportions are key; perfection isn’t)
Bring 8.5″×11″ printed copies of your 3 drawings to class (or digital drawings on an ipad)
Gather items from the short supply list
http://Erinpollock.com
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