Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545257
30 PROP CULTURE I SUMMER 2026 just right that I wanted to make sure my work was up to snuff. We built a lot of market sequence booths and stalls out of balsawood and styrene strips, along with just having fun with the Star Wars legacy of kit bashing and found objects. There was a Los Angeles hobby and art supply store called Kit Kraft, a miniature-focused shop known for its extensive selection of unique components. I would spend hours there just pulling random items together to make something new. Some of my favorite pieces were all the button panels which were made from painting a metal necklace plate and snipping off the colored heads of sewing pins. The macguffin in that project was a little briefcase that held the evil plans for the Empire. We made two hero props in a size that worked for the main character puppet, and then we made two or three various sizes in case they wanted it to change scale size in the hands of larger or smaller puppets. Most props in the market set were fixed to the stage deck using adhesive or pinning methods to ensure stability during animation for when the animators were working with the main puppets. Fabric is a fun element to work with in stop motion. Many of the booths in the market scene had a version of a sun sail or covering. We ended up making most of the fabric solid by pouring Zap-A-Gap CA directly on it. I certainly would not recommend doing that indoors. The chemical reaction that happens puts off toxic fumes and will burn the inside of your nose. The result, however, is a flowing fabric that is stuck in time. We also put thin armature wire in some of the fabrics that were closer to camera so that the animators could move the fabric as if blowing in the breeze. That came from a conversation with the animators themselves as to whether or not they wanted that option of detail. There is a lot of prop rigging that goes into stop-motion puppetry. You have the wires connected to the prop itself, but then the other end must go somewhere. Sometimes it goes in a clamp off screen, but for the majority of this project, they were pinned directly into the deck of the stage. We made that deck by pouring two-part rigid foam over a standard height wooden platform. Once it cured, you could put push pins through it, but it was firm enough for the sets and puppets to perform on without giving way. That way as a puppet was running down an alley, the animators would simply move the puppet and prop down the road by sticking the pins in a new place. A year after that, I was hired to build sets and props for two seasons of a steaming show called The Hollywood Puppet Show. We took stories from celebrities' most embarrassing moments and reenacted them through a marionette puppet performance. It was as ridiculous as it sounds and I loved every moment of it. I pulled out every trick I had learned up until that point, and we built some really fun props. Most of the stories had some sort of food element. Obviously, we weren't using any real food with the puppets, so everything had to get made. We had miniature breakfast food, matzo ball soup, tropical drinks, popcorn, and steaks to name a few. Most of these items were made by using a combination of paper clay, THE HOLLYWOOD PUPPET SHOW