Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545257
PROPERTYMASTERSGUILD.ORG 31 polymer clay, and resin. During the first season, we wanted all the drinks to be real liquid, but sealing the tiny puppet-sized shot glasses so that there wasn't any evidence of the seal turned out to be very tricky. We could get a couple of takes out of the drinks before the seals broke, but ultimately, they ended up being more trouble than they were worth. By the second season, we were using colored resin. It made our lives significantly better. One of my favorite episodes featured the celebrity falling into water and coming up with leeches all over their face. The hard part with that request was making something that would stick to the marionette's face without destroying the paint job. Our puppets were 3D printed at a time when 3D printing wasn't yet a standard part of our process, so the paint didn't adhere well to the printed surfaces. The leeches were simple enough. I made some appropriately tiny leeches using household sealant silicone. Once set, I painted them up and they looked perfect! But attaching them to the puppet's face was a whole other story. Eventually, it was decided to shoot that scene dead last just in case we completely ruined the paint trying to make this work. I ended up putting super glue on the bottoms of the leeches and letting that dry. That gave us a surface instead of silicone to work with because nothing sticks to silicone. Then we put tiny pieces of blue painter's tape on the puppet and used butyl to attach the leech to the tape. Thankfully, it all worked out and looked great on camera! Marionette puppetry on a show is such a beautiful dance between puppeteers and props. Items have to be weighted in such a way that they stay in the puppet's hand without weighing down the arm too much, while at the same time being realistically usable for the scene. I learned a lot through the puppeteer team while working on this project. They liked having input on how certain props were going to work and I liked knowing that what I was building was going to be usable. Through that close communication, we were able to shoot multiple episodes in a tight time frame without having to change too many things on the day. Currently, I am working on a show called The Melon Patch. It's a children's show centered around toddler learning, and they have a classroom pet called Jelly Bean who is, you guessed it, a puppet. There are also flower puppets and a horse puppet named Neighomi. I spent the majority of my time during the first season making props and costumes for Jelly Bean and her friends and let me tell you, she is one fabulous little hamster! She gets her own snacks, outfits, Halloween costumes and props, Christmas cookies, and really whatever else she wants. As classic soft body puppets, Jelly Bean, Neighomi, and the flowers' props have to be carefully attached to them either with velcro, magnets, or pins. This also helps dictate the kind of props I can use with consideration given for weight and attachment points. I cannot believe that even in 2026, I still get to have fun with puppets! As I look back over the course of my life, puppets have played a much larger role than I ever realized. I never really considered myself deeply involved in puppetry until I started reflecting on the range of projects I have been a part of. What continues to draw me back is not just the craftsmanship, but the collaboration and imagination it demands. Every project presents a new puzzle to solve, how to make something move, feel, and exist convincingly within its world, while balancing the practical needs of performance with the magic of storytelling. I find great fulfillment in creating such playful worlds for audiences to enjoy, spaces where there are no limits and anything feels possible. Puppets exist in that rare intersection of technical problem- solving and pure creativity, and to be involved with them, even briefly, is to suspend disbelief and let imagination run wild. I know I will continue finding my way back to this craft, building small worlds that invite audiences to believe in something just a little bit impossible. NEIGHOMI ALLIE RIVERA QUIÑONEZ AND JELLY BEAN