Today’s logo brought to you by the goblin puppet I finished yesterday. I really, really like it, so much so I’m hesitant to put it up for sale. And yet I will.
O:P regulars know or are sometimes surprised to find out that I don’t own that many puppets. I have a couple from other builders (my BJ Guyer foam muffin is a sacred artifact) and other than that, there’s Frankie, The Oracle, Gus, Jellyroll, the two Kermits and that’s it. There’s more planned but basically if I’m not using it in the show, it goes on the shop(s). I have clients (shout-out Scarlet) who own more of my puppets than I do.
Most of the reason is practical – I just don’t have the storage space. There are plenty of puppets at any given time, but most of the available space is taken up by shop builds waiting to be sold. One day perhaps I’ll have an actual workshop with the requisite rack of puppets out front, but while my workshop is a 7 x 11-foot room full of tools and materials, there just isn’t space. But there’s also an interesting psychological dynamic.
As I blogged about before, one of the unique things about this business is it’s personal. The puppets I sell are hand crafted, by someone who loves the medium. Every one has care and attention put into it and feels special. I often say that my standard for what goes up for sale is “If I came across this, I’d buy it”, so when I build I don’t really build with any agenda in mind other than what I like. Fortunately, I’ve found plenty of other folks like that as well.
What results, I’ve found, is that people tend to connect with these builds on an immediate level. Some puppets sell quickly and some sit on the shop(s) for months, but someone always comes along who it is right for, and that feels great. Despite loving them, I may not get to keep them, but I know they’re probably going to make someone else happy, and that is the best feeling ever.
This is all sounding a bit self-aggrandizing so before Gus gets too happy, I’d better break for coffee.