Founded and run by puppet maker Mari Jones, Picture to Puppet is a small puppet company based in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. It has come a long way since its conception in 2012. We’re a growing team who now produce over 500 custom puppets a year, all by hand in our Edinburgh studio. Our clients range from TV companies and theatres to ventriloquists to schools, local authorities and Mums and Dads.
The Picture to Puppet Company
Meet the Dream Team!
Our terrifying CEO Phyllis keeps us hard at the grindstone day and night to ensure that only superb quality work leaves the studio.
Mari set up Picture to Puppet in 2012, and is pleased but slightly bewildered by its success. She makes puppets and toys and draws pictures. Before that, she graduated in textiles and worked as a dressmaker.
A reformed punk rocker and veteran fitter at Vivienne Westwood, Kiaz has joined us after 30 years experience in in the textile industry. Now she’s churning out the puppets at super speed with inimitable style and panache.
Vicky’s unrivaled organisational skills save us every day from drowning in artistic chaos. She also keeps us all calm!
Originally a dress and textile historian, Emma now does the soft toy repairs for our toy hospital service, Leith Toy Hospital.
Katy is a plastics and hard material specialist, who repairs the dolls at Leith Toy Hospital as well as building lots of props for the puppets.
Our Able Seamstress Rose helps out with a bit of everything and keeps our spirits up with her endless good cheer.
Roombie Bumbles about the studio, ostensibly hoovering, but mainly wreaking havoc and feeling up our ankles with his little hands.
We specialise in talking puppets, glove puppets and soft toys. Click here to see the range of different puppets we work on.
The Picture to Puppet Studio
We work in a crowded but very happy studio at 64 Constitution Street, Edinburgh. We work alongside Leith Toy Hospital. We do all of our work in the studio, from puppet design to production.
We’ve got two guest rooms in the back of the studio which can be booked by the night! See our accomodation page for more.
We’re always rushed off our feet, but we have a great time working at Picture to Puppet. No two days are ever the same for a puppet maker, and the range of our customers’ creative ideas never ceases to amaze us!
One day we’ll be making a series of likeness puppets for celebrities to appear on the TV, and the next day we’ll be bringing a five-year-old’s drawing to life as a cuddly toy, and fixing caterpillar truck attachments onto the feet! Requests such as “could you make my Mum come out of a Jack-in-the-box?” always make us smile! As well as lots of different types of puppets and toys, we also make lots of interesting props for the puppets, like swords, sheilds, wheelchairs and hockey sticks.
Sustainability Policy
We believe in making things to last, and all of our puppets and toys are guaranteed for five years – if it breaks within that time, we will repair it free of charge. We’re a Zero waste Leith Business, and we reuse or recycle all of our waste. Where possible, we use reclaimed and recycled fabric for our puppets. All of our packaging is reused and recycled (forgive us any crumpling!). Our energy is all from renewable sources through Ecotricity. We also run Leith Toy Hospital which repairs broken toys. We also find new homes for unwanted toys through our toy hospital.
Picture To Puppet
Video Courtesy of Rebecca Chan
MEMBERSHIPS
We are members of:
the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild
CE Marking Handmade Toys Collective.
Hi, Any chance you could make me a personalised puppet BUT that “pops out of a box” as in a Jack in a Box toy? I would really appreciate your help or suggestions, regarding this item/product. Many thanks. Jacqui Lowe.