Custom Puppets Made to Order
If you’re looking for a custom puppet built to order, our specialist puppet makers at Picture to Puppet can help. Each of our bespoke puppets is hand made in our Musselburgh workshop to customers’ exact specification. Our unique custom puppets can be based on a picture, a photo or a description. We create likenesses of people or animals from photographs, build character puppets based on illustrations and design puppets to spec.
Ours is a highly personal bespoke service, and we can make your puppet to fit your exact requirements. We offer a huge range of fabrics and unlimited sizes and styles to suit your needs. We’re highly skilled in capturing illustrative style and personal charisma 3D form.
We make custom hand puppets, glove puppets, rod puppets, string puppets, latex puppets and more.
The price of our custom puppets varies according to the complexity of your design, but guideline prices are detailed below. Get in touch via our contact form, or email team@picturetopuppet.co.uk for an exact quote.
Custom Hand Puppets
Hand puppets usually:
- are often known as muppets or talking puppets
- have an internal foam head structure and body
- normally have a reinforced, movable mouth
- are a maximum of 1 metre tall
- Optional extras include arm rods, blinking eyes, moving eyebrows and wiggling ears!
– Full body puppet/prototype – From £380
– Half body Hand Puppet – From £330
Ask about reduced prices for multiples of the same design. We can usually offer a 25%-45% discount for multiples.
Likeness Puppets
Transform A Photo Of Someone Into A Lookalike Puppet!
Our famous likeness puppets can be seen on stage and screen all over the world.
Optional extras include blinking eyes, moving eyebrows and wiggling ears!
- Available as hand puppet (from £385)
- Or a glove puppet (from £230)
Custom Glove Puppets
- have soft glove bodies
- can have soft fabric heads or sculpted clay heads
- have movable heads and arms
- are a maximum of 45cm tall
- Designing and making a single puppet/prototype – from £250
- For a quantity of 10 – 50 – From £40 apiece
Optional Extras (hand puppets only)
Blink
Manual (lever operated) - £295 Animatronic - £350
3D Eyelashes
£15
Moveable Eyebrows
Manual - £60 Animatronic - £145
Moving Ears
Manual - £60 Animatronic - £155
Glove Hands
£75 per hand
Tattoo Sleeves
£120 per sleeve
Arm Rods
£8 apiece
Props for our Custom Puppets
We often make and source props for puppets as well as the puppets themselves. These may include glasses, swords, shields, wheelchairs, hockey sticks, footballs, the list is endless. We use a variety of materials from plastics to woods. Get in touch if you’re in need of a custom puppet prop!
Other Types of Bespoke Puppets and Toys
If you can dream it, we can make it. We get asked to make marionettes, mascot costumes, jack in the boxes, custom soft toys, finger puppets… We’re always keen for a new challenge, so if you’re looking for something weird and wonderful that’s not listed here, give us a shout!
Timescale For Custom Puppets
Our standard lead time for custom builds is about 4-6 weeks. We also offer a 1-2 week speed build option which adds 20% of your total order cost.
Get A Quote
Get in touch with us today to find out what we can do for you! Click the button or alternatively email team@picturetopuppet.co.uk with details of your idea. You can also write to us.
How Our Custom Puppets Are Made
All of our bespoke puppets are hand made to order in Edinburgh by our small team of designer puppet makers. Here is a bit about the process.
As all of our puppets are made to order, our we begin by chatting with each customer about their requirements. The more information you’re able to give us about your requirements, the closer we’ll be able to get to your vision.
Design Stage
The next step is drawing the character in question out to size. We cut a pattern out of paper before transferring it onto foam and fabric. For each of our bespoke puppets, we search widely for the best possible materials for your project and supply each customer with a selection of swatches to look over.
Initial Structure
Our custom hand puppets often have foam head structures that we carve and sculpt to resemble your character. No two skulls are quite the same; each one is uniquely made. We make fabric skins to fit the skull exactly.
Once we have got the puppet’s structure built, we fine tune and adjust it until the size and shape are just right.
Puppet Eyes
The facial features for custom muppets can be either stitched or 3D plastic. Our stitched eyes can be very detailed and are appliqued or embroidered on. We also offer handmade 3D plastic eyes. We paint them from inside and embed them into sockets cut out of the foam inner.
Moving Mouths
Our comfortable and durable moving mouth mechanism is something we have perfected over many years. We make each mouth to size for our custom hand puppets. The mouths are reinforced with hard plastic and fitted into the head. We line it with a soft fabric and tape it to give maximum comfort and leverage to the user.
Puppet Mechanisms
Our hand puppets have a movable mouth by default. In addition, we offer blinking eyes, movable eyebrows, moving ears and moving eyeballs. We make each one individually to fit the puppet.
You can find out more about our range of optional extras here.
Opening and Positioning
There are a number of places the opening for your hand can be located in your hand puppet. By default we would put it either at the back of the neck or at the lower back. Let us know if you have a preference – we’re always happy to accommodate. Where the opening should be ideally placed depends on how you would like to use the puppet.
Puppet Costumes
The clothing for our puppets we often make ourselves, or sometimes we source and alter children’s clothes to fit. Our team of costumiers who can make anything from miniature regency ballgowns to puppet spacesuits – just ask! We can add a custom print to your puppet’s costume.
Hair for Puppets
For short hair, we often use fur fabric of various lengths. For long hair, we either use synthetic wigs or make wool wigs. We spend a lot of time styling each puppet’s hair to get it as close as possible to the image. We also offer removable and interchangeable wigs, which can be held on with velcro.
Puppet Props
We make props for our bespoke puppets from all sorts of materials, before varnishing and painting them. We also source ready made props in many cases. Mini swords, shields, wheelchairs, balloons, sunglasses, instruments… if you can dream it, we can make it.
Finally we put all this together and put our finished custom puppet to the test! We photograph them and post them off to their new homes (which is often a bit of a wrench)! We often get attached to our creations, so we love it when customers keep in touch and let us know what the puppets are up to, and particularly to see pictures and videos of the puppets doing their jobs!
Get in Touch
Request a free, no obligation quote for your project by filling out our quote request form.
