Meet Owl and Tiger and Please Don't Cry

I made puppets for my nephew. I aimed for bright contrasty colors, which I figured are more alluring to little ones. At first meeting, I think Owl and Tiger freaked my nephew out. Maybe after 15 seconds of my growling and hooting, he decided to cry. Well, it was night time after all, and these 2 aren't in pastel colors nor do they have typical baby cuteness faces. The next day was better.

Yes, they do have oven mitt qualities, except they aren't heat proof and might very well melt should you use them to remove a casserole from the oven. The fabric is like a thin waled upholstery corduroy-like material that I picked up at a fabric scrap place called SCRAP (Scrounger's Center for Reusable Art Parts - Scrounger, that's me!). The felt is from a Japanese Dollar store called Daiso. Daiso is one of those stores where you wind up buying all sorts of stuff you didn't know you needed, like miniature wooden easels, ceramic plant pots shaped like pudgy animals, comb/razor blade combo for hair layering, wooden dry spaghetti bunch measurer (yes I did purchase all these items).  I spotted the craft felt, immediately recognized its potential. I knew that it had a place in my stash of art supplies, and that its time would come to shine.

I realize, I should make more such puppets for my own benefit, for getting kids to look at the camera. The huge advantage is that I can wave with the puppet, but then keep wearing the puppet like a glove as I adjust or steady my camera. This is unlike other toys, which I have to put down; or a really fluffy/ stuffed animal puppet through which I would have minimal dexterity. These are also easy to stuff into camera bags.