Where do you get all those puppets??

People often ask me about my puppets and props. For the most part, I use ”Folktales” puppets made by a company called Folkmanis. I wanted so many when I started my business in 1994 that I would ask for them for Christmas each year. Family always loved to see what was in my presents each year! I still remember my mom sitting all Chistmas-day long with that huge frog that I use in “Metamorphosis” and “The Chimichanga Song!”


You can find this brand of puppets in many zoo/nature center/museum gift shops but I get most of mine through AcornNaturalists.com. They carry all the good animal puppets as well as my CD’s

I discovered these puppets about 18 years ago and I think they’d been around about 5-10 years at that point. They had the brilliant idea to make puppets that actually looked a whole like the real animal and that did something the real animal did (turtle goes in its shell, owl’s head can rotate around, shark can actually swallow things, etc.). Most puppets before this were ”rag-doll” style or just very unrealistic.

Environmental educators like myself went crazy for them and I can’t count all the different performers, presenters, and librarians that I’ve seen using them. Until I started using my big projection screen, I accumulated more and more each year but my trunk of puppets runneth over and I have found the screen a much better way to “illustrate” my songs and stories. It also allows me to keep my hands free for playing guitar…

There are some puppets by Sunny & Co. Toys, Inc. that are even MORE realistic. The fish I use in my “Symbiosis” song are by them. Great stuff but, as I said, I’m not using as many puppets these days.

I have a tadpole puppet I got for Christmas in about ‘98 or ‘99, that I use in my song “Metamorphosis.” It was made by a company called Crocodile Creek but, apparently, they’re not making them any more. I saw a smaller version in Wichita Falls in about 2003 and have googled the puppet many times. Only very occasionally I see them offered used somewhere.

I just looked at the Folkmanis site and they have a NEW tadpole/frog puppet that looks promising!!!!  I wasn't much on their old one because it reversed through the frog's mouth (if that makes any sense) so it was EITHER a tadpole or a frog.  The Crocodile Creek one is cool, however, because you can pull out the back legs, then the front legs to show those stages, then you turn it inside out through the BELLY when you’re ready to show the adult frog. Anyway, this new (to me at least) Folkmanis puppet looks like it will be able to show those "in-between" stages better than their old one.  Man, those guys are GREAT!!!!

Finally, the pink poodle I use in “Fifi the Ferocious” was made by Mary Meyer. Again, these are no longer made. I have a standing search on eBay so anytime someone sells one, I grab it. I have about 3 Fifi’s ready to step in when my current one wears out I’ve seen many other pink poodle stuffed animals in many places and, interestingly enough, they’re often even names Fifi. I guess I was kind of obvious when I chose that name…

I’ll write another entry about this puppet in particular; she’s worth of her own entry, methinks.

Let me know if you need more info about any of the other stuff you see me use!