Hi. I thought I would take just quick moment for me to let you know about about myself and Puppets by Jeff.
My name is Jeff. I live in Michigan and I've lived here my whole life. I work for the Federal Government. I'm married. I have a lot of pets. I'm just a regular guy who ended up starting a small collection of puppets.
I was buying puppets and collecting them, when I thought...you know, I might be able to make my own puppet. So I decided to give it a go. I found some information to work with and ended up coming up with my first puppet...Cyclops. Let's just say he wasn't quite what I was going for. He ended up with only one eye because the styrofoam balls I bought for eyes were too big for both of them to go on his head. His mouth wasn't really centered in his head, so when you closed his mouth his upper jaw was a good 3/4 inch out of line with his lower jaw. His hair was just some feathers. He really wasn't very pretty.
But I used Cyclops as a starting point, and my second puppet ended up being MUCH better. I spent more time and used what I learned while making Cyclops to create Paddy, and in fact, Paddy is the puppet that you see at the top of every single one of these pages. That's right, that was the second puppet that I ever made...and it was the start of an idea.
I was building puppets left and right. I was making them mainly for me, but quickly started to realize that I was on to something that other people would probably like. Blip was the first design other than Paddy that I came up with, but I was looking for a way to make a puppet with some eyes that were a bit easier to put together than Paddy and Blip's eyes are. The end result of that turned out to be the first puppet that I listed for sale, Dart.
Dart's eyes, while a bit easier to make, still looked fantastic and I figured that he would be the best puppet to start out on this venture, and on August 4th of 2010, that first Dart found a new home on the Golden Coast...about as far away from his birth place in Michigan as he could get.
I had another Dart pretty much ready to go, and after some pricing adjustments from the first auction along with some adjustments to the overall style of the auction, that puppet was listed.
I started out with three available characters, which can be viewed by clicking the link at the top of the page. I will be looking to add three new characters in September of 2010, and from there I can only speculate.
I am dedicated to bringing my customers quality puppets at affordable prices. Pricing has been a roller coaster with me as I struggle to find the price that I feel the puppets are worth. I see other puppets priced in the $50-$70 range and I feel that my creations easily rival those puppets, if not surpass them, yet I have trouble pricing my puppets in that area.
Hopefully as I continue to grow and I continue to make sales, I will eventually get to a pricing point that will work for both my customers and myself.
I want to personally thank you for your interest in my puppets. I feel that they are great quality puppets that will be your friend for many years. I have said this to others, and some look at me like I'm crazy, but when I make a puppet it feels like I'm creating a little life. I give EVERY one of my puppets a name and story...even though I know the customer will have their own name and story for their new friend. I just feel that things like that go a long way in making me enjoy what I'm doing...and I won't lie that I am just a little bit sad when each one goes into their box to move to a new home.
