2026 | Custom Portrait Puppets | Cup Cup the Band | San Francisco, CA
Some commissions arrive fully formed. A clear brief, a clear character, a clear vision. And then there are commissions like this one. The kind that get you genuinely excited from the first conversation and keep you excited all the way through the build.
I am currently working on one of the most enjoyable projects I have taken on. Five custom portrait puppets representing each member of Cup Cup the Band, a San Francisco Band. I had the pleasure of performing alongside one of the band members in a live street collaboration earlier this year.
The brief is everything I love about commission work. Real people, real personalities, real faces that need to become real puppets without losing what makes each person recognisably themselves.
Portrait puppet design is a fascinating creative challenge. You are working within constraints that an original character commission does not have. The puppet has to look like that specific person, capture something true about their face and energy, and still be expressive, functional, and alive in performance. Getting that balance right between likeness and caricature is where the real craft lives. Push the caricature too far and you lose the person. Do not push it far enough and you end up with something that looks like a puppet wearing a face rather than a puppet that is a character.
I am currently deep in the design and building process. Developing each of the five characters individually while making sure they work as a set. Five puppets that each stand alone as distinct characters but clearly belong together when they are in the same room. The plan is for the finished puppets to be integrated into Cup Cup’s promotional campaigns and music video productions. So these are not shelf puppets or display pieces. They need to perform. Every design decision is being made with that in mind.
This one is still very much a work in progress and I could not be more excited about where it is heading. Watch this space and follow along on Instagram for behind the scenes updates as the builds develop.
