Bad news, good news. . .

I had written on Facebook, but I had not written here yet. My wife of 39 years (Cathy) tried to check out early on me last week. She had been in the hospital since a week ago Monday. We were told on Friday that if we had not gotten her in when we did, she would have died by the weekend. That's the bad news.

 The good news is that after a vital surgical procedure done last Thursday night, the doctor was able to get her condition (an extremely serious infection) under control. Whew! She finally got to come home last night after spending a week in the hospital, undergoing aggressive treatment.

The most important thing is, that she is going to be okay. I am posting a few of my favorite pics of her. Yes, they are older pics, but she is just as beautiful and even more precious to me currently. A bit of a cliche, but yes, she is even more beautiful on the inside. I would be so lost without her. She is so much more than my better half!

She has also been my biggest fan, and without her help and support over the years, I doubt that I would be doing what I'm doing (my childhood dream). It is going to be a bit of a long road yet for her to fully recover from all of this, but it looks like a full recovery will be the final outcome. Yes, I will have my hands full trying taking care of her, while still working full time building puppets, but that's the least I can do considering all that she has done for me for so many years. She is the love of my life.

 I will try to get back to doing more posts on puppet related items soon I hope. Thanks for bearing with me posting about my personal life. 

Winkin', Blinkin' and 'Sparky'!

Sorry to have been so quiet here. It's surely been interesting and challenging. Both my wife Cathy and I are doing some better now, and are making progress in getting caught up. Thanks to all who have shown their concern!

When our character 'Sparky' first came out, he was not available with winkers, blinkers, nor our higher end mechanics. He is now available with all of the above. Actually he was added to our High Quality line of figures in November 2012 to help make that possible.

It was kind of a no brainer, as we were getting constant requests from customers who wanted to order 'Sparky' with winkers. People were chomping at the bit. He's a great character, even without, but they REALLY wanted winkers!

So we listened, and made him available with winkers as well as our higher end mechanics. And it is a very good thing. He really comes to life when equipped with 2 control winkers as is evidenced in this short Youtube video clip that he stars in.........



  As you can see, his full personality real comes to the fore with the addition of the 2 control winkers and the higher end mechanics (they are fast, slick, quiet and easy to use). And with a little finesse using the controls, you can get expressions that are difficult to get without winkers.

I hope you enjoy the short video clip. 'Sparky' sure enjoys being a ham, as you will see! If you want more info on 'Sparky' you can find it here.........

Mike Brose Pro Vent Figures

Clinton Detweiler - Cherished Friend, Colleague and Mentor

Clinton Detweiler

 Pretty much everybody is aware of the passing of ventriloquist icon Clinton Detweiler. I just wanted to share a few of my thoughts about this kind man. To me, beyond the icon status that he so greatly deserved, Clinton was a fine friend, a trusted colleague, and a mentor.  Looking back.........

I became aware of Clinton (and his wife Adelia) as a young adult. My father kind of got me hooked on the magazine, Popular Mechanics, and I would always check the classified ads in the back, as I knew I would find the ad that Clinton put in there for Maher Studios. Warm and fuzzy memories now.

Of course, I did like so many others interested in ventriloquism at the time. I sent off for a Maher catalog! How exciting that was when it came in the mail. I would pour over the catalog for hours. And of course I would drool over the ventriloquist figures, being so interested both in ventriloquism and figure making.

And like so many others in the vent community, I would write and ask questions, and Clinton ALWAYS wrote back and was most helpful. And when you ordered something, you could count on him to always deliver and provide great products and service.

 I can't remember the number of times I had ordered a catalog from Clinton, or how many times I looked to see if the ad was still in PM. I knew that if his ad was still there, that ventriloquism was alive and well. I had always desired to be doing what he was doing. Serving the vent community in some way. He surely set some high standards for that over the years. Yet he was very humble about all that he did for ventriloquists.

Clinton was always a joy to talk shop with and freely shared what he had learned over the years. And he was a man of his word. I always knew he would do exactly what he said he would do. I came to trust him (and his son Kevin) so much, that when I stopped taking on figure repair work, it was such a comfort to know that I could refer him (or his son) without ANY reservations, and knew that those customers I sent to him would be treated very well!

Clinton was, and will continue to be an inspiration to me in my figure making business. I have a bit of correspondence from Clinton that I have kept, including some truly sage advice on my figure making and kit businesses. I have to heave a huge sigh when I realize I can no longer talk shop with this very, very, kind and generous man. He will be sorely missed by me, and the entire vent community.

Humpty Dumpty...... Wifey?!?

She's a good egg. She really is! But she has also taken a great fall. I hope they can put her back together again!

Seriously, my wife Cathy, is a bit broken at the moment. A freak accident for sure. She was going out of the workshop last week, tripped, and while doing that little trick, sprained her right ankle. But then while still falling and trying to catch herself, ended up breaking her left ankle in 2 places! Other than that she is just fine! <G> But, ouch!!!

So, needless to say, things have gotten quite a bit more interesting here. I mean I have always appreciated all Cathy does here at Puppets and Props (as well as in our home). But you don't really fully appreciate HOW MUCH someone does until they are completely out of commission. Now I know for sure! <G>

As some of you know, I've had some serious health issues of my own this last year. The best I can guess is that she didn't like me getting ALL of the attention on that front!  <G> But I can surely think of easier, and less painful ways of getting attention.

Of course, I know why this really happened. We've been in the midst of making some changes to simplify things here. We now have just the one line of high quality figures that we've always been known for.  And as many of you know, we are putting the 'cast dummy parts' on hold after Nov. 30th, so we can get caught up on our finished figure orders (our main line of business).

So I guess we were getting just too dog gone close to having a chance to get caught up here! <G> That's all I can figure. Ha! Gotta keep your sense of humor at times like this. That also is good medicine for both my wife and I.

Yes, its going to take a bit longer to get caught up on finished figure orders than we originally anticipated. And yes, the influx of last minute 'cast dummy parts' orders as we get closer to Nov. 30th will be a challenge to fill on top of that. But I am very confident that it will all work out and things will equalize once again.

But more than wishing these temporary time issues would get fixed soon, my greatest wish is for my wife Cathy to be all better again. So let's hope "all the king's horses, and all the king's men"............, well, okay, I'll settle for one good Doctor to put her back together again! <G>

From now on, this is the only kind of fall I want to see (<G>)............

Humpty Dumpty Dummy!

Top notch flight instructor, Larry Baily of Arizona, had us build a nice figure for him back in 2008, and named him 'Max Mach'. He dressed him in a pilot's uniform and the character that he developed for him was that of a retired airline pilot. Pretty cool. Here's a nice pic of Max and Larry ........

You never know what kind of mischief these figures are going to get into after they leave our shop here. I guess Max decided he wasn't having enough fun lately, so he decided to do his 'Humpty Dumpty' impression, and had a great fall! Well, he fell off of a chair onto a tile floor in any case. Ouch!

Fortunately, he was made well enough not to end up in a bunch of pieces on the floor. He did sustain some damage however, and Larry was eager to have me give him some attention, so brought Max to the shop. I fixed some mechanical issues inside the head, and decided it would be best to repaint him. Here's Max sans hair and mustache getting a coat of primer and paint.......

The tricky part of this is that Max is a well established character for his owner, Larry, and is very important when doing a total make over like this, that the figure look pretty much exactly as he did before. Fortunately I had some figure making notes from when I originally made him, and some good reference photos. Here's how he turned out.....

Well, I was happy with how he turned out. But what about Larry, and his lovely wife, Sandra? For them, was Max as good as new? Here's a couple pics of them when they came to pic Max up......

They were quite pleased, and as you can tell, Max was back to his old wise cracking self! But Max did promise not to do any more 'Humpty Dumpty' dummy flight maneuvers any time soon, and that he would mostly try to behave himself! Larry and Sandra said they'd keep a close eye on him as well.

A special story goes with this figure...

A special story about a very special young man.......

When I make figures for various customers, I don't always know what will happen with the figure I'm sending out, if it will be used for performance, for fun, or in some special situations......., a noble purpose. As this particular Sparky was on my workbench, staring back at me..........

I got a very warm, fuzzy feeling, as I knew exactly where he was going and how he was going to be used. It was a pretty heart warming story, even 'before' this cute little guy was on his was to his new home. There's a brave young man, fighting some very serious illnesses. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he decided he wanted to try to help other young ones who have these illnesses.

For me this was a very heartwarming and encouraging story, and was honored to have had even a small part in this. You can read the whole story here....

Brent's Story

My wife and I were very touched by the courage of this young man, and we certainly wish Brent the best of success in this noble endeavor. If you want to brighten your day and put a smile on your face, please take the time to read Brent's story by clicking on the above link.

Just a quick puppet painting tip....

By far the majority of people who order professional ventriloquist figures from us, order the darker hair colors such as brown or auburn. Matching the eyebrows on with either of those hair colors is fairly straightforward to do. But what about blond hair or gray hair? A little trickier typically. Here's a blonde little boy figure I did not that long ago as an example.........

Now you wouldn't think it would be any harder than painting brown or auburn eyebrows on a ventriloquist figure. But if you take a closer look at those blonde eyebrows, you will see it is not just a solid color painted on there. There are striations of color in order to get a close match like that. I've been asked by a number of people how I achieve that look. Here's the scoop.....

If you paint one solid color trying to match the hair, it will look very flat, bland and barely matching at all usually. Take a look at the blonde hair in those photos. What do you see? If you stare at it awhile you start to notice it is mostly a bit of very light and some darker shades alternating (with some shades in between). That is why one color just doesn't get the effect you want.

 I start with the lighter color matching as best I can, paint the eyebrows and let them dry. Here's where the fun comes in and starts changing the look. Next, I take a 3/8" wide flat artists brush and alter it. I take some thinning shears (used to cut hair) cut the bristles so it is now like a fork with several prongs of bristles (it will paint stripes now).

 I mix up some fairly dark brown paint 50/50 with acrylic medium. I take the altered brush, dip it in that mix of paint and medium, and dab on a paper towel to get off the excess. I use broad strokes at an angle and try not to go over the same place twice. If you get too much on and it gets too many dark lines, you can clean the brush and apply a little bit of the lighter color that you started with to tone it back some.

Between the two colors and the altered brush, you can get the striations just the way you want them. Finally, you may find the match to the blonde hair is not perfect at this point. These were too beige and not the golden blonde I was going for at first. So I poured out a little puddle of acrylic matte medium, added the slightest amount of bright yellow and painted a wash of this over the whole eyebrow. Two coats did the trick.

This same trick works very nicely for gray haired figures as well......

Now on those two figures, I did the same exact technique. And the interesting part was that the figure in the top photo also required the yellow wash to get the eyebrows to match the lighter colored gray hair.  I often will however make the final color on the eyebrows slightly darker than the hair so they stand out (real people often have that anyway).

So just a little painting tidbit from the workshop that some of you might find helpful at some point. I actually enjoy the painting process quite a bit, and find learning how colors work to be quite fascinating.