Who am I? What do I do? And Why?

I had always loved stop motion films and wanted to try it myself, but never took the leap. I knew very little about stop motion but didn’t want to learn from online tutorials or standard techniques... I like a challenge and I like to do things differently, so one day in 2015 I decided to challenge myself to make a puppet inspired by my dogs made only from the items in my tool box!

I used this puppet to make and share some animation experiments with the world- however bad they were...! I continued in this vein - learning animation 'on the job’, and experimenting using recycled, found or restricted materials. My work is intuitive and the character design is born out of the available materials and necessary movement and functionality. In many ways the armature (which is usually hidden in animation) actually becomes part of the puppet design.

Every animation I have made has tried something new. In adition to my experimental puppets I have tried to animate water, cloth, falling objects, timing to music and many other tricky techniques…. whatever the result I just hope the projects would have some kind of handmade charm.

I often try to incorporate fundraising into my projects, particularly the ‘Whibbits!’ project- selling merchandise, models and raffle tickets to help bring my puppets to life. Be sure to check out my FUNDRAISING page to find out how I have raised funds in the past and how you can support my future work.