The process of getting the Brachiosaurus standing was quite massive. He's a very big dinosaur and I had to place an extra long rod though the next to the front leg. The head can twist via the vertical rod connected to his head.

To make the brachiosaurus double sided I created his entire neck and head twice.

Working on such a large scale requires some careful planning. This is mosasaurus in a swimming pose. The flippers are all attached on fabric flaps so they can be moved & manipulated as he swims.

I used a moving jaw mechanism in a couple of the dinosaurs. This is the mosasaurus head before I appliqued fabric onto it. The images shows how I worked out where the tounge (pink/red) should start, and where the pivot for the jaw would be most realistic for a snapping jaw.

I backed the elements of the mosasaurus on heavy duty felt which acts a lot like cardboard. This puppet is much like an emormous paper pin puppet.

Some of the bamboo sticks are glued into the back of the dinosaurs, which others slip though strategically placed flaps. I need to make some of them removable for transportation reasons!

The hanging mechanism is created with velcro wich sticks beautifully to the heavy duty felt and helps keep the puppet hanging firmly and flush against the stand. The stand is on wheels so i can move this big guy around the stage (as he catches unsuspecting fish)

The texture in the Stegosaurus was painstakingly appliquéd. It's a combination of two fabrics: a highly sparkly red sequinned mesh that is set off by a more subtle brown rayon. Combining the right fabrics is a huge key to making something work from a distance and up close. Since I tend to perform in both room and auditorium settings, I’m always thinking about how my props and puppets will transition. I adore working with sequinned materials (despite the absolute havoc they wreak with my poor little sewing machine), but, that said, I often find less is more with these types of fabrics. If an object is too shiny and sparkly, once the stage lights hit the material there's a glare on it. In a smaller room, when you hope people to notice details, the overuse of super sparkly materials hinder people paying attention to the stitching/shapes that give object character- you just tend to notice the sequins! So… I always tone things down with patch-working techniques - I combine a lot of star studded disco-ball meshes/laces with muted, (even boring) materials. I find this really helps the eye to appreciate the fabric we are all looking at, and absorb the details. Much like an artist who uses a lot of vibrant colour in a painting, knocking things back a little with some duller or muddier shades definitely helps the bright colours sing.

The stegosaurus was the biggest challenge because I wanted to plates to sit at 45 degree angles to each other and clap. I somewhat reached my goal - it's not perfect :) but it certainly works!

The T-rex's tiny arms may be a small moving element in the T-rex puppet (when you consider his size), but they are extremely expressive and quite comical.

The mighty T-rex jaw! The first mouth mechanism I made . This is my 7 year old son giving me his two cents on how it should work :)

Each puppet began with a drawing on fabric. I use felt as the base to applique all the materials on.

The tricertops head bobs up and down as she chews grass (or in the show, my forest skirt).The head and body are seperate and the head hangs on a huge pivot. The head is full of detail as you can see here, I used black tulle over the purple to make it more 3 dimensional and bring some shadows to the object.

Playing with ideas which deliniate head from body. This was a less successful attempt at that

This huge stego took a few goes to get proportions right!

Eek! There's a T-rex on my couch!

Here's the very beginning of the process. I draw and cut out the shape in felt, pin it on to the chosen showing fabric and cut/sew/trim.

The magical sandpit I get sucked inside during the show is based on the structure of a crinoline. I flip the skirt over myself after reaching inside it as if its a sandpit. When I reach inside it flips over and I enter the Dinosaur jungle. One side is a golden sandpit, the side you see when I'm wearing the skirt is an enchanted forest design with appliqued leaves.

The skirt that i created for the Crinoline has two layers with a a central opening. I was trying to emulate the designs of Victorian / Renaissance ball gowns. The inner-central portion of the gown is covered in luscious leaves and forest textures.