Sparkle and Dark | Commissions

Since the founding of the company, Sparkle and Dark have been taking puppet and mask making commissions from theatre practitioners, film makers and individuals who had a specific idea in mind that we brought to life! Click HERE for the full Puppet Making Comissions Gallery.

Sparkle and Dark take puppet making commissions and will work with you to create the unique puppet perfect for your needs. We can even provide tuition on how to use your puppet and basic puppetry techniques if you've not used puppets before. Please contact us on info @ sparkleanddark.com (no gaps) and please incude a few details:

A brief description of what you need the puppet to do, i.e. fly, walk on the ground, have hands that grip or eyes that move etc. Drawings are always welcome!
The number of puppeteers you will have to handle the puppet.
An idea of the budget you have to work with.

Catapillar carnival puppet

Arts Depot and Purple Goat Theatre comissioned Sparkle and Dark to make a large catapillar puppet for Arts Depot's weekly CLIVE theatre group.

CLIVE is a themed club night for people with learning disabilities with the chance for everyone to socialise in the chill out room, dance to music supplied by DJs or sing a song to a loved one in the open mic spot.

CLIVE walking puppet

Purple Goat Theatre asked Sparkle and Dark to make a puppet that looked like the Arts Depot CLIVE logo, could also be puppeteered to have human hands and be able to walk.

CLIVE is a themed club night for people with learning disabilities with the chance for everyone to socialise in the chill out room, dance to music supplied by DJs or sing a song to a loved one in the open mic spot.

Sophie table top puppet for BFG

Working Space Theatre asked Sparkle and Dark to make a small table top Sophie puppet for their production of the BFG. Sophie is also played by an actress in the show, so she had to be made to look like the actress playing the role, including the costume! Using photos, little Sophie was made with a handle on the back of her head and fully movable joints.

She is made of fabric with button joints, as it was important that she be reminiscent of a toy doll.

Daisy the cow - tilting eyes puppet

The Sparkle and Dark team had great fun designing and making this big and beautiful muppet-style cow puppet, complete with moving eye mechnism, dummy and nappy! Hand entrance is through her back with movable mouth, and Daisy needed to be in a good position to always be sat down with her legs dangling.. Baby Daisy also needed to have gravity weighted eyes that allowed her eyes to shut and remain shut when laid down - so she could sleep whilst her puppeteer left her and then wake up when she is sat up. Sparkle and Dark designed and constructed the mechinism and is happy to offer this as a possible function for future commissions.

Mock Turtle hand puppet

Sparkle and Dark were asked to design and make a large order of rod and glove puppets for Working Space Theatre’s touring Christmas production of Alice In Wonderland. We hand crafted puppets for the Cheshire Cat and the Mock Turtle for each of the seven productions (14 puppets in total!) that toured the UK!

Cheshire Cat hand puppet