Barebones Workshop

Barebones Workshop "Monsters From The Shed"
LARP. Props. Puppets. Custom
Maker of LARP props, kit, theatrical, over twenty years experience
Custom orders to your requirements

10/05/2026

I might be changing the name of this page at some point soon. So if it does change don't worry, it is still me, it is just reflecting the fact I mostly now do things for myself.

Second casting of the male puppet 'Jack' , after the first failed and full of holes. I mainly did this one as testing to...
10/05/2026

Second casting of the male puppet 'Jack' , after the first failed and full of holes. I mainly did this one as testing to get my casting practised after a while not doing any. The head is a little too small for my hand to fit easily, but a smaller hand would be ok, so maybe my wife's. The other thing is the mouth is too human sized and doesn't articulate properly as latex doesn't move like flesh, really needed to be wider. So, now basically intended to be for use as a background extra. This new casting is at least a decent one. The likewise badly designed female counterpart, Jill, is now in the mould, and also intended ofr background extra roles.

23/04/2026

Just went on a brief foray into the workshop, first time really for a long time. Mixing some coloured latex for a puppet head casting. But I don't have enough latex so ordered some more. I might try casting with what I have or wait for more to arrive on Saturday.

08/03/2026

I haven't been on here for a while, but today I tried to re-arrange the albums into something slightly more useful, compartmentalising the different types of builds I have done. Some won't move into the albums for some technical 'Facebook'related reason. In future I hope to add more photos as I find them.

02/04/2025

Puppet build latest, due to poor sleep I lost the will to make a move on the second puppet build for week 2. I lost Monday and Tuesday. Today I managed to get in the workshop and made up the basic torso and the parts for the limbs. I already have a cast head. This will be 'Thornwyck', same head as Candlewick but going for a different look. Maybe a fighter.

27/03/2025

Well, I monumentally failed in my plan to get ready to trade by Larp Con. Not a thing done, and for various reasons unlikely I may ever trade again. Now I may just be making things for my own projects, mostly.
Recently a Youtube chap I have followed for a while died of cancer. He was a puppet make and his site was about how to do just that. Puppet Nerd. Its been a bit of a shock even though I guessed it was coming. But it has made me make a decision to try to get on with my own puppet making. It has dragged on for years with little to show.
I have many projects in mind for which I need finished puppets, so I have given myself the mission to finish a puppet a week for about the next six weeks. Most are partly done projects started long ago and gathering dust.
So, I will see how far I get with this plan, hopefully further than the last, and to that end I have just finished candlewick properly. His issues were repair his hip joints, and costuming as I had thrown him together from parts I had taken with me while camping three years ago.
His outfit was just scraps of fabric stitched and pinned to him. Now he has pants with drawstring waist, shirt with cuffs, hemmed tunic, and a replacement skull cap/hat out of brown leather. The previous hat was green and became see through when I tried to film him with green screen.
So, hopefully more puppets to come, if I can stick to this plan, and I'll try to post photos. Then I can start the other projects using them...

07/11/2024

I have a plan. I don't know how long it will last but its a start. I am planning on being ready to trade at an event in time for LarpCon in March 25. I don't actually have a trading place there but I am using it as target, four months from now, to kick start me into working, so if I had to trade, I would be ready.
To get the plan started I opened up the workshop and tidied it, cleaned up some mould, not nearly as much as I expected to have to, and it is now ready for me when I sit down to start making.
I need to plan out what I am going to make, I have some ideas, then find the funds and resources to do that. To that end I have some old weapons stock I will be looking to turn into monies. I might put some photos up here if I can't physically get them to some people to sell them.
So, thats the plan, I will just have to see if I can stick to it without getting distracted by other shiny things or put off by mood crashes. Lets see how it goes...

22/10/2024

Well its been a while since I posted on this page, largely because there has been so little to post as I have been in a dry spell as regards making, and partly because when I as admin look at this page it is one long stream of ads. I assumed thats what it looked like to everyone else as well, and thought if I posted people would just get spammed with really crappy ads. However I mentioned this to Trizia and she looked on her phone and apparently it only shows my actual posts, so I'll give it another go.
Due to personal real life events I had a major dry spell of doing nothing in the workshop. I am just coming out of that and hope to start doing more soon.
One thing I did do was finish a sculpt of the younger female head to go with my Candlewick puppet. His granddaughter, called Ember. I cast it but I don't know if it was just because I just am out of practice, which I am, or the plaster is old, or the stars were not right but the mould didn't look too good, with cavities, air bubbles, rough patches. I did a test casting and it actually came out not too bad, needs a lot of cleaning up and I have many holes to fill, but not bad. The test cast had thin patches as well so I can't use it, no surprise there, but the next one should be ok, so I am looking forwards to that.
After Ember I have a plan for numerous more sculpts and castings, more than is probably sensible at this point, but hopefully some of them will be available for trade rather than intended just for my own projects.
I am also going to tinkering with a BareBones website for my stuff and maybe a blog, having finally got access to my word press account in a blinding moment of not so common sense. Unfortunately I now need to get rid of 33,000 spam ad comments that have built up in the meantime... sigh.

27/06/2024

Broke one of my mask moulds today, stupid accident in an overcrowded workshop. Tonight I shall be miffed about it, tomorrow I will look at repairs or rebuilding it.

Still not a lot going on in the workshop, but things are starting to move. I have a few personal projects in mind, not b...
17/06/2024

Still not a lot going on in the workshop, but things are starting to move. I have a few personal projects in mind, not building anything for any larps at the moment, and while I was considering having a go at trading this year I haven't made any stock. The whole thing with dad last year knocked all the creativity out of me. I am not even running any of my usual rpgs at the moment. But here are a couple of puppet heads I am working on, just to show I am still alive.

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