History
Others
Puppets
Sebastian the Cat
The year after creating Murray, I produced a children's television programme as my final major project at college. It involved a monkey and a cat running a radio station called Steam Dragon FM. I already had the monkey, and so I needed to make a cat. In 1996 Sebastian was ‘born'.
Sebastian was always intended to be smaller than Murray, and I was keen to create a smaller puppet better than my first attempt with Fiesta. Like my first puppet, I designed Sebastian to be a combination of a hand and rod puppet - more Kermit the Frog than Murray's Fozzie Bear-like design. The puppeteer puts one arm up Sebastian's back to operate his head, and his arms are moved by rods. This time though, the design was influenced by my experience in creating Murray. Sebastian's construction is simpler than Murray, but there are many similarities. Again I chiselled the head from a block of sofa foam, and used wire gauze for the mouth. Again it was hollowed out for a puppeteer's hand, and was covered in fur fabric. This time, however, he was not all one colour. I used a pale yellowish-brown fur fabric, together with some of the remaining grey car seat cover used making Fiesta, sewed together in a patchwork fashion. This made Sebastian look like a multicoloured cat. I used black and pink felt for the mouth, and ping pong balls for the eyes, with a piece of round green and black felt to give him the green eyes of a moggie.
Yet again the body was made of a few thin layers of chicken wire, with fur fabric over the top to make it stronger and keep the shape. This time however, I also put fur fabric on the inside of the puppet, where the puppeteer's arm would go. This made Sebastian a far more comfortable puppet to use, as the chicken wire would not stab the operator's arm. Over the top, Sebastian was given another one of my little brother's old coats, with cotton wool inside the arms. Hands made of foam and covered in fur fabric were sewn to the ends of the coat sleeves, and rods made from coat hangers were attached to the hands so the puppeteer could move the arms in a lifelike fashion. And that was how I left him for many years - legless. For the programme I was making, legs were not required and laziness on my part took over. Many years later, I felt sorry for my feline friend. Taking an old pair of children's jeans, I took the hems in to make the legs thinner. I then filled the jeans with cotton wool, stuck a pair of kid's Wellington boots to the bottom and then glued it to the body. He is now a complete cat.
His size and weight make Sebastian far easier to control than Murray, and so all my puppet designs now follow this basic type of construction.
Sebastian is an enthusiastic moggie who will attempt to lend his paw to anything, from roving reporter to tea kitten. He never sees ill in anyone and is always cheerful. Although he is a bright animal, he is also naive and lacks common sense. He also has a habit of making stupid mistakes. This characteristic often gets him into trouble, creating chaos his wake, although very rarely does he notice that there is anything wrong. Presently, he works for the radio station Steam Dragon FM alongside Murray the Monkey, where he is the general dogsbody - or should that be catsbody.
Building Sebastian
This website is the copyright of Benjamin Burford-Jones 2014, except quotations and photographs used to illustrate various traditional and television puppets.
No material should be reproduced in any form whatsoever for purposes of commercial gain without obtaining the copyright holder’s express permission.
Herb the Owl | Alex the Droog | What is a Puppet | Watching With Mother | Gerry Anderson | Jim Hensons Muppets
From Satire to Sitcom | Are Puppets Just for Kids | About the Author and Links