Puppets Made from Foam and Fleece: An Interview with Zack Buchman of Furry Puppet Studio
Puppets Made from Foam and Fleece: An Interview with Zack Buchman of Furry Puppet Studio:
I have always been fascinated by dolls and soft toys. Any of you who follow this blog regularly will know this! When I came across Furry Puppet Studio, a custom puppet design house based in SoHo, New York, I could not stop looking at their work. These are not ordinary puppets. Each one begins as a hand-carved foam sculpture and is finished with custom fabrics, hand-placed eyes, and a great deal of craftsmanship. The puppets have appeared in music videos, television, and major advertising campaigns, but what drew me most was the handmade process behind them. I was very happy when founder and Creative Director Zack Buchman agreed to share his journey with us.
Nike-x-Nigo-custom-puppet
Custom puppet of designer NIGO, built for a Nike campaign.
Please share about yourself and Furry Puppet Studio with our readers.
My name is Zack Buchman. I am the founder and Creative Director of Furry Puppet Studio, which is based in SoHo, New York. We design and build custom puppets for clients in television, advertising, and the music industry. I actually never went to college, which I think gave me an outsider perspective. I was always looking at things fresh and asking basic questions. Somehow that shaped our work in a good way.
How did you get started in puppet making? Have you had any formal training?
No formal training at all. I tried animation early in my creative life and it did not last long, but the way of thinking about character and design stayed with me. What I really craved was the physical side: being able to touch a character, hand it to someone, watch their face change. There is something enchanting about an inanimate object that suddenly seems alive in front of you. Once you see it happen, you cannot stop chasing that feeling. Most of what I know came from working alongside very talented people and learning from them.
Can you tell us about the process of making a puppet?
It always starts with sketching. A small group of us sit together, just drawing and playing around. Often the best ideas come from the throwaway scribbles, the ones you almost put in the bin. Once we are happy with the concept, the foam carving begins. Each puppet head is carved by hand from upholstery foam. Then our mechanical engineer works out the internal mechanism so the mouth and eyes can perform. After that comes the fabric.
Foam heads with internal mechanisms, before the fabric goes on.
The fabric must be very important. How do you choose the materials?
It is everything. The right fabric is what makes a character feel alive and inviting. For many years we could not find the right fleece in the market, so we actually manufactured our own. We called it “dream fleece.” Now we work with textile partners to source specialty fabrics, which has opened up so many more possibilities. Our costume designer drafts the patterns that translate a 3D foam head into flat panels of fabric. It is the same work as pattern-making for a doll dress: very careful, very precise. The very last step is placing the eyes. Moving them just a little to the left or right, up or down, completely changes the personality of the character. I am still surprised every time when it all comes together.
A character being built on the studio bench.
What inspired your character designs? Who are your influences?
Jim Henson is a big one. What he showed the world is that just two foam shapes and a pair of well-placed eyes can create a stronger emotional connection than any high-end CGI character. I also grew up playing early computer games where the graphics were so basic that the designers had to decide if a single pixel would read as an eye or a nose. That lesson about keeping only what is essential, I carry it into every puppet we make.
Please share some of your favourite projects.
One I keep coming back to is the marionettes we made for Missy Elliott and Pharrell Williams for their music video “WTF.” We built the puppets in their likeness, made all the costumes, and worked with street performers to get the movement right. Marionettes are incredibly difficult to work with. It was completely outside of my comfort zone, but I loved the final result.
Marionettes from the Missy Elliott and Pharrell “WTF” music video. We made the costumes too.
More recently I am proud of Frankie Focus, the mascot for New York State’s phone-free schools initiative, who has appeared in The New Yorker’s daily cartoon and on major news channels. And we just finished a custom puppet of the designer NIGO for a Nike campaign, which you can see in the photo at the top of this post.
Do you also make soft toys and plush characters?
Yes. Through our sister company, Uncute, we design plush toys: characters like Blobby the Blobfish, the Purritos kitten series, and the Sam and Max plushies. The plush work brought me deep into fabric sourcing and pattern grading, which I find very satisfying. See more at uncute.com.
New custom character designs, 2026.
What advice would you give to someone who loves making dolls or soft toys and wants to try puppet making?
Start with foam and keep things simple. Do not add too much detail. The less you put in, the more the viewer brings to the character themselves. Collaborate with people whose skills are different from yours. Some of my favourite moments have come from watching someone with completely different training solve a problem I had been stuck on for weeks. And share your process. You never know where your next idea is going to come from.
Please share where our readers can see more of your work.
You can visit furrypuppet.com to see the full portfolio. I especially recommend the Nike x NIGO project and Frankie Focus for some recent work.
Thank you, Zack, for sharing your passion and process with us. It is wonderful to see such detailed handcraft going into characters that bring so much joy to people. I am sure my readers will enjoy exploring Furry Puppet Studio’s work.
Love, laugh and live the life to the fullest,
-Ranjana
