Making Bluebell
The Story of a Puppet’s Creation
When I began to develop my ideas around social-emotional coaching for children and grown-ups, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to deliver my content. It took several months to land on puppetry and develop the Bluebell Learning LLC mascot: Bluebell.
Throughout my teaching career, many of my students have been third culture kids (TCKs). Taking inspiration from Sesame Street’s monsters and the traditional “oni” monster of Japan, I wanted to create a mixed-origin puppet that my students could find relatable. I put together some concept sketches and sent them out to my old students for their input.
Original concept sketches for Bluebell.
Overall, my students loved Bluebell’s design, but I received several comments on her horns, and decided to remove them. Still, her design and personality are heavily influenced by my TCKs. Her name is taken from my students as well. The last Kindergarten I worked in, each class was named after a flower. My students were the Bluebell class.
Next came the construction. While I’d never made a puppet before, I had decades of sewing and costuming under my belt, so I decided to give it a try using tutorials from Puppet Nerd [1] on YouTube. It was a fun challenge!
Did you know that puppets are made out of a special stretch fleece? I didn’t! Nylon fleece, also called Antron Fleece, only comes in a few colors, none of which matched the design I wanted to bring to life. Bluebell is entirely handmade, and every fuzzy part of her is custom dyed, even her yarn hair!
I’ve noticed puppets, and drawn characters in general, tend to have one hair style. It makes sense to have a consistent design, especially when there are animation teams who need to follow a guide. However, as one person in charge of her, it was important to me that Bluebell’s hair style could change. Maybe it’s overly sentimental, but I always loved when one of my students would ask me to braid their hair. Maybe they were heading to P.E., or got too hot during recess, or just wanted to copy a popular character, but whatever the reason, they would come to me. They knew I would help. That trust was precious to me, and I wanted to be reminded of it before each video I filmed with Bluebell.
Bluebell is for them: for every child I have ever taught, coached, mentored, nannied, babysat, or held for a moment while their grownup was occupied. She is for every child just like them around the world, every child who wants to feel significance and belonging, who needs a little encouragement.
I hope they will love learning with Bluebell as much as I loved teaching and learning with them.
[1] In the middle of making Bluebell, I learned that Adam Kreutinger, the mind behind Puppet Nerd, lost his battle against brain cancer. He leaves behind his wife and two small children. A brilliant educator and entertainer gone too soon. I’ve made a donation to the American Cancer Society in his honor.
