PUPPETS & ADOPTION DAYS
CAN I PRE-ORDER A PUPPET?
We do not do pre-orders for a number of reasons, the main one being that it would overwhelm us. We're a small team of 3 hand making these puppets (while simultaneously writing and filming video content) and we can make a max of 10-20 a month. If we opened up pre-orders indefinitely, we run the risk of receiving hundreds of orders at once, backing us up with months and months of work and that's fun for no one! There's also the potential risk of materials running out in the supply chain (which is very common when it comes to faux fur), and having to cancel or refund orders if that were the case.
The best way for us to manage orders is via Adoption Days via first-come-first-serve. It's much more manageable for us on all fronts!
DO YOU DO CUSTOM PUPPETS?
At this time, we are not taking orders for custom puppets. Please check out www.swazzle.com for custom work!
A PUPPET I WANTED GOT ADOPTED, CAN YOU MAKE ANOTHER ONE?
YES! If you wanted Zigzag or Pinky or any puppet who has already been up for adoption, we can make more litters of those characters.* *Every now and then, we create an exclusive puppet that will be adoptable once. These will be marked with a ✱ on their adoption profile. To help give us an idea for the demand on certain characters, you can mark your favorite in this form.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE NEW PUPPET LITTERS?
Adoption Days are about once or twice a month! The cloning process for each puppet can take up to 20+ hours in total. The weeks that we are cloning them are quite intense, so we like to take a break in between litters to clear our heads.
PRICING & SHIPPING
HOW MUCH DOES A PUPPET COST? / WHY DOES IT COST SO MUCH?
Adoption fees currently start around $160. These puppets are truly a labor of love and we put so much care into every step of the process to make it fun for you! The work we put in goes far beyond simply sewing fur together - we brainstorm character quirks & video concepts, we spend hours prepping the listings in the shop, and even more time filming & editing the introduction skits. Our goal is to make puppetry attainable to everyone, so we do want to try to keep them as affordable as we can! But we also have to keep time & cost into consideration to ensure we're still able to make a decent living and cover our business expenses.
DO YOU SHIP INTERNATIONALLY?
At this time, we can only ship Puppet orders internationally. We cannot ship smaller orders like shirts, stickers, or pins. All tax & import fees are to be paid by the customer. ✷ Please review the green tab on top of our website for more information regarding international shipping. ✷
HOW DOES THE EARLY ACCESS ON PATREON WORK?
Each of our patrons get early access to every shop update! We temporarily shut the website down, give our patrons a password and they're able to shop for 15 minutes before it opens to the public. Any tier gets you early access, including Pinky's Tip Jar for only $1 a month! Beyond early access, we also share BTS videos of how we puppet videos, unseen process footage of how we make certain products, props and/or puppets, weekly newsletters, monthly sketchbook tours, digital gifts, snail mail and more! Patreon is truly the only place on the internet where we really put it all on the table and "show how the sausage is made".
MISCELANNEOUS
CAN I ADOPT A PUPPET TO USE FOR MY BUSINESS MASCOT/SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE?
This can be a tricky thing to navigate for us. We kindly ask that you do not use our Adoption Day Puppets for any sort of business that involves social media* (IE: tiktok, instagram, streaming, youtube, etc), especially if it is monetized, as this could cause a direct conflict with our own business and create confusion with our audience and brand partnerships. Our Adoption Day Puppets are more for personal use, classroom use, pediatricians, speech therapists, families, psychologists, etc. If you're looking for a puppet that can be a public spokesperson for your online platform, a custom puppet would be a better route for you! With a custom puppet, we can work together to design a brand new, unique character fit for your brand. Join our custom puppet waiting list here.
*(It's ok to post videos with your puppet on social media for personal/recreational use - but if a video were to go viral we'd ask you to not monetize or capitalize on its success and credit us as the creators of the character. We work so hard on the design and backstory of these characters and so much love goes into it!)
DISCLAIMER: We understand the risk we are taking by putting our own beloved characters out there in the world for people to perform with and that we won't always be able to control who posts what. Any video shared using our characters is only officially ours if it is posted under the @RAGMOPANDGOOSE handle. Any other video is not a representation of us, nor are we associated with anyone who shares videos using our puppets. Our brand and message is about inclusion for everyone, creativity, fun, innocence, love, and universal acceptance and we hope our audience will use our puppets to spread the same message. If our puppets are ever used to spread a message that negates our values, we absolutely do NOT endorse it.
DO YOU TEACH ANY CLASSES, WORKSHOPS, OR HAVE TUTORIALS ON PUPPET MAKING?
We don't currently offer anything like this, but that doesn't mean we don't have interest in it in the future! If you are wanting to dip your toes in the puppet fabrication world, we highly recommend watching Adam Kreutinger's youtube videos. He's incredibly talented and his videos are VERY informative! What we aim to teach in the meantime is that puppeteering can be a wonderful gift to help you learn to embrace parts of yourself you may feel embarrassed by. (Because this has been my experience with puppetry.) We create the character quirks and film the videos to give you a jump start if it's something you struggle with - but truly, you're free to create new personas and quirks that feel connected to you!
WHAT GOT YOU INTO PUPPET MAKING?
Jessie talks about her entire puppet journey from childhood to now in this youtube video!
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR FABRIC?
We get most of my fur from a local store in the Downtown Los Angeles Fabric District called City Fabric. If you're in the LA area, go support his business! He has a beautiful collection of faux furs and they're much more affordable than commercial stores. (He does not do online orders.) You can also order supplies and fur from the following websites:
Big Z Fabric
Mendel's
Mood Fabrics
Joann's Fabric
CAN I MAKE MY OWN STANLEY/SPAGHETTI/ZIGZAG/ETC.?
We love seeing people inspired by all of these little babies and getting the art-making bug themselves! That's the whole point of what I'm doing. :) Fan art makes us giddy and we are totally okay with you pulling inspiration from our characters. We pull inspiration from many different sources (IE: Jim Henson, Mr. Rogers, Peewee's Playhouse, etc.) While we encourage you to follow that inspiration, we do ask that you do not copy our work and/or try to share/sell it online and pass it off as your own. If you share any sort of fan art or inspired puppets, please be sure to tag and credit us as the original creators.
Our advice as artists is to experiment and explore! It can be helpful to refer to someone else's work as a reference or starting point for learning a new technique, but don't stop there! Take what you learn and find ways to include your personal little touches to create your own character! What are your favorite colors? What other forms of art or media have influenced you? What memories do you have that you can embed in your work? What's your favorite (or least favorite) thing about yourself? You can also pull inspiration from the people in your life: What's your sibling's favorite genre of music? Where is your family from? Etc. Asking these kinds of questions can help you develop and design your own characters. :)