Puppetry, particularly the Jim Henson-esque giant plush puppets, is something I have been doing for the past six years or so. Edward Elric, also in my fanart page, was my first anime puppet, and Ichigo is the second.

Ichigo is 3 feet, 9 inches- he is BIG.

Ichigo's head is sculpted, not stuffed, made from a mix of styrofoam and lightweight polymer composite clay, with a felted permanent covering. His hair was individually strung into a piece of canvas that was then cut, styled, and affixed, same with the eyebrows. His eyes are painted on. There are hand-holes in the back of the head, and his mouth can move.

His body is made from cotton twill and felt, stuffed with polyfil, and the neck is reinforced to prevent the head from flopping. While the jacket, shoes, most of the bandages, and hakama pants were made separately from the body (and can, therefore, be removed to put on other clothing), his tabi socks and bandages at the neck (to hide the one exposed seam between neck and body) are part of the body and cannot be removed.

The jacket and hakama are made from twill, and are very durable.

The most time-consuming part, however, were the shoes. Each was individually woven on a hand-made loom by hand, and then shaped and hand construced with braided straps. The shoes are the cheapest part of the whole puppet- a ball of jute costs about 4$, but each shoe took one day to complete.