This is Niko, the marionette monkey. He stands about two feet high. He is made from a four inch nap fur called, oddly enough, “monkey fur”. The fur is high quality and pretty easy to work with considering the length of the fur. The body is mostly sew and stuffed, but the arms, legs, and head are attached with rubber tubing. The tubing is an easy way to get full range movement. His tail is one long piece of tubing covered with a fur sleeve.

The face, hands, and feet were all first sculpted in clay. They were then molded in a silicone rubber. Then the face, head, and feet were cast in a dense foam rubber that is very durable and realistic. The pigment was embedded in the foam at the time of casting, so there is no paint to chip.

The control was a more German/European pistol grip type of control. The feet are controlled by a rocker control that uses the the thumb and index finger. The arm control and the head control are both attachable and removable to the main control.

Created by Randi Rain 2014.