Brian Kusser, founder of the Blue Bear Puppet Lab, holds up one of the puppet heads at the lab’s Ellensburg workshop.
Ellensburg Puppetmasters
Creative creations of Blue Bear Puppet Lab take to the streets BY JACK BELCHER staff writer Puppets will be walking around downtown Ellensburg this Halloween. The puppets are individually handcrafted, and are large enough to be worn as a costume. The puppets are created by the local artists from the Blue Bear Puppet Lab, who work to provide the community with original characters and costumes. “One of the rules for the work that 20
K V LIVING
we do here, is that every image that is made that will be brought out into the community is an original one,” said founder Brian Kusser. “When we have an entire world of corporations, where almost every image that you see is one that somebody is making money off of… so much of a person’s creativity is manufactured and sold to you, and we want to represent a creativity that is more homegrown, something you can only see in your hometown, and present the idea that creativity can exist outside
of corporations.” The puppet lab is located in Ellensburg, and there is a small warehouse full of new and old creations. These puppets are mostly made from papermache although there are some exceptions for robots and giant skeletons, and while many of the puppets are worn as costumes, there are some go beyond and can reach up to 17 feet tall. The puppets have participated in Ellensburg events before, most notably
