As a puppeteer, Rob attends many puppetry festivals. In 1996, while standing in line for yet another show on the third day of a National Festival, he was feeling burnt out and over-stimulated. Duke Krause, a fellow puppeteer, appeared in front of Rob with a little gizmo made of two tongue-depressors with a face drawn on the front. As Duke moved his thumb, the top of the head of this little gizmo moved up and down -Rob was instantly intrigued.

As Rob examined Duke's novel puppet, he began to get ideas to "dress it up a little". Since, as a rule, puppeteers love sharing their ideas and love to see them expanded upon by other puppeteers, Duke was quite excited by the idea of Rob working with the udea. Rob came up with several designs, produced a few puppets, and returned them to Duke. Together, they named the new puppets "Pop-up Puppets"

Duke passed away in 1998, but his legacy of the Pop-up Puppet lives on in Rob, who continues to make the puppets for sale and to teach the building techniques to students and teachers. Rob has also written an article about the Pop-up Puppets for the Puppeteers of America Journal.

In 2003 Rob met Gyan, who was looking for her next great business idea. She had some experiance selling both her own crafts and other peoples' crafts at local craft and street fairs. The whimsy of Rob's creation, combined with Gyan's love of crafting and selling made a great team, and "Planet of the Puppets" was born

Currently, Planet of the Puppets sells retail at Pike Place Market in Seattle, on line, and at various festivals and street markets in the Pacific Northwest. We also produce wholesale and "to the trade" orders.