BRITISH UNIMA SPOTLIGHT SERIES
Meet: Izzy Bristow (she/her/they) Puppet Maker • Designer • Performer • Workshop Leader
Spotlight on: Izzy Bristow (she/her/they)
Puppet Maker • Designer • Performer • Workshop Leader
🌐 Website: https://www.izzybdesign.com
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/izzlebee/
🎭 About Izzy
Izzy Bristow is a dynamic and imaginative puppet designer and maker whose work blends character design, technical craft, and expressive storytelling. She creates beautifully engineered puppets—often animals—for performance alongside human actors, drawing on a deep love for puppetry’s unique power.
Izzy describes puppets as existing in a delicate tension:
“Puppets are transformative things… With every movement they hover between life and death. If performed well, this balance creates a potent meta-drama.”
This philosophy underpins her artistic approach.
🧵 Training & Artistic Roots
Izzy’s path into puppetry brings together both costume design and technical theatre, with training that includes:
MA in Puppetry — Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama
BFA in Technical Theatre — Western Oregon University
Multiple theatre and costume internships across the United States
She built her first puppets at RWCMD in 2015 and has since developed a broad skillset through formal study and mentorship from professional puppet makers across the UK.
What Izzy Creates
Izzy specialises in animal puppets for theatre and film — sculptural, expressive, and designed for nuanced performance. Her work encompasses:
Puppet design and fabrication
Movement-led engineering for performers
Teaching at universities
Workshops for emerging makers
Devised puppet films and live cabaret pieces
She regularly contributes to Puppet Place’s 48hr Puppet Film Challenge and the Scratch Cabaret.
🎬 Selected Credits
⭐ Puppet Designer – Bristol 48hr Puppet Film Challenge (2021)
Trailer directed by: Cat Rock
Produced by: Puppet Place & House of Funny Noises
Primary Puppet Team: Izzy Bristow & Helena Houghton
🎥 Watch the trailer:
⭐ Puppet Maker & Performer – Puppet Place events
⭐ Workshop Leader & Guest Lecturer – UK universities
🌟 Inspiration
Izzy draws particular inspiration from British puppet maker Marc Parrot:
“He has an intuitive sense of material and shape that he uses effectively with his offbeat storytelling to create compelling characters in condensed worlds.”
🎉 Fun Fact
Instead of a traditional wedding, Izzy and her partner staged a Kaiju Battle under Bristol Temple Meads.
Yes — a giant monster showdown.
Peak puppeteer energy.
✨ Three Words That Sum Up Izzy’s Practice
Character. Movement. Design.
🤝 Why She Supports British UNIMA
“British UNIMA links us together as puppet makers, performers and designers in a rapidly changing world. Together we can preserve and adapt this art form so it can speak just as loudly in the future as it does today.”
📸 Images & Credits
Elephant and cat shadow puppet — Izzy Bristow
Bat and Film Festival Crocodile — Cat Rock
⭐ Want to Work With Izzy?
Izzy is available for:
✔ Puppet design & fabrication
✔ Movement-focused construction
✔ Workshops & teaching
✔ Collaborative devised projects
👉 Contact via her website: izzybdesign.com
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/izzlebee/
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Our Spotlight Series appears on the British UNIMA website, social media, and is signposted through a newsletter read by 500–1,000+ people every month, with 224k views on social media in the last 30 days.
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