Sleifer | Cari's Creatures

Sleifer the Sea Serpent

Our second official member is our lovely and vibrant Sleifer the Sea Serpent. Sleifer may look dangerous- but he is a true softy! He is incredibly shy and often times greets new friends from behind his handler's back! Sleifer has been to many events- most of which include Renaissance festivals, anime conventions and craft festivals. He may seem big and scary, but he has finally started breaking out and making new friends! Won't you befriend this bashful beast?

The Making of a Serpent

Sleifer was originally sculpted by our lovely friend Dominique De Leon (Namu's original maker) with his body made by our main puppeteer Carissa Schaeffer. His head was sculpted from clay, cast in resin, dremeled and sanded. Hinges were added to the jaw for movement, and, at the time, long and poseable whiskers were applied to his lower jaw. He was then hand painted by Dominique. His gorgeous red eyes are made in the same way Namu's eyes were made.

While the head was being created, Carissa was hard at work on several renditions of the body. Many builds did not work in the way we wanted, and had to be scrapped (Many times..) In the end, Sleifer ended up being made of blue sequence fabric, silver stretch fabric, foam skeleton, stuffing and various other trinkets. Sleifer is a two-handed puppet. One hand and arm puppets the head and neck and the other hand and arm puppet the tail. This was done by measuring and adding arm slots on either end of the puppet.

Once Sleifer's head was ready, it was shipped to our puppeteer and Sleifer was put together and our first prototype was complete. Sleifer wen through a total of 3 versions before becoming the shy serpent you see today. Notable differences include shortening his body length, removing his heavy whiskers, and changing the tail and tummy.

Sleifer's true "Finishing touch" were his custom made silicone fins attached to four points on his body. These fins were made on Etsy by CyntaultCreations. These gave him a more complete look, and thus his personality truly began to grow.