The Birth of Tzoomi Puppets

My name is Maya Sadeh. I started creating puppets in 2004. Until then, I painted and did carpentry. One day my husband suggested that I make puppets. I thought that was a strange idea because people don't make puppets. Sesame Street makes puppets. But I decided to give it a try. My initial creations were built from sponge and contact glue. The first time I made a puppet "come to life" I was amazed! Creating the unique mechanism that enables facial expressions was the highlight of the design stage. People who saw the puppets wanted to buy them. Pretty soon it became clear that I had to use more durable materials and scale up manufacturing in order to produce enough puppets to meet the demand. Today, Tzoomi puppets are made in Asia in a factory that specializes in high quality manufacturing and certification of plush toys.