Don Sahlin (1928–1978) was Jim Henson’s principal designer and builder through the 1960s and 70s, and the person most responsible for what a MuppetA Muppet is a puppet built in the soft foam-and-fleece style... actually looks like.
Henson said it plainly: Sahlin was the man most responsible for the look of the Muppets. Henson supplied initial sketches for many characters, but the translation from drawing to object — the part every builder struggles with — was Sahlin’s.
What he built
Rowlf the Dog in 1962, for Purina Dog Chow commercials, was the first. From there: Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, The Amazing Mumford, and the first version of Big Bird’s head, later largely rebuilt by Kermit LoveKermit Love (1916–2008) was a Broadway costume designer wh....
The design principle worth stealing
Sahlin’s characters are built on a startlingly simple geometry — a rounded head, cut across by a large mouth, with features reduced to the minimum that reads. A beginner’s instinct is to add detail. Sahlin’s entire contribution was knowing what to leave out, and his faces carry more expression than far more elaborate builds because nothing competes for attention.
The Henson stitch is his
He named the technique for hiding a seam in fleeceFleece is the knit fabric used as the outer skin on most mod... More — the one that runs down the centre of Kermit’s snout. His own assessment was characteristically unromantic: it does not make a seam truly invisible, it makes it invisible enough for television.
Before Henson
he made puppets from the age of eleven, studied briefly under Rufus Rose of Howdy Doody, rebuilt puppets for Burr TillstromBurr Tillstrom (1917–1985) created Kukla, Fran and Ollie, ..., and worked in Hollywood as a stop-motion and effects animator on George Pal’s films.
He taught
Contemporaries describe a builder who shared technique freely and launched the careers of dozens of young puppet makers. He also introduced Kermit Love to Henson.
The finale of Fraggle Rock closes, after all other credits, with a single line: this show is for Don Sahlin.