Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in Queens begins offering public tours

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop opened its Queens workshop to public tours this year, allowing visitors to see the workspace where puppets and costumes for characters including Kermit, Miss Piggy, Big Bird, and Cookie Monster are made. The 80-minute tours occur on Saturdays and begin in a dedicated room containing show props and finished pieces.

Visitors may take photos and videos only in that room; the main workshop area remains off-limits for photography because many items are works in progress or proprietary.

Jason Weber, the shop’s creative supervisor, said the tours cost $150 per person and are intended to highlight the hand craftsmanship involved. Sierra Schoening, a senior puppet builder, demonstrated puppet operation during a May 13 visit covered by the Associated Press.

The company was founded in Manhattan in the 1960s and has occupied its current Queens location since 2009. A second workshop in Los Angeles does not offer tours. Trays of puppet eyes, bins of colored furs, and racks of fabric and accessories fill the main workspace, where creatures remain in various stages of assembly.