When "American "Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert played Seattle in July, Ballard resident Mark Saltzman's friend was desperate to meet him, and Saltzman knew just how to do it. Make a puppet.

When Adam Lambert the singer took the stage, Adam Lambert the puppet, complete with top hat, makeup and rippling felt abs, was in the front row performing along.

Afterward, Puppet Adam Lambert made it back stage and was played with by Lambert's brother and signed by Lambert himself. Mission accomplished.

Saltzman is the founder of Kiwuppet Studios, currently being run out of his East Ballard garage. He has made more than 75 puppets and is working to expand and share his love of the art form with children and adults alike.

As an actor in the early 2000s, was a human actor alongside puppet costars in "Bear in the Big Blue House". Watching expert puppeteers every night rekindled a childhood love of puppets.

"I think we've all been fascinated by puppets at one time in our life," he said. "Seeing the magic of bringing those objects to life is even more difficult than most people realize."

When Saltzman left "Bear in the Big Blue House" in 2003, he decided to start creating his own puppets.

He said here aren't many resources readily available for aspiring puppeteers looking to make their own creations.

"It's really your own creativity and what you can think of," he said.

Saltzman doesn't just take his inspiration for his creations from popular singers his friends would like to meet. Lately, he has been building puppet versions of Ballard's Henry murals.

Saltzman is creating puppets at the moment to tell the story of a moose and a bear from one mural trying to catch a fish, which leads them to an underwater scene and a giant octopus from another mural.

He said he wants to perform a mural-inspired play at one of Ryan Henry Ward's future gallery openings.

Saltzman's garage/workshop is a jumble of materials, complete puppets and half-finished creations. A tray of potential eyeballs sits next to the foam skull of what will one day be a moose.

"I love coming out to the garage and tinkering," he said. "It starts as nothing. From there seeing, 'What is this going to look like?'"

Saltzman uses a lot of found and donated materials to create his puppets. He is also experimenting with new materials, such as deflated balloons for hair, to find what works and what doesn't.

One lesson he learned while building a giant dog was to never work with fur if if can be avoided.

"It gets everywhere," he said. "I didn't know you were supposed to wear a respirator. I just had a bandana tied around my face."

Saltzman has taught puppetry at dance studios and elsewhere.

Most actors can't work with puppets; they want to be the star, he said. He said a really good performer can get the audience to focus on the puppet and make themselves disappear, even if they are still standing in plain view.

Saltzman said puppeteering is about making something that is not real come to life. Achieving that goal is a bit like trying to do eight things at once while also working out.

For a standard, Muppet-style puppet, puppeteers have to get the right posture for the puppet, which is done by keeping the arm straight and the wrist flexed down. They also have to make sure the puppet is maintaining eye contact with whatever puppet or actor is speaking.

When a puppet speaks, it moves its mouth for every syllable not every word, and only the lower jaw moves, which means the puppeteers thumb has to move independently of the rest of the hand.

While all that is going on, the puppeteer has to keep the puppets head moving in a natural, lifelike way by flexing his or her wrist while operating the puppets arms with one hand using two rods, chopsticks style.

This entire process is usually done while the puppeteer is crouched out of view and holding his or her arm and the increasingly heavy puppet as high and straight over head as possible.

"When you write (a show), you want to keep it short enough to keep your arm straight," Saltzman said. "Songs will kill you."

Though he is still working mostly with the well-known Muppet-style puppet, Saltzman is hoping to expand into other forms of puppetry, such as hand rod, shadow, bunraku and marionettes, he witnessed while attending the O'Neill Puppetry Conference in Connecticut and Puppet-O-Rama in Seattle this summer.

Saltzman has completed a play to perform at children's birthday parties for boys and is working on one for girls. He also wants to do more work for television in the coming year and would love for Kiwuppet Studios to turn into a full-time job.

"I want to keep entertaining," Saltzman said. "Once you find your joy, you have to follow it. Find your joy, and if it makes you happy, keep playing with dolls in your garage. But, hopefully you come out occasionally to share what you've been working on."