AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - The back room of Keith Bailey's Harrisburg home is filled with fabric in an array of colors and materials.
File cabinets and drawers keep spheres, eyes and other items that, with a little of Bailey's imagination applied, become puppets that can smile, squint, and smirk.
Bailey is just beginning to make puppets again, when he's not busy creating detailed birdhouses out of polyethylene. For most of his career he built mascots.
Bailey moved from Texas to Augusta with his family in 1971, when his father accepted a position as pastor of National Hills Baptist Church. Bailey opened a tropical fish store across the street, but in the back he began creating puppets for the church's children's program.
"I never considered myself a fine artist," he said.
He earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Augusta College in 1979, and a decade later moved to Atlanta to work for Griggs, Van Horn and Associates, a party and event planning company that staged events for large companies like Coca-Cola, IBM, and Delta Airlines.
"All I had was a puppet. I didn't have much as far as a portfolio," Bailey said.
He met Chris Heine at Griggs, Van Horn, and the two became best friends and business partners. Using foam rubber, they created props for events: 11-foot Indians for a country/western theme in a ballroom, an 8-foot-long macaw for a tropical-theme, palm trees and clowns.
With $5,000 between them and a desire to work for themselves, the duo left Griggs, Van Horne, founded Primera Productions (later Keith Bailey Productions) and created puppets for the Center for Puppetry Arts.
"It's an amazing place," he said.
During their time renting space from and supplying puppets to the center, Bailey met Tom Sapp at a party. Sapp had designed a mascot - Unitus - and logo for the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, Wash., and hired Bailey and Heine to build it. That led to orders from Michigan State University, Kansas City Royals and the University of Delaware to build their mascots.
"All of a sudden our puppet business became a mascot business," Bailey said. "We would always say, 'Oh, sure. We can do this.' and then we'd freak out. We'd have no idea how to do this."
They were hired to build Izzy, the mascot for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and Blaze, the mascot of the Paralympics. They also received orders from corporations and built mascots for Snapper and Orkin.
Orders also came in for costumes for children's shows on public TV. Most shows didn't make it to production, but one that did was Salsa!, which taught Spanish to young children on Georgia Public Television. Then, in 2001, Heine died of cancer.
"It was so hard on me because that was my best friend," Bailey said.
Though he had employees trained to do his part, Bailey found himself often having to redo the work after them, frequently pushing him uncomfortably close to his deadlines.
Once he found himself in the backseat of a van with a headlight strapped to his head, still sewing a yoke on a horse's head on the way to the Fed Ex hub at Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport and trying to get there before they closed at 11 p.m. The Kansas City Royals were scheduled to unveil it the next morning.
"I felt like the world was on my shoulders," he said. "I was just shaking and hyperventilating. Once I started putting tape on that box I calmed down."
He realized he needed to let go of the business.
"My passion became something I hated. I couldn't do it anymore," he said.
Bailey moved back to Augusta in 2006 and slowly started making puppets again. His puppets have appeared at Eryn Eubanks and the Family Fold's Coffee House events, and area fundraisers.
He also discovered a love for making birdhouses out of some of the same material he uses to build puppets. The polyethylene foam he uses is lightweight and durable, and when coated with sealant, completely waterproof.
The material allows him to create great detail, such as a birdhouse that looks like an old wooden house with a rusted corrugated tin roof.
He said many of his customers have told him they don't want to put the houses outside on a post, the way they were intended, but instead prefer to leave them indoors. He is now making some with lights in them to be enjoyed inside.
Bailey said as much as he loved his work building mascots, those days are behind him.
"I will never build another mascot to this day. At least, I say I won't," he said.
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Information from: The Augusta Chronicle , http://www.augustachronicle.com