Update

This week I've been working extremely hard on finishing my set and completing the last stages of puppet-making. It requires a lot of various random skills that I've had to learn, like sawing very fragile wood panels, cutting through steel rods with a dremel tool (I wouldn't recommend it), and the proper application of resin to fiberglass cloth, in addition to sewing skills, clothing design and pattern knowledge, balance of color and contrast within each puppet as well as how each one fits into the color and tonal range of the set as a whole.
The most difficult thing, outside of all the physical labor, has been planning how to coordinate the color choices I would LIKE to have ideally, with the reality that certain materials only come in a limited range of colors, like a certain shade of beige for the subway seats or a certain metallic tone for the paneling on the floor. This also applies to costuming; forcing me to work around the patterns and colors of fabric I can find, rather than planning exactly what color each piece of clothing will be and then trying to find it at the fabric store, which gets really frustrating.
The most enjoyable thing this week has probably been realizing that, although I didn't get as much up-front tangible puppet and set building done over the summer as i would have liked, all the trial-and-error experimentation with materials and processes I did during that time, as well as the extensive thought and problem-solving concerning HOW I was going to build things, has helped me a lot now. It's much easier to focus on making the puppets and set look good when I don't have to worry as much about details of a specific process that's really easy to mess up, like how many times to dip latex hands or what size of square brass tubing to track down in a tiny Santa Monica craft shop.