There's a bit of magic in one Salem home.

There, Mary Ann Taylor sculpts pieces of foam into heads and limbs for ventriloquist puppets. Then she adorns the figures in hand-sewn clothes, hair and accessories that are eerily reminiscent of anything from a tongue sandwich to Albert Einstein.

Through her business, MAT Puppets, Taylor ships at least 100 puppets a year and usually never sees them again. But lately, millions of people have seen one of Taylor's puppets in action just by turning on their televisions.

During the finale of "America's Got Talent," ventriloquist Terry Fator performed "You've Got a Friend" with Kermit the frog, Muppet chickens and Johnny Vegas, one of Taylor's puppets.

"I still get nervous when my puppet gets up there and performs," Taylor said.

That was more than a month ago. But Taylor's brush with fame isn't over, nor is it just beginning.

Tonight, another one of Taylor's creations will appear on television before an estimated millions of viewers. Ventriloquist and comedian Jeff Dunham will perform with Peanut, a purple-and-green creature of Taylor's in the Comedy Central special, "Spark of Insanity."

Taylor, 62, plans to watch the show from her home, but other than that, it's business as usual.

Before Dunham or Fator became her clients, Taylor was making puppets for cruise ships, amusement parks and even McDonald's. She has crafted a puppet of Mr. Crisp, the mascot of the Mt. Olive Pickle Company. Friends of best-selling Christian author Max Lucado had Taylor make a puppet likeness of him, as did friends of gospel singer Bill Gaither.

Not bad for a soft-spoken woman -- a wife, mother and grandmother -- who started her business more than 20 years ago.

Before becoming a master puppetmaker, Taylor was a courtroom artist. Among her subjects were Hustler magazine Publisher Larry Flynt and the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who squared off against each other in one of the most high-profile trials ever in Western Virginia.

She switched gears in the 1980s when her husband, Wayne, was a book salesman for Grolier Education Corp. and came up with a way to use ventriloquism when working.

While teachers and librarians browsed the books for sale, Wayne Taylor performed for the children using puppets his wife created. The two also worked together, writing puppet-show scripts and doing choreography.

They attended the annual International Ventriloquists Convention in Kentucky. There, Mary Ann Taylor met a woman who eventually taught her to make plush puppets. Taylor began selling her puppets at the convention.

Wayne Taylor has retired from book sales and is a safety officer for the Virginia State Police. As for Mary Ann Taylor, she said she's busier than she ever thought she would be.

News of MAT Puppets spread by word of mouth and from Taylor's sales at the convention. In 1990, the couple's daughter, Melissa Taylor, created a Web site for her mother's business.

It snowballed from there, Mary Ann Taylor said. Today, MAT puppets are shipped all over the world.

Taylor eventually hired an assistant, Carol Morehart of Salem. Morehart cuts the foam and helps with some of the sewing. Melissa Taylor of Roanoke, 32, also works in the shop and is learning how to make the puppets.

Mary Ann Taylor still does the majority of the work on the more elaborate figures.

The clients "aren't bound by reality, which I love," she said.

To fashion her creations, Taylor studies photographs of people she is replicating. Among her creations are rock star Ozzy Osbourne, Elvis Presley, Benjamin Franklin and actress Whoopi Goldberg.

Most recently, she has had orders for cockroaches, including one that's a neat freak -- it will carry a broom. Someone also ordered a caterpillar that can turn into a butterfly. She has made life-size Dolly Partons, bumblebees and even a sumo wrestler. "I want to give them more than they expect," she said.

"There's nothing she [Taylor] can't do," Morehart said. "She just has such a talent that it amazes me."

People ask to tour her shops, not realizing she works in a small shed-like building outside her east Salem home, and she doesn't keep a stock of puppets. As soon as they're made, they're shipped out, she said.

Plush puppets cost anywhere from $100 to more than $600, depending on how difficult they are to make. The plush puppets are far cheaper than high-end puppets made of wood or plaster, which can cost more than $1,000, Taylor said.

While he was advancing in "America's Got Talent," Fator called Taylor with rush order for a lounge singer that resembled Dean Martin. It became Johnny Vegas.

But Dunham is Taylor's most famous client. According to the Comedy Central Web site, Dunham has the No. 1 comedy album in the country and starred in one of the network's top-rated comedy specials.

"Seeing someone like Jeff Dunham up on stage with one of our figures is just wonderful," Melissa Taylor said. However, she and her mother said they aren't responsible for Dunham's -- or Fator's -- fame.

Once the puppets are shipped, "they're not really ours anymore," Taylor said.

And, though her business is booming, Mary Ann Taylor said she has no reason to leave Salem, because "people just seem to find us."

Melissa Taylor agreed. "There's no need to be anywhere else."