Dave Privett- www.PlaySoup.com

[puppetsmith]

Next I traced the shapes onto chunks of foam rubber so I could sculpt a miniature model of the bunny. The body, legs, arms, ears, and head were carved separately and pinned in place to complete the rabbit's figure. Then I made markings on the foam to show where the seams would go when I began gluing pattern pieces together. (The idea is to imagine how a flat piece of 1/2" sheet foam could be rapped around, cut, and glued together to make the same shape you have just sculpted in three-dimensions. The markings show the darts and cuts you need to make.) Some of the parts didn't need to be patterned. I decided the legs and arms would be carved out of bigger pieces of foam later. Next I cut the little head and body foam shapes down the center lines and began focusing on cutting the smaller lines I made, but only on the one side. I only needed one side because I could just flip the pattern later to get a symmetrical look in my finished puppet. The only way I could then get a flat representation of my foam shapes was to shave the inside of the body and head pieces super thin and glue them down to a piece of paper. All of this effort gave me a small version of the patterns for the 1/2" sheet foam head and body.

Found this at puppetkit.com. Thought some might be interested.

 

[whatadoddle]

Puppet patterns from drawings.

Hello, what an interesting thread! Full of Chinese whispers-type conflict and contradictions. I love it.
I have been an artist for love not money for years and have much theatre experience. This has led me to the opinion that you can make pretty much anything you want if you put your mind to it. Not always on the first attempt!! Perfection is only obtained after trial and error, and nothing is better than perfecting your design.
Imagine your materials to be like clay, even if you are not a sculptor, you can make a pretty good 3d model quite simply. Then step back and look at it. What type of mouth will it be, and what size nose. It helps to think about your puppet character and draw it in a certain style, then adapt this until this style or hallmark becomes recognisably yours. Plan where your seams will go then think what shape this will make, how many pieces and darts, etc you will need. Then have a go with your foam, cut it, glue it, cut some more, until the shape is right. You may need to start again several times before it is "right".
It is late and I have a black light puppet production on sunday for our Reading Mayor, huge stage and massive puppets, still have bags of stuff to organise.
I will put up some pattern pics next week for a puppet I sketched, made a pattern for then made, just to let you know how I do it, no big secret!
Greetings all you fellow puppet builders!
Mandy

 

[shtick]

Hi everyone.
Part of the reason the "Of Muppets and Men" book is sought after is because of the uncensored workshop photos in that book, showing very clearly supposedly "secret" items such as Barge Cement!

Is it the 1981 or the 1986 print?