"Hand Hugger" HELP!

[Buck-Beaver]

Over the past year I've trying to reinvent the way I make mouthplates to make them as comfortable and flexible as possible (I'll post some pics online of what I've come up with when I'm done the project I'm working on right now).

Over the summer I met a few people who had built puppets from David Pannebecker's patterns and videos and I really liked the "hand hugger" grip for the mouthplate. So I bought an Armslength kit and planned to take a look at it this fall, but I did something incredibly stupid - I mispacked it and left in storage in Canada in August.

Unfortunately I can't get the armslength stuff sent to me or even order another because the mail here in Mexico is pretty much useless...if anyone can help me out with photos, pattern, etc. please PM me or email me privately at puppetvision [at] gmail dot com.

I'm not worried about the rest of the kit, video, etc. for now (I'll get it at Christmas time) but it would just be nice to see the mouthplate design before I finish making the five or six I'm working on right now.

Thanks!

 

[renegade]

I've never seen the pattern but have seen he video , Also in there kits they don't include patterns anymore? .

But it was taking about 2 peices of 1/4 foam and making a little mound in the middle of the upper plate . then carve off the corners and round it out a bit . Place a piece of shammy over the top and using contact glue cover the mound . then take a strap, place a peice of foam and cover the inside of the strap with the shammy also . Now make a u or that type of shape over the mound and make sure you can get your four fingers in there nice and cozy like. he bolted down the strap and then made just a thumb cup for the bottom .
I hope that makes some kinda of sense? I will try to get pics of the one's ive been biulding with his in mind.

take care

 

[Jinx]

Buck-

I sent you a private message. Hope it helps.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Thanks guys, I got a bunch of responses so far which is great. I saw these in the summer and had a pretty good idea how they were done, but that kind of confirms it for me. Someone wrote and pointed out that the "hand hugger" is better suited to inflexible mouthplates so I'm not sure if it will be so helpful after all.

Armslength is apparently not providing the patterns in the kit any more, I didn't even open mine. I bought it from a third party who didn't use it, so I'm not sure if it's an older one with patterns or not. It's kind of odd they are not including patterns. What's to stop someone from tracing the precut pieces and just making a pattern themselves?

Still, I'd love to see pics!

I can't post pics of what I'm doing right now because of copyright issues, but once I get stuffed cleared by the right people I'll post photos of how the new mouthplates end up getting made. Until then, anyone looking for a good article on mouthplate construction should click here.

 

[BorkBork]

i did a low-budget handhugger today. It looks kinda tacky but it works fine.
Check it out