Please help

[Show and Tell]

obviously I'm not doing a very good job of explaining myself. oh well. might just half to try it and see for myself if it works or get a scanner. lol

 

[FISH'N'WOLFE]

I'm not partial to carving puppets myself, but there is more than one way to go about this. How long does it take you to carve a head? Just the shape, not all the finishing details like eyes, fleece or flock, etc. I can usually produce a "wedge head" in under an hour and I've found carved heads tend to be not as flexible as properly built patterned heads, which are hollow. How do you deal with that?

Well, it takes about an hour for me too, as for the flexibility issue I haven't had one, I make sure the jaw area is carved out pretty well so that there isn't any resistance, lay in a thin leather mouthplate and it works great.

 

[Zoot The Saxman]

Thank you ALL for your ideas. I will try i'm sure ALL of them just to see which works best for me. Yous Guys are all so helpful. Thanks again.

I did find out that Hot Gluing wedges stinks!!!! I find i get hard ridges on the foam. I wasn't sure if i could sand the foam either from the block, but i will try that method first. AND of course post a few pics when completed.

Thank again!

 

[scarylarrywolf]

I wonder if I'm explaining myself correctly. I think maybe if you glue half of the wedge together from the cnter and then made the wedge wider for the outer half of that wedge. doing the same for each wedge. (am I making any sence?) then glue that half of the wedge together. wish I had a scanner, I'd draw you a picture of what I mean. Larry do you have a way you can show me what you mean? hey buck what if you used a template to cut perfect wedges then they couldn't be wrong could they?

I put together a simple diagram from a perspective of the base for you:

http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TADiAv4XAa0RMOX0tt9RQPXAr5GZYcg6g101xnjMoJRetoPTxp*ns6epK2P!mh5tz9dXeea4UillK0r3E5iva70apbmkJ7m*yAl2mVCei*KYoWsEtihqvA/foam%20wedges.jpg?dc=4675457379484056253

Hope that helps!

 

[Show and Tell]

AH thanks larry. I understand what you mean now. I don't want to muffin this thread so do you have an email address?

 

[Show and Tell]

ah ha! I figured out how to post a pic of what I was trying so hard to explain. Check this out and see If it would make a rounder head. http://www.angelfire.com/comics/puppetbuilder/ I'd recommend the use of a templete to assure that the angles match up properly. This drawing is just a sketch not a pattern. I only drew this to demontrate my idea.

 

[Phillip]

Looks good. Much clearer now.

 

[Show and Tell]

Looks good. Much clearer now.

Thanks Mr. Chapman

 

[scarylarrywolf]

That's a good idea, but for the smoothtest results I've found that cutting the foam into complete triangles and then reassembling them works the best for me. Just cutting the darts out of the foam tends to leave little ridges and bumps that define where the tip of the removed dart and the smooth, undisturbed foam meet.

Either this is univerally true, or I'm just not doing something right.

 

[Show and Tell]

Well what if once you got that general shape you just sanded it smooth with a disk sander? Then it would still have the solidity of structure without the dart points. What do you think? Shouldn't take much more than a slight touch with a sander at each point.