Hello again everyone! I'm looking to replicate some puppets from the musical AVENUE Q, which I'm sure most of you are familiar with. I know these questions get asked a lot by people who have seen the show once and are looking to buy/quickly make the puppets, but I can assure you I'm not another one of those people. I know they're copyrighted, too, so no patterns or anything are made or sold, so that's why I need a little help!

About a year ago, I tried making a Nicky replica and... let's just say.. it didn't come out. It's terribly embarrassing to even post a picture of it. I have it hidden away in my closet. Anyway, now, I'm going to try again, so I have bought a ton of new foam, a sewing machine, more fleece, the Foam Book, and better information about sewing (thanks everyone who helped me out in my other thread here: http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php/topic,7292.0.html)!

So, a while back I found this image and have been trying to figure out a way to replicate it for a while. It looks like the three-piece head method from the Foam Book, but I just can't seem to make a shape that is similar to that one. I've wasted so much foam on this already it is so frustrating! Agh!

A user on here named DarkRanth posted on here a while ago with the building of his replicas and it seemed like he went with just carving the heads out of a block rather than using sheet foam. I'd love to get into contact with him about information, but it seems like he has been inactive for an extremely long time...

So... Any tips/advice? I'd be awesome to have Nicky, Rod, Trekkie and the whole gang, but first I need to knock out Nicky! Once I start, I'll keep ya'll updated with progress!

Thanks!

Kevin

First of all, I suggest doing tests using tissue paper instead of straight foam. Then I suggest to draw circles, half circles, etc. and cutting darts into them. If you're not sure what a dart is, it's a triangle that's cut out of the material (or foam) which slightly changes the shape. It's one of the easiest ways I know of to create a circle or half circle out of foam.

VampireWombat has some great tips there. Also have a look in Billy's Album. He has quite a few diagrams and patterns that are free that would give you an idea of how shapes with darts work.  Actually one that is really handy is the Wedge Pattern pictured below. If you go to the gallery page you can view it and download it in it's original pdf format.  As it says on the pattern if you cut 8 and glue them together you get a prefect sphere. the head you are looking at making is half a sphere. Can you figure out what part of the pattern you would use to do that?  

I uploaded Andrew from "Puppet Building" pdf file for the Ted head.Maybe this will give you a better understanding.

http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?action=gallery&g2_itemId=22649

Thanks for all the info guys, but I think we have a misunderstanding :P

I've used patterns before, in fact I bought and used the Rotondo pattern from Project Puppet a while back, it just wasn't the right shape for Nicky. The Foam Book explained everything and how to make the pattern but it is just getting so, so, so frustrating. I've tried using paper instead of foam, it just doesn't match up to accuracy of using foam. I'll keep trying using paper so I don't waste all my foam, but aaaaaaaaaghhhhhh. I'm becoming discouraged! 

I tried the Wedge Pattern that you've posted Shawn, but it still didn't come out like Nicky's head  :'(

Any other tips/help? 

I will try to replicate the head shape myself this afternoon and let you know how well it goes. If I can figure it out, I'll try to explain what I did.

Is this the shape you want? 



I'm also doing Ave Q puppets but not replicas.  This is the newest head shape I created.  I took Billy's wedge pattern into photoshop and started playing with it and came up with this pattern.
 

WOW! Thanks VampireWombat! I'm looking forward to it!

And Joel, maybe! I'll try it out this afternoon and see how it turns out! Thanks for the pattern, you're awesome!

This forum is so amazing, everyone is so helpful!!!

BTW, that's just half the head.  I doubled it on the 1/2 foam so I only had one long seam that I put to the back.

Okay, this doesn't give the head shape like in the picture you posted, but does give something similar to the shape of his head from http://broadwayworld.com/printcolumn.php?id=41090

It might require some tweaking to get exactly right, but it should be a good starting point.



Edit: The way you attach the mouthplate can make a huge difference in the shape of the head. You may need to play around with it a little and pin it in place in different ways to get the best shape.

Wow... Nice work folks! If we keep this up we are going to have a cornucopia of patterns in the gallery.

Alright VampireWombat, I tried out your pattern and it looks pretty good! If you have any suggestions to make it even more Nicky-like, lemme know! :D

Well, you might want to trim the spots where the darts were with a pair of scissors or something to give it make it a little smoother.

The shape looks pretty good to me. I agree with VW that at least the two side darts look a bit harsh but if you are going to cover in fabric they most likely will smooth out some although you may need to adjust the pattern some for your fabric. 

It looks like maybe you didn't print off the pattern that VW drew up but replicated it by hand. If you look close at his you'll see that his two side darts are not as extreme as his center one.  Yours look uniform.  I think that is what we are seeing.

You need to "square up" the pattern for you mouth plate in the top photo. I assume that is your mouth plate.   The mouth plate should be a uniform half circle.

Keep in mind Nicky has that little scruffy beard as well. That's actually made by adding a second piece of foam to that section.

There's a pic on the site here somewhere of a squirrel or chipmunk or something that shows exact.y what I mean. I'm looking for it now. I'll post it when I find it.