This isn't the pic I was looking for but you can see here how JB added pieces of sculpted foam to the head.

Are you doing normal, pajama, or homeless Nicky?

Are you doing normal, pajama, or homeless Nicky?

Don't forget wedding Nicky.

- Sean

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.

Actually, it's an additional piece of slightly darker fleece that has been fluffed up, not an additional piece of foam. I got to see and use an original one about three weeks ago when Jeff Marx came to our production. He brought his Tony and a Nicky puppet for show and tell. Nice, nice man. Very generous with his time.


This is a pic of our Nicky puppeteers with Jeff Marx and his "homeless Nicky" puppet.

- Sean

This isn't the pic I was looking for but you can see here how JB added pieces of sculpted foam to the head.

This also shows how JB "eased" into the darts for the seams. Darts should come off the main seam at a right angle, and should ease into the back of the dart, like a tornado. The picture of JB's pattern shows that VERY well. Note that they are not straight triangles.

It looks like maybe you didn't print off the pattern that VW drew up but replicated it by hand...

Yeah... I only have 8" x 11" paper so how would I print it out? :/

You need to "square up" the pattern for you mouth plate in the top photo..

Phew! If that was my mouth plate I'd be in a lot of trouble haha! That's just something to hold the shape in place before I make the mouthplate. :P

Are you doing normal, pajama, or homeless Nicky?

Normal Nicky! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention you guys, this is just for my own personal use, I'm not going to be selling it or performing with it or anything!!


Thanks again guys! I'm gonna start working on him again right now so I'll have some more pictures in a few hours!

Yeah... I only have 8" x 11" paper so how would I print it out?

Well since I don't know your computer and the programs you have I can't give you specifics, but here are some general tips.

1.) In the pattern in question remember that you really only need 1/2 of it printed out because it is a mirror image. That can be true of many patterns. You can sometimes get something to print one half in the size you need then you can lay it down on a folded piece of paper. Draw the pattern, cut and then you have the full pattern once you unfold!

2.) Look for printing options in the program you view the images in . Often if an image is too large you can have it print over more then one page.  It well split the image for you and then you can cut and tape the two together.

3.) You can often take an image to someplace like Kinkos or an office supply store and they can enlarge or reduce an image and print it off for you on larger paper.  You could save the image on say a thumb drive and take that into them to work with.

 BTW, the image that VW supplied is actually only an 8.5 X 11 image so it fits on your paper.    Might be a bit small though so you would need to up size it really. 

Some printers have options in your printer properties to print poster size. You will still have to tape the pieces together. I found this tutorial below. I have a Brother MFC-6490CW printer and can print on tabloid size paper.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2007398_print-poster-inkjet.html

Okay - So I printed VampireWombat's pattern out again using Shawn's method and this is what I got...


Here is the first time I printed it out. It ended up being about 15.5in long on the bottom side which I thought was a little long so...

I printed it out again. This time it was 13in, which seemed more reasonable. So, I moved on to the foam.

Cut it out!

Glued it together, and.. it didn't look so good.  Agh! So frustrating! I know the darts still aren't perfect, but I'm more worried about the shape right now.

Even with it pinned (as if it had a mouthplate underneath it), it the shape doesn't look right. This shape would work perfectly for Rod's head(see image below), so I guess I got somewhere, but what did I do wrong with the pattern this time?!

The more mistakes I make the more I learn I guess...!

Rod:

I wonder if you may be better off using a melon shape or football shape with a little added to the top? I know there is a pattern floating around here somewhere of the football shaped one...

Oh! It's actually in Billy's album as Round Head Pattern....

How many of the foam did you cut?  Is that just one with the mouth plate inserted?  You should make two of those and then glue them together. Then cut a mouth plate to fit inside of that. You should have a center seam running down the center of the face of the puppet.  At least that is how I interpreted the pattern.  Hmmm.... Maybe I should print it off and give it a try myself.

OOOOOOH! I thought it was going to be like the three-piece method in the foam book.. doh! I'll give it another try tomorrow because I still think 13in was a little too big.

Yes what I am describing is the three piece method. I am simply "rotating" the top two pieces so the long seam is down the center of the face. Also don't forget that it could be the mouth plate that needs a bit of tweaking or even the length. 

The head on the right is from the pattern I gave you earlier.



The chin is the same pattern but changed to a height of 4.5" but keeping the width.

That took a lot of math and geometry to figure out how that ellipses works to make a truer round shape.