Joel, I'll try your pattern tomorrow too - Sorry I haven't gotten around to it yet!

Your puppets look very nice!!

Well I was wrong. Just did a test and the long seams should be on the sides.

The shape I ended up with seems pretty on target. I didn't enlarge the image just printed it off on an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper so it is way to small for my hand.

I have a feeling that something happened when you enlarged or printed the pattern off.

Hey Joel... yours are looking really good!

I lied, I'm gonna try again today! With Joel's pattern and another try at VampireWombat's. I probably did mess something up, Shawn I should've bought another foam sheet 'cause this is using a lot of foam! Oh well - I'm learning a ton!!

I figured out how to print it out the best way.. and most accurate way, but how big should it be? Same for Joel's pattern...

Thanks. After my search for head patterns the other week after I signed up on here, Snail was kind enough to give me her Foam Book dvds.  I geeked out on science and math on how to produce shapes with the 3-piece method.  And then I came across Billy's ellipse.  It totally made sense after I cut an orange into wedges and looked at the left over skins.

So, since my heads are more "normal" shaped, I can just use similar patterns.  Adjusting the rectangle section for the forehead size and adjusting the pointed sections for the roundness.  Also, more pointed sections makes for a truer curve, but more seams.

For size, measure the arch of the mouth and that should be the length across the bottom of the pattern.  Mine was 10inches with a height of 6.5inches.

I bet that VW is about the same as Joel's.  When I printed it out the measurement was around 8" across on the bottom of the pattern and that was way to small for my hand.  I've got pretty big hands though so I bet if you increase to aroun 10" you would be ok.  Not to mention you already tried 13" and it seemed to big for you.

Alright! Just printed them both out! I'll be back soon with some pictures and hopefully I don't run into any problems!

Alright, I've been half asleep before. lol.
The official size of the pattern, as I made it, is the top half circl-ish shape being 8 3/4 wide along the bottom line. So, everyone was wrong. And the reason why it's this size is... Because I used a coffee filter for the base.

I will chime in and add that it seems the shape of the mouth plate has a lot to do with the final head shape.  And after putting on a fleece skin, the head can change a bit too.

Okay, I'm back with results!


VampireWombat's pattern is drying in the back, and I had just cut out Joel's pattern.

VampireWombat's finished pattern with a makeshift mouth plate for the time being.. I think I'll eventually have to make a real one to actually change the shape a lot, like Angel said. It doesn't really look like Nicky right now but I'll see what I can do.

Joel's finished pattern w/o the makeshift mouth plate like VW's had. Again, it doesn't really look like Nicky's head but I'm gonna have to make some adjustments ie mouth plate etc...

The bottoms of both patterns.

Any suggestions/more info is greatly appreciated!!

I think you are on the right track.  It still looks to me like you have not put the back of the heads on yet.  That is going to change the shape also.

This is the mouth pattern I used for the two guys in the picture.

Sorry for the late response! This week's been really hectic and I haven't gotten around to updating my puppets, but I did have a bit of time today so I made some progress.


Here's Joel's pattern with just a rough sketch of Nicky's face on it.

It's a little sharp on the edges, not really like Nicky's head, so I might have to make some adjustments somehow.

Top view of Joel's pattern

Here's VW's pattern... which is abnormally large.. again.. and it's shaped weirdly. I haven't glued it yet, but i pinned it together just to see how it is going to look and..

It's still a little weird...

Again, any suggestions/advice are great appreciated!

If the edges are sharp after pinching, try flipping it inside-out.

Also,are you cutting with scissors?  Try a single blade like a utility knife or that kind used for scraping stickers.  It made a huge difference with how clean my edges turned out.

VW's pattern only looks weird because it' flattened. Once you attach a mouth and the rest of the head, it will actually balloon out into the correct shape - that happens with the patterns for my muppet-type puppets as well.