Hi P&S;

There's a lot of great stuff on puppetbuilding.com.  I've not been able to find any contact information for the site or how to look back very far in their archives.  Anybody know how to contact them, what the name of the person is who runs the site?  Maybe you come here occaisionally.

Thanks,

Marty

That would be you are looking for. I really should add a "contact us" page. 

The site's archives are organized by type of puppet. Just use the drop down menu at the top of the page and you'll find all the archives for "Hand and Rod Puppet", "Animatronics", etc. There is a little additional information under "Video Tutorials" as well.

Hey Andrew:

First, cool site!

I'm wondering about the details of a pattern I can find by doing a google search.  It goes to your site, but I don't find it in your archives.  The pattern in question is the round head pattern originally from HMS Studios.  I've gone to their site, but can't find the pattern or any information pertaining to it there.

Any idea what size the full scale pattern is?  When I print it out to recreate it for use (I want to use it as a "take off" for different shapes) it is very small.  So small in fact that I would not be able to get my hand into the finished head shape if I built it.  I've got a lot of experience with pattern drafting (i.e. I know how to square up, enlarge with a copier or scanner/computer etc) but knowing how big the pattern is full scale would simplify matters. 

What I have now is a half pattern made by turning the pattern 90 degrees.  I printed it out and enlarged it in Photoshop as big as it would go on an 8 1/2 x 11 page, but that still isn't large enough.  If I had a wide bed printer or plotter there wouldn't be any problem, but alas...  I guess squaring up will have to do, but is the PDF 50% of the original or some other reduction %?

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Marty

Marty
Andrew has been so helpful in the past with helping us resize patterns. Here is a past post from Andrew on how to resize the pattern. I hope I got this right Andrew. Please double check to make sure this is correct.
http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php/topic,1594.msg11224.html#msg11224

Billy D.

The thread Billy pointed to should help clear up any confusion about resizing. The best way to do it is probably enlarging the pattern on a photocopier using tabloid size (11x17) paper. I'll make a note to update the original post for the pattern with instructions and add them to the PDF as well.

Sorry for any confusion.

Thanks guy!  I'll take a look.

Marty

Hey:

I went to the thread and that seems to be an excellent method of sizing a pattern, i.e. by the mouth plate size.  It made me think of another criteria necessary in the final puppet that could be used, the minimum neck opening required for the operator to actually get their hand into the head.

I went through this a couple of years back with the sister marionette tutorial I'm sure you have all seen.  I freehanded a pattern for the head just looking at the pattern as pictured.  I then made a cardboard mock up (yeah, I know it doesn't give you the same head shape you would get with the foam, but it works for rough sizing) and found out that I would have to go about 10% larger for my hand to fit in.

Where I am going is that once you know what your neck opening size is then you could compare that to the printed out pattern neck opening and size up accordingly just like using the mouth plate profile.

Thanks for the lead on the thread Billy.

Marty