Even though you are using the wedge method try to also think about the basic mouth puppet shape from the side.  Think "Kermit".  You need to visualize that side shape onto the shape you have ended up with from your wedges.

I may have been wrong on my last comment about having the mouth plate already built. If you can "see" that side profile on your wedge form and get it cut out then you might be able to use the resulting opening to gauge your mouth plate. Puppet building is a "Chicken before the egg or Egg before the chicken" game.

Ahh... there you go the perfect picture to illustrate what I was trying to get you to visualize. Thanks Jon!

Thanks everyone. Shawn I didn't think about making the top straight and the bottom a little curved, I'll have to try that.  Jon thanks for the pic.  Visuals are always good.  I guess I shouldn't be so stubborn and just use a pattern, but the creative side of me is forcing me to do this.  I guess I'll keep trying until I get tired.  Hopefully I can work on this this weekend, that"s if Hanna decides to go away. She's expected to hit the Carolina's by Friday, but I pray she wont.  When ever I do get this done I'll post a pic.  Thanks again.


Angel

Sometimes we just need to experiment and learn at a small financial loss.  But Jon did show you a great picture of what I was explaining as well, see how the mouth is built open.  I think if you make the round head in two pieces and remove a bit off the back of the bottom part of the head glue this in back of the upper head and you should see an open jaw.  Hope this gives you another thought to ponder??

Daryl H

OK Angel.  I get it.  I tried the same thing and had the same problem!  I gave up on mine and threw it into my reject foam basket.  I pulled it out just for you:
I wanted my mouth opening smaller like Bunsen Honeydew but the mouth wouldn't open easily so I made my mouthplate larger and then I had to tear and snip the foam mouth opening on the corners to make it work but then the mouthplate distorted the shape of my head.  What a mess.  This guy was a failed experiment, I'm affraid I don't have an answer to your question, but know that you are not alone in your frustration.

How did the mouth plate distort the shape of the head? Was it when you actually closed the mouth that it happened?  I really like the shape of this head!  I wonder... 

If instead of cutting foam out of the mouth area what if you had simply cut a slice in the head where you wanted the mouth.  Then in order to get the mouth to open you cut a dart out of the foam on each side and then glued it back together?  Here is an overlay of the dart I am thinking of on your image.


Then make a mock up of the mouth plate out of just cardboard with a fabric hinge and pin it into the opening to see how things react. If you use something like foam-core then you can stick pearl head pins in from the of the foam into the foam-core and the mouth plate would stay long enough for you to test it out.  If it does not work trim away at the mouth plate changing the shape a little bit at a time.

I know you have already moved on from this project Puppet Lady but I am trying to give some insight for Angel. Then again you may want to revisit this throw away now that you have new information.   That is one nicely shaped head!

Nope, opening and closing the head is fine now.  I am aiming for a spherical head.  Look at it from the front view.  You can really see it in the picture where I used the flash:


The mouthplate pulled in the sides of my head so it lost some of it's spherical shape.  Perhaps if I had matched the width of the mouthplate with the width of the head this would not have happened.
I like your dart idea Shawn. It won't remedy this head situation, but I'm going to file that idea away in my brain.

Angel:
Is this the kind of issue you are having too?

Puppet Lady,

I think the width of your mouth plate is causing the issue... again I like the shape of your mistake from the front also.

The approach for fashioning the mouth plate would be to take a piece of cardboard or paper and slide it into the mouth opening, trying to not distort the shape of the head, and then tracing around the outside of the upper or lower jaw.  I would then use that as template for my mouth plate. You would need to remove at least the thickness of your foam from the template.

Yes Puppetlady, exactly, I had the head to tear at the corners of the mouth and then when I closed the mouth the head looked all weird.  Shawn. I'm going to try your ideas and see what happens.  What I did was made the mouth first and then the head and tried to make the mouth fit the head, not good.  Shawn do you think I could just take a tape measure and just measure the diameter and width of the mouth, doing the paper or cardboard thing seems kind of hard.