Hey everyone.

I was just wondering, what size do you guys think is "too large" when it comes to making puppets??

I know you want to be able to have good control, and I've been making puppets from Project Puppets patterns, but I was wanting to go a bit larger on one.  I have currently enlarged the Simple Series Glorified Sock Pattern up 150% of it's normal size, and I have made the head. 

I didn't think that increasing the size by 50% total would make such a difference, but the head seems HUGE!!  Like, I hold it up next to one of my Glorified Sock puppets and it's just giant. 

Do you guys think that going up 50% was a bit too much??  For what it's worth, the head still controls pretty well because I installed some hand straps into it so that your fingers are held in place on the mouth plate.  I also modified the mouth plate a bit to compensate for the lack of rigidity that the Glorified Sock pattern would get from the larger size.  Basically, the stiffened foam parts of the mouth place from the pattern were replaced with some foam core.  Seems to have worked out pretty well in that aspect. 

I think it depends on what how you are going to use them................. look at Avenue Q puppets they are quite large but really show up good on a Broadway stage. I think theater type puppets should be some what larger.

BD 

Doesn't it also depend on your ability to grasp the puppet? I mean, the bigger it is, the heavier it is, or the more difficult to control with dexterity.

I concur with both Na and Billy.  Remember there are not rules.  You need to look at all aspects of a project or show.   If your audience is sitting far away like in a theater then you need a larger and broader puppet.  Not sure if I spelled broader right.... spell check did not see anything wrong with it.   What I mean by that, is that the features should be more pronounced on such a puppet so that they can be seen by patrons at the back of the theater. If you are filming your puppet then it can be smaller and a subtle feature can be seen.  A slight raise to the eyebrow for example would work on film but you might have to exaggerate that in the theater.

If your puppeteers are going to be adults then you can use a larger puppet but if they are going to be a class of pre-school or grad schoolers then you need smaller puppets.

Ask yourself this question.... "Why do I want a bigger puppet?". 

I don't Know the % but i enlarged the project puppet pattern from a4 to a3. It works well for me but as the others have said as long as it meets your needs its fine!

My entry for the PP contest (super baby) was enlarged 15%, and hes a baby, so i think for a bigger character i would do 25-35ish. i think if your doing a really big monster or something, 50% might be good, i dunno, if you think its too big i would try 40%

I have done 15 and 25%. Larger seems to be hard to control.