Hello everyone, my name is Tom. I'm pretty new to puppet building, I'd given it a shot a few years ago and lost steam. I've since come into contact with some real creative, supportive, and motivating people so I've decided to try it again. I'm immediately running into problems though.

I can't seem to come up with a pattern that works. I'm looking to have a pear shaped head, smaller on top, and wider in all directions around the bottom. I'm looking to give him a bigger chin than the top of his head. I've tried a few different things but they all seem to lead me nowhere. I've done a few mock ups on paper and in foam. Any help, or ideas, or hints, or anything would be greatly appreciated.

-Tom

Well first thought would be to work off of the Project Puppet Pinhead or Punto pattern. http://www.projectpuppet.com  They are not free but well worth the money.

If you are wanting to do your own pattern then start with a tube of foam or paper and put a dart in all four corners.  Hey wait a tube doesn't have corners!  Yep you are right but if you collapse your tube first front to back then side to side you end up with creases or corners. This is what I am talking about. You might want to start out with even ones but eventually your front and back darts are going to be longer and wider more then likely then your side to side ones. Kind of hard to explain but try it with a peice of paper rolled and taped into a tube first and I think you might start seeing what I mean. 

There are a couple of free pattern examples in the Gallery that may be useful. I had one specific in mind that is kind of a variation of the wedge pattern only in one long piece you warp into a tube. It was based also I think of the Brazil Puppet design shown in Billy
s gallery but I can't find it now. Here is the link to Billy's Gallery though. http://puppetsandstuff.com/community/index.php?action=gallery&g2_itemId=4464 It has quite a few free patterns in it that may give you some resources and places to start.  Some are simple image uploads with perhaps not a lot of explanation since we often use galley images in post with the details but if you have questions feel free to ask.

I can't afford to buy patterns.  Based on what I saw online, I kind of sketched this one out.  Might help? 


Wichita?  Aw man!  I was there last weekend!  Welcome!

I made a model magic pear and put masking tape pieces on it then cut it apart in 6 slices around.  The shape is like a flower petal wider at one end.  It just struck me that turned upside down this shape could be a skull.  Maybe someone has a pattern of a skull. I am trying to scan the shape, having technical trouble.

I got the pear shape "petal" to scan and saved it to Snail Gallery as pdf but when you click on it you cannot see it larger. Maybe you can get the gist of it in the thumbnail if you can see it.  That is a lot of seams but it will get the pear shape.

Thanks guys, I'm going to play around with these, see what comes of it. Snail has the right idea, but will that shape bellow out around the middle like that, or will it all smooth out during the process? either way I'm going to try it.

In regards to the pdf that Snail uploaded. You need to click the thumbnail image then on the next page click the link of the image then you get a download link. Normally the download link shows on the main page of a pdf. Not sure what is going on. Here is a direct link to the PDF file. http://puppetsandstuff.com/2008gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=25633

I did a bell shape years ago. I have the pattern on my computer if you want it. (It may need some minor adjustment, as I recall I hadn't gotten the sizing perfectly the same as the paper pattern I created)

Thanks shawn, I got a hold of the imagine just fine. Any patterns would help, maybe make something in between a bell and a pear, again everything and anything helps right now. He's a pretty ambitious project so I'm willing to hear any and all input. And you'll all be getting a lot more questions 

Do you have any drawings or examples of shape you are trying to achieve?  So far form your description I would think that what Arthur posted would fit the bill.  Perhaps you are wanting a fuller squarer jaw then what he got. If that is what you are looking for then the #2 and #3 areas are where you would want to modify the pattern. I don't think you are going to want to increase line #1 by very much but you could some. It is the shape in those two aforementioned areas that is shaping the jaw.