Contouring is the practice of turning flat foamFoam is the structural material most soft puppets are built ... More sheet into a three-dimensional curved form by removing wedges and closing the gaps — the alternative to carving a shape out of a solid block.
Why it is the better default
Carving from solid gives you a head with material throughout, which means weight, poor airflow and a lot of wasted foam. Contouring gives you a hollow shell of the same shape at a fraction of the weight, with room inside for the performer’s hand.
How it works
Cut a dart — a narrow V-shaped wedge — from the edge of a flat piece. Pull the two cut edges together and glue them. The flat sheet now curves. Multiple dartsA dart is a wedge of material removed from a flat piece and ... around a circumference turn a flat disc into a dome. Their number, depth and spacing control the curve: more and deeper darts give a tighter curve, fewer and shallower a gentler one.
Where they go
Darts should land where seams are naturally concealed — the back of the head, under the jawThe jaw is the lower half of a puppet's mouth — the plate ..., behind where hair or a hat will sit. A dart across the front of a face is a permanent design decision.
Skive the dart edges
before gluingGluing is how most of a puppet actually gets joined — the ... More. A square-cut dart leaves a ridge exactly where the curve is tightest, which is the worst place for it.
This is also how patterns are born
Because you are building curves out of documented flat shapes, a contoured head can be traced back to a flat pattern and rebuilt identically. A carved head is a one-off you can only approximate again.
The hack: cut your darts shallow first. You can always deepen one to tighten the curve. You cannot un-cut foam.