| After practicing the art of the ventriloquism,
the ventriloquist student will no doubt begin to consider seriously the
desira bility of burdening himself with a family—a ventriloquial
family—with the idea of either pur chasing outright what he needs or of
making such figures for himself. At the outset, however, I would state em phatically that unless you are a natural mechanic and also something of an adept at wood carving you would better wait until you can either pur chase the figures required or can pay for having the heads made by a professional wood carver. Then the body must be made and dressed but this you can easily do yourself at little cost. The small knee figures can be obtained, head, body and all, from dealers in magical goods, and larger ones from the latter, according to the size and movements re quired; very little is saved by having the heads made to order, and the result is not usually so satisfactory, unless a carver can be found to whom this work is familiar. Of course if you are handy enough with tools to make your own heads, the saving is worthwhile, and I will now give you a few hints as to how the work may be done. First, of course, you must determine how large you wish the heads to be. For exhibitions in drawing-rooms and small halls, a head measuring four inches from the top of the forehead to the chin and three inches from one side of the face to the other, with a depth—that is, from back of the head to the tip of the nose—of four and one-half inches, is a good size. For large halls and theatres the dimensions should be at least six inches from the forehead to the chin and four inches from one side of the face to the other, with a depth of five inches. In the case of the smaller head the neck should be about one and one-half inches long, and for the larger head two inches long. It should be understood that these heads are intended for what are usually called knee figures—the Irish and Colored boys. For larger figures to sit or stand, the dimensions should be slightly larger than those given for the larger head described. In making such heads, the wood carver usually begins by getting out four pieces of soft pine, two of which (for the face and back of the head) are a trifle wider than the dimensions given from one cheek to the other and thick enough to allow the carving out of the features, including the nose. |
