How I make stuff

[bladespark]

My dear friend Synfony is writing a really spiffy booklet about how fursuits are made. I was helping her with this project by taking oodles of photos as I worked on my latest fursuit project, and I figured that while I've got all these photos, I might as well use them myself! But Syn is the one doing the writing, I don't really feel like duplicating her work by writing up the novel's worth of text that you'd need to fully explain the pictures.

But even without much text they're pretty informative, so I strung them together into a tutorial anyhow.

The almost entirely pictoral fursuit tutorial

Hopefully it makes some kind of sense.

Comments

[gas-mask-dragon.livejournal.com]

That looks like a pretty good tutorial. I'm hoping to start working on my own fursuit head any day now and I'll be using this as some guidelines now.. :) Thanks.

[cow.livejournal.com]

So the fursuit is basically just the fake fur for the body? I've never worn one, but I guess I assumed they were usually lined in something. (Then again, I've never really worn fur or fake fur, so maybe it's fine; it just always looked rather scratchy. :) )

Fascinating stuff--thanks! I always love seeing someone else's craft.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, in order to line it, I have to double my work, because I'd have to make one of everything in some kind of lining fabric, and then sew that in place. Way too much work when you can avoid the scratchyness just by wearing a light T-shirt and some shorts underneath! Much easier.

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

Another reason to wear clothing underneath and not line it is that it's MUCH easier to wash a lining which pulls out (ie, clothing) than trying to wash a fursuit without damaging it.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

That too! (You're so smart)

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

LOL - less smart and more 'worked for a costume rental company'. OMG, some of those easter bunny suits were RANK.....

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Ew. I can just imagine.

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

It was indescribably foul. I don't know WHO those suits were getting rented out to, but my guess was pee-soaked hobos, based on the smell. I mean, dude, I've been at RPG conventions with broken air conditioning and THEY weren't that foul!

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

fantastic tutorial! :)

i actually see a few things that you could to to cut the time and keep the quality when making a head ^-^

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

It does and you have giving me some great ideas on how to do some of the stuff I have been doing differently.

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! You win the fursuit section of the Internet.

[kiwihunter8.livejournal.com]

That was really great!

How do you manage to keep the Sculpy claws in when turning the gloves right side out? Even when I trim the seam allowance close, it's like this herculean struggle for me to do so, I end up using a tomato stake or something. I'm afraid if I did claws this way, they wouldn't survive the process! But I like the idea of those inset claws.

Also, do you find the seam allowance in the photos is enough for a fursuit? I heard some advice like add 2" total ease plus allowance to the arms and chest, 2" to the waist, 3" to the hips and thighs. (?)

I actually haven't made that many bodysuits, and am just trying out the duct tape dummy method >.

[jtbeckett.livejournal.com]

Nifty!

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

A really nice and informative tutorial. Works about the way I figured it did, except that it never occurred to me to make a pattern out of duct tape - that bit's a really helpful tip to me.

Er - can I request an ETA on the Loonakit? I'm not worried about it or anything, would just like to know when to expect it.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, generally the goal I'm going for is a VERY snug and close fitting suit. I assume that the numbers you give would be about right if you were looking for something where moving easily was more important than fitting closely. I do usually add at least 2" all around when making a looser suit.

And it is the biggest pain in the entire suit making process, to then the paws with the pawpads and claws in. But sculpey is pretty sturdy stuff. And I haven't got a seam allowance of any sort to get in the way on my hands, because of the hand sewing stitch I use.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Ah, well... probably will be in the mail on Monday.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Oh?

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed learning the tricks of your trade. I'm curious, though. Why would you want to publish a book of those techniques? Wouldn't that make every furrie want to make their own suit and thus decrease business?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Nope.

I really don't feel like giving the long lecture about the psychology and economics of it. But it will not hurt my business one tiny bit.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Here are a few short thoughts on the concept:

Do you know how to cook?

Do you still enjoy eating out?

Does your knowledge of how to cook food have any impact on how often you eat out?

If you didn't know how to cook food, and didn't have the money to eat out would you bankrupt yourself eating out anyhow, or would you find a way to learn?

If you were very rich and hated cooking, even if you were good at it, would you still eat out?

Was your very first attempt at making something that was very complicated and difficult perfect?

You can pick up a pencil and draw. Does this keep you from paying for art?

You can write. Does this mean you will never buy a book?

Just because a person knows a skill doesn't mean they can duplicate an art. Just because a person can use a skill doesn't mean they will never pay for it from somebody else.

People who will take this tutorial and make their own suits are people who would take other tutorials and make their own suits anyhow.

[sulcharae.livejournal.com]

Just like any art, making quality suits requires practice and talent. Sure you could /make/ one. Whether or not it'd look like you want it to....well, that's something else entirely. :)
Besides, it's hugely time consuming, and some aspects are quite pricey unless you buy in bulk. It's often far more economical to pay someone else to do it. :)

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

(And seriously... no total noob is going to be able to look at my bunch of bad photos and suddenly magically duplicate my work! Anybody who can use my tutorial to come up with something that's as good as my stuff is somebody who's already more or less on my level anyhow.)

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Thank you much. :3

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

Good example.

It makes sense. Thanks.

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

Well, they might not magically be able to duplicate you right away, but doesn't this open up the possibility for more people to become fursuit makers? For the possibility of more competition, and possibly better competition, to appear eventually?

I suppose my real curiosity is: did you have anything to teach you how to become a fursuiter? Or did you just kind of figure it out as you went along?

Like cooking, I suppose it works the same way. You can teach people your tricks, but you have to be confident that you'll still stay ahead of any serious competition that might arise. That you're a professional at what you do. That it's an art.

You have more confidence than I. I would keep it to myself.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I looked at tutorials pretty much like mine. And then I screwed around until I found what worked for me.

http://www.fursuit.org/wiki/doku.php?id=fursuit Have a look there.

There is NOTHING at all that I could try and "hide" that isn't already publicly available to anybody who bothers to look. That site is just one of hundreds that list fursuit making methods. There are no trade secrets in this business, and even when somebody comes up with a new method, it's usually only a matter of months before somebody else figures it out and shares it around.

Depending on "secrets" will get you nowhere, and will create a bad reputation among your peers. Secret techniques are worthless, the ART is what's worth something.

And as I've said before, anybody who has the ability and is determined to learn will eventually become a competitor no matter what I do.

FAR better to have them think well of me because I gave them a hand up, than think of me as a snob who tried to keep them down. I HATED the fursuit makers who would give advice to amateurs but who, as soon as they learned I wanted to make this my occupation, clammed up and told me it couldn't be done and I should just give up. THEY were doing it, it could be done, they were just insecure, petty little people who couldn't handle the thought that somebody else might compete. Never mind that the market is growing at least as fast as the number of people serving it is! Probably faster.

So I could be petty, and clutch my useless secrets, that aren't secret anyhow, and accomplish nothing but make other new people trying to come up hate me for not sharing. (There is a prominent fursuit maker I will never think well of, because of how she refused to help me when I was starting.) Or I could be generous and foster the next generation, and have everybody speak well of me, so that my customers know that not only do I do beautiful work, but I am a good person.

Selfishness hurts far more than it helps.

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

I'm unfsmiliar with the fursuit market; how many of you fursuiters, would you say, are there?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Serious professionals,less than a hundred. Probably even less than fifty. I can name around thirty off the top of my head, and I doubt there are too many I haven't heard of. It's a small group. There are probably a couple hundred who dabble, making suits for fun and occasionally selling one, usually to a friend, or very cheap on furbid. Then there's maybe as many as a thousand more who are pure hobbyists, and make suits only for themselves and haven't ever sold one.

That's makers. Fursuit wearers... thousands. I really can't say the number. But at a convention where one of my twenty or so recent suits was present, there were around 300 suit wearers total, so assuming you can scale that directly (which may or may not be the case) there'd be 6000 people who own and wear a fursuit. Heaven knows how many more would own one and are held back only by the cost of getting a good one and/or the sheer amount of work needed to make one. That's not considering people who aren't fursuiters but who buy mascots, but so far I've only made two suits for non-furries; people who aren't hooked into the furry community tend to go for the cookie-cutter mascot suits aimed at sports teams and such. That's a much bigger market that I wouldn't mind getting a larger piece of someday, but it's much harder to break into, as there's not a central community to hook into in order to get contacts, the way there is with furries.

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

Fascinating, SPark. I didn't realize the market was so big.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Furry is big, and getting bigger every year. The top two conventions now regularly draw well over 2,000 people, and there are dozens of smaller ones. And it hasn't even begun to hit its stride, it's going to be a lot bigger before it peaks.

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

What makes you think so?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Watching furry communities, for one. They're all growing. The only ones dying off are the ones killed by drama, and they're quickly replaced with more. Every day there are people joining one community or another, going "I've always liked animals and never thought much of it, but then I found out about furries, and realized I was one." Every year the conventions are bigger than the year before. Every year there are more of them, but the new ones aren't drawing away from the old ones, the old ones are growing too. And I can't see anything to bring it down any time soon.

And look at the demographics. Most furries right now are teens, or early 20's. The people who are furry now are mostly going to stay furry, and there are always new people discovering that they're furry. And as the age of the fandom grows, so will the maturity, and the level of positive publicity will grow with it as well.

And the potential fandom membership is enormous. Everybody is at least a little furry, after all. Even if you don't identify with the fandom, there's an animal you like, or a pet you have, or want. There's an animal cartoon you enjoyed, or a discovery special you were fascinated by. How may people watched The Lion King? How many grew up on Bugs Bunny? The potential pool of people who would at least want to own a costume tail for fun or for Halloween, or whatever, is HUGE, and so is the potential pool of people who'd get art of an animal character they like, or write stories, or attend conventions.

So it's growing, and fast, and the upper limit for what it could be is high. That tells me it's not going to peak any time soon. The more it grows, the more people will know a friend or relative who's furry, and the more are likely to dip a toe into the fandom themselves. It snowballs pretty quickly.

[lightgreendryad.livejournal.com]

It's the perfect time to get into the business, then, that you're in. It's not a tiny fandom, just beginning.

I admire you for making the business decision that you have.