Fursuiting!
Mar. 10th, 2011 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slycatAs this ended up being a lot longer than I had planned (and it seems I've gone over some of the stuff I discussed in my previous LJ post), I'll put an LJ cut hiding me detailing my involvement with fursuiting and why I had gone off it as not everyone's got time for long entries and they just want to see the picture :P
Those who have known me for sometime will remember that I found my way into the fandom through my interest in "full body animal costumes" (the term I used to search for in Altavista back before I knew what a fursuit was). I ended up with my first fursuit, a replica Dale Chipmunk costume from eBay in 1999 (somehow convinced my parents I won it as a prize). It was a great costume but I didn't wear it a heck of a lot. I did get to wear it at Therians in 2000 and the occasional local meet but nothing much more than that. However, I wanted a Sylvester costume as I was quite a fan of the official Warner Brothers costume and so sold the chipmunk to Daktalis and commissioned Atalon Deer to make a Sylvester replica which I knew he would be able to as he had already done one from a fibreglass mould. The suit looked great but was very difficult to transport and the head was so wide and hard, I couldn't walk through normal width doors in a forward direction! I decided to finally commission something a bit more unique and mine, and finally got Jax The Purple Bat to make me my current SlyCat fursuit after selling the Sylvester to Coli/Rizzorat.
I was very happy with the look of the suit by Jax, it looked really cute and was definitely something I could call my character but I've never been 100% happy with it (to be fair, I'm sure no-one's 100% happy). There was a big chunk of foam in the chin which would just end up obstructing my mouth and the mesh of the eyes was so fine, it allowed sweat to condensate when I sweated which made it pretty impossible to see at times. The body suit was also clearly made in a hurry as it was an uneven fit and there was a noticeable gap left between the neck and head, and the white fur was a cheaper inferior material compared with the black and I had expected it to be all the same stuff. Anyway, I didn't let this get in the way of my fun and I've taken the suit to a number of conventions starting with Eurofurence 12 and most recently, RBW 2009. However, I've not really worn the suit since then, and to be honest it's been in my cupboard unworn for quite some time.
This kinda brings me up to date as the weekend just past, I paid a visit to Deezlberries who I've known since Therians and hadn't seen for a while. I decided to take my fursuit head with me as I knew he could take a look at it and suggest where some improvements could be made to make it more comfortable to wear. However, his first comment was regarding how I stored it as it turned out, the head had become mouldy during it's time in my cupboard :(. Fortunately, we learnt the head was machine washable and it was cleaned of mould after a spin in the washing machine (Deez took a rather amusing video of this but I don't think he's got it online yet). He was also able to remove that chunk of foam that had caused me so much grief and also some other internal flaps of fabric which were just irritating. However the eyes will need a lot more work but can be fixed. I agreed to have the existing eyes swapped out for a larger gauge mesh which should allow for better vision, better air flow and reduce the condensation. I've left the head with Deezl as it was too much to do there and then so hopefully when he gets a chance amongst all his other projects, I'll have a new set of eyes :) Will be tempted to get the bodysuit altered or remade at some point too as it'd be nice just to be a bit more comfortable in the suit.
While visiting Deezlberries, he asked if I would help him with the fitting of his most recent creation, a plushie style bear suit, so he could finish it off. I obviously hadn't fursuited in well over a year and so I snapped up the opportunity to do so. By the next day, Deez had managed to finish off the suit and so needed a model to get some photos taken. I know there wasn't much to it, but I had a lot of fun coming up with silly poses for the photos and even came up with this amusing series of photos as posted on my FA:
Even though I didn't do a heck of a lot, I felt like I remembered what I enjoyed about fursuiting as in being able to play a character and not be yourself, etc and I've come away from the weekend feeling like I want to get back into fursuiting again. After the tweaks have been made to SlyCat, I've decided to not revisit the character again and go for something different. Note, I'm not changing my "fursona" or anything, SlyCat will always be how I refer to myself in the fandom, I'm just interested in trying other species and characters in fursuit form!
I had done a bit of thinking about what I'd want next as a fursuit character, and figured I'd want to go for something which would compliment my build and look cute rather than odd. I got my list down to a raccoon, a skunk, a bunny or a duck! All of which are critters which I think make really cute toony character suits so I just need to work out which to go for. It'll be a while before I can afford a new fursuit so I've plenty of time to make my mind up what I'd like to do next, but I'm sure I'd want Deezlberries to make it due to his passion and skill with toony fursuits (plus with it being made in the UK removes all the problems you normally get with international shipping).
Those who have known me for sometime will remember that I found my way into the fandom through my interest in "full body animal costumes" (the term I used to search for in Altavista back before I knew what a fursuit was). I ended up with my first fursuit, a replica Dale Chipmunk costume from eBay in 1999 (somehow convinced my parents I won it as a prize). It was a great costume but I didn't wear it a heck of a lot. I did get to wear it at Therians in 2000 and the occasional local meet but nothing much more than that. However, I wanted a Sylvester costume as I was quite a fan of the official Warner Brothers costume and so sold the chipmunk to Daktalis and commissioned Atalon Deer to make a Sylvester replica which I knew he would be able to as he had already done one from a fibreglass mould. The suit looked great but was very difficult to transport and the head was so wide and hard, I couldn't walk through normal width doors in a forward direction! I decided to finally commission something a bit more unique and mine, and finally got Jax The Purple Bat to make me my current SlyCat fursuit after selling the Sylvester to Coli/Rizzorat.
I was very happy with the look of the suit by Jax, it looked really cute and was definitely something I could call my character but I've never been 100% happy with it (to be fair, I'm sure no-one's 100% happy). There was a big chunk of foam in the chin which would just end up obstructing my mouth and the mesh of the eyes was so fine, it allowed sweat to condensate when I sweated which made it pretty impossible to see at times. The body suit was also clearly made in a hurry as it was an uneven fit and there was a noticeable gap left between the neck and head, and the white fur was a cheaper inferior material compared with the black and I had expected it to be all the same stuff. Anyway, I didn't let this get in the way of my fun and I've taken the suit to a number of conventions starting with Eurofurence 12 and most recently, RBW 2009. However, I've not really worn the suit since then, and to be honest it's been in my cupboard unworn for quite some time.
This kinda brings me up to date as the weekend just past, I paid a visit to Deezlberries who I've known since Therians and hadn't seen for a while. I decided to take my fursuit head with me as I knew he could take a look at it and suggest where some improvements could be made to make it more comfortable to wear. However, his first comment was regarding how I stored it as it turned out, the head had become mouldy during it's time in my cupboard :(. Fortunately, we learnt the head was machine washable and it was cleaned of mould after a spin in the washing machine (Deez took a rather amusing video of this but I don't think he's got it online yet). He was also able to remove that chunk of foam that had caused me so much grief and also some other internal flaps of fabric which were just irritating. However the eyes will need a lot more work but can be fixed. I agreed to have the existing eyes swapped out for a larger gauge mesh which should allow for better vision, better air flow and reduce the condensation. I've left the head with Deezl as it was too much to do there and then so hopefully when he gets a chance amongst all his other projects, I'll have a new set of eyes :) Will be tempted to get the bodysuit altered or remade at some point too as it'd be nice just to be a bit more comfortable in the suit.
While visiting Deezlberries, he asked if I would help him with the fitting of his most recent creation, a plushie style bear suit, so he could finish it off. I obviously hadn't fursuited in well over a year and so I snapped up the opportunity to do so. By the next day, Deez had managed to finish off the suit and so needed a model to get some photos taken. I know there wasn't much to it, but I had a lot of fun coming up with silly poses for the photos and even came up with this amusing series of photos as posted on my FA:
Even though I didn't do a heck of a lot, I felt like I remembered what I enjoyed about fursuiting as in being able to play a character and not be yourself, etc and I've come away from the weekend feeling like I want to get back into fursuiting again. After the tweaks have been made to SlyCat, I've decided to not revisit the character again and go for something different. Note, I'm not changing my "fursona" or anything, SlyCat will always be how I refer to myself in the fandom, I'm just interested in trying other species and characters in fursuit form!
I had done a bit of thinking about what I'd want next as a fursuit character, and figured I'd want to go for something which would compliment my build and look cute rather than odd. I got my list down to a raccoon, a skunk, a bunny or a duck! All of which are critters which I think make really cute toony character suits so I just need to work out which to go for. It'll be a while before I can afford a new fursuit so I've plenty of time to make my mind up what I'd like to do next, but I'm sure I'd want Deezlberries to make it due to his passion and skill with toony fursuits (plus with it being made in the UK removes all the problems you normally get with international shipping).
