1st Quadsuit Project - Ponyta

I challenged myself with a more difficult form of fursuiting: a quadsuit. For I love both fursuiting and cosplaying I decided to combine my hobbies: I'm going to cosplay Ponyta from Pokémon.

I don't even know where I got all this inpiration, but I started this new project couple of days ago. It took me only one morning to finish with the head's base! This time it's slightly easier though because I don't need to worry about the head fitting my head, eye vision or ventilation. I'll just place the head on a helmet on top of my head.

Foaming in progress.

Today I had the time to do the last touch ups on the base and cover it with duct tape. Next I will cut out the duct tape and use it as a model for cutting out fabrics. I'm excited I'm getting this done so fast!

First I planned to do the mane and the tail from yellow and orange wigs, but I changed my mind. I want it to look more like the character's fiery mane, so I'm making it from yarn. It will be a lot of work to tease the yarn so it would look good, but I've already made some of the front mane.

Mane of fire! The mane still needs to be straightened and rearranged.

The head looks more like Robot Unicorn Attack than a Ponyta at the moment, but I hope it will turn out to be a wonderful little Ponyta galloping on four legs. x3

Mimicon 2013

I attended Mimicon 2013 in Mikkeli, Finland. This was my 1st apperance in a convention wearing my fursuit! Even though it was a convention related to Japanese popular cultural, I got good reception: people came to hug me and wanted to take photographs of my fursuit. I also got many questions about fursuiting such as: "Is it hot?" and "How can you see in it?"

I have to say it was REALLY HOT! The sun was shining through the whole weekend and the temperature was a bit above +20 degrees celsius. Despite the hot weather I managed to wear my fullsuit for over 2 hours straight!

"It's so hoooot..."

I even took part in one of the convention programmes: cosplay date. The object of this silly game is to be selected as a date by the character who is seeking a partner. The characters prepares 5-10 questions and the contestants (A, B and C) answer them. Because it is a cosplay date, you need to stay in character and answer like the actual character would answer. The questioner chooses a date based on the answer to their questions.
I had lots of fun in this programme. I actually mimiced all of my answers and the host 'translated' my acts to the audience and the questioner behind the wall. The audience reacted really well and laughed a lot when I mimiced in my fursuit. Even though Gaikotsu didn't win the heart of DOGS' Bishop, this has to be the best experience I've had on stage ever!

Gaikotsu is waiting for her turn to answer the question.

The rest of the blog entry will be pictures of my fullsuit! Enjoy! :)

 

"Draw me like one of your French girls."

Gaikotsu having a drink.

Gaikotsu is such a fool...

...but she knows Taekwondo!

Gaikotsu with Minorea, who cosplays Naru from Love Hina.

Gaikotsu got summoned by Itachi! Minorea cosplays as Itachi.

1st Fullsuit WIP

Hey everyone! I've almost got my Gaikotsu fullsuit done! I never expected I could do it, but today I wore it for the first time and it was quite comfortable to wear! 8D I'm really excited to wear this suit for this weekends MimiCon. It's a Japanese popculture related convention, but we'll have a small furry meet there. :3

The after I had sewn almost all part together. I know it's a bit weird. xD

And here's how it looks on me!

I still need to make the hind paws and a new tail for myself, but other than that it's done! I'm so happy! I have new paws too and they are way better than my old ones~
I still haven't fixed the head, but I'll do that today. :3

2nd Gaikotsu Fursuit Partial

I finished my new partial in time for Oulu super meet! Actually I sewed the last bits of it on my way to Oulu on the train... And then some old sewer lady came to me and told me I should become a theater costumer. xD

These are the first sneak peak pictures I took of her with my laptop webcam (I hadn't finished all the sewing at this point):

This was me at the Oulu super meet. We went to a really cool bar! They made us flaming Rammstein -coctails and we got them after a cool fire arts show.

Me, Gestapo (the fox) and Rimawolf at the bar. Notice how similiar Gaikotsu and Rima are? That's because we are sisters! ;)

Here are some proper pictures of Gaikotsu:

Here are some things to fix in the head:
- make the muzzle/snout straight
- make it easier to wear
- make the elastics less tight
- add something to support the ears (they are kind of floppy atm)
- make eyes less puppy like
- repaint the mouth with better paint (the crafts shop keeper told me the one I used for this head is good for Fimo, but it's just crumbling off... u__u)

I also decided to start working on a full suit today! I've never done anything like it so I'm experimenting a lot! I got the top part (no sleeves) finished today and took some pictures:

And just for fun.. I did a short video so you can see how well the jaw actually works! I know it's a bit off at the moment, but I will straighten it. x3

Fur Everywhere!

Our apartment is pretty much covered with fur... And I haven't even got to shaving the head! Today I cut the right shapes out of the fabrics. Just to see they fit each other and every inch of the head is covered, I placed them on th head with pins.

Here's how Gaikotsu looks at the moment!

The ears look a lot smaller now that the head is all furry!

I also got my order today: 2 clear resin eyes and black Apoxie Sculpt. I'm going to use Apoxie Sculpt for the eyes and the nose. I'll do the teeth and mouth from Fimo.
In the front is the industrial piercing for Gaikotsu's left ear that my boyfriend did! Normal piercings are too small so I'm really happy he made this for me~

Now I'll start sewing the pieces together and gluing them on the foam base. Hopefully I'll finish most of the head today~

Foam Base Finished!

I'm working on this new suit so much faster than on my old one. One reason for this might be that I know what I'm doing for most of the time.. But sometimes I still need to just try things out!

I have now finished the foam base for the head. I tried to keep it as simple as possible. I should have used bigger pieces of foam instead of adding small pieces... That's why it might look a little odd, but all this is going to be underneath the fur, so I don't really mind! :D

After foaming I covered the head with duck tape. The weird bump on the back of the head is foam I added to the wig head. The wig head alone would have been too small so I needed to make it bolder.

I drew the fur patterns on the duck tape. I also tried on some eyes I found. These eyes won't be the final ones! I just wanted to see how the head looks with them. Next I will cut the shapes out and use them as models when I start furring.

I don't really like fursuits with big toony eyes and fat cheeks (some of them are cute though!). I'm going for something more natural but not too realistic - something that looks like a drawing of mine!

I also made the ears! They looked perfect on paper, but once I sewed them together I noticed the ears are HUGE. Of course they won't be so big after I've shaved the fur a little bit, but.. I'm pretty sure I'll have to edit them otherwise too. Gaikotsu goes for a cute little fennec fox now, doesn't she?

Yes, the back of the ears is really bright red! :D

Next time you'll see Gaikotsu very... furry. ;)

My Very First Fursuit Partial: Gaikotsu

I decided to add some better pictures of my first fursuit head so you can actually see it from every angle. There are so many mistakes in it! Oh and... derpy ears are derpy. u__u"

Despite the looks of it I could see pretty well while weaing the head.

I actually like how the profile of the head looks!

From this you can see how awfully uneven the facial markings are.

It would have been nice if the moving jaw had actually worked...

This is my favourite picture of my fursuit! :3

New Partial Project

After you've seen all these pictures you might understand why I want to make a new head for Gaikotsu... I've been looking for faux fur fabrics in Finland and I haven't found anything good. Usually the quality is bad, they don't have the colours I want (they have all the neon colours, but no black or white..?!) and it's expensive. One black bad quality fur I found cost 40€/m...

Finally I gave up on Finnish fabric stores. I ordered some new faux fur fabrics from http://www.fabric.com and I have to say I recommend them to anyone who's looking for faux fur! The fur has a good quality and it's really soft and cousy! They are located in the US but they ship worldwide. Even though the shipping is kind of expensive outside the US it's FAST. I ordered the fabrics last Sunday and they delivered my package to my work on Friday! I never get my stuff so quickly even inside Finland. Despite the expensive shipping the total cost was cheaper than anything I could have found in Finland.

So now that I have my fabrics I started to work on the foam base of the fursuit!

Balaclava with elastic for the moving jaw.

1st stage of foaming: mouth closed.

1st stage of foaming: mouth open. The moving jaw works!

Hopefully I'll get my new head done for the Oulu Furry Meet in the beginning of May!