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A little support here please

9/6/2023

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Feral canine handpaw for fursuit in progress
So here we have the before and after pic from my last post, in which I talked about deblobbinating the paw by repatterning it using "Frankensteining", a method using felt patches and temporary adhesive spray. Here I'll talk about deblobbinating by using inside supports.

As this paw is so much bigger than the wearer's hand, it was clear from the get go it would need some kind of internal support, as otherwise it would look like a weird bag hanging from the end of the wearer's arm. I had some faint hopes that I could just stuff it with fiberfill and use the lining to hold the fiberfill in place, but nope, too blobby. See above left. 

The next solution to present itself was stuffing the original foam hand (from which I made the pattern) inside the fabric one. Remember this guy? 

​
feral canine handpaw in foam for fursuit
 Nice thought but nope, doesn't fit. The wrist is narrower than most other parts of the hand, and squish as I might the foam fingers don't really fit through the fabric sleeve at the wrist. Plus, there's a lot of bitty details to line up and glue down, like tendons and knuckles, and I don't know how I'd see to maneuver a glue gun between the foam and fabric once one is stuffed in the other. There is also the very significant consideration that I would really not want to recreate the entire foam hand every time I made one of these. 

So.. next approach, two considerations... First, can I use only parts of the foam hand? What is the minimum amount of foam I can get away with to get the look I want? Second, since I can't stuff a finished foam hand into a finished fabric one, to what degree can I add foam as I sew up the hand and build the support as I go?
support for feral canine handpaw for fursuit in progress
My first take on the  bare minimum. A foam "tube" to support the palm and back of the paw, and foam detail to add definition to the knuckles, tendons, and first joints.  
feral canine handpaw for fursuit in progress
​ I removed the sleeve from the fabric paw so I could maneuver the foam inside, and held it all lightly together with temporary adhesive to get an idea of how it would work. (The palmar pad is missing, I know.. I hadn't added it onto this particular draft as I I was already pretty confident it worked. Pardon the little foam bitties.)
feral canine handpaw for fursuit in progress
 And, ouch. The toes could easily bend uncomfortably backwards at the spot where the foam support in the first joint ended. I did not like this at all.
foam support for feral canine handpaw for fursuit in progress
Here I've added foam that goes all the way to the tips of the fingers. 
foam support for feral canine handpaw for fursuit in progress
More  views of the support piece with its additions. (The black thing is a patch of sorts, as I ripped a hole in that piece of foam in my zeal.)
foam support for feral canine handpaw for fursuit in progress
Now that the support piece is that much more complicated, I need to be able to better see what I am doing while installing it.  I turned the fabric paw inside out, sprayed the support piece with temporary adhesive and laid the tops of the two parts against each other, tugging and fiddling to get everything lined up and in the right place.  The tube thing for the palm will flip into the correct position when the hand is turned right side out, though with some difficulty. That stupid piece of black foam that I used as a patch did not help. I've also added foam to support the toebeans here, as I'm curious to see how that will look. 

When I flipped the whole thing right side out again, I was much happier with how the fingers looked while moving, from above anyway. When viewed from the underside, the palm and fingers bunched and folded in some pretty odd ways. Time for more supports? I decided to try  adding some foam to the undersides of the fingers, in the process connecting the palm piece with the toebean pieces.  Also, putting the parts together as above allows me to line up and glue the top carefully before turning it right side out, but not the bottom. (I imagine I could do it the other way too, lining up the bottom but not the top, though the top being the more complicated piece it makes sense to do it that way.) How could I line both the top and the bottom parts up carefully before turning everything right side out? If I left one end of the foam tube open, I could lay the tops of fabric and foam together, line them up and glue them down, roll the fabric and foam over like a giant burrito, repeat with the bottom pieces, glue the ends of the foam tube together, then turn right side out. Viola!!

I also found that when the bottom of the finger was supported, the top didn't bend back as easily as it had before, so I could get away without foam all the way to the fingertips, just stuffing instead. 
foam support for feral canine handpaw for fursuit in progress
The support that's actually in the finished draft. Look familiar? That's because it was one of the paws I made a tape pattern from, partially disassembled. 

Finally, I sewed the sleeve back on, using a ladder stitch as I had to sew on the "good" side (such as it is with felt) as opposed to the underside, as it was now very difficult to turn the paw inside out again. The spray adhesive complicated matters, as it wanted to collect on and knot up my thread and needle. I'm not sure if I'll be using the temporary adhesive for paws I plan on selling, so this may or may not be an issue.

Next, to make a pair of finished paws using this pattern, and actually offering them for sale! Stay tuned!

PS Fun fact!!  Trying to describe hand parts in this post made me go on a somewhat useless Internet search for the terms. I did find the term "Flagina", which supposedly is a name for the fold of skin between your thumb and forefinger. Hee hee!

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Adventures in Fursuit Head Building

7/5/2016

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Looks like I've neglected my blog for.... two years??  I've been busy though, mostly with my first attempt to build my first fursuit-style mask. Especially since I knew neither how to sew nor airbrush before I started out, it was quite the undertaking. Here are the chronicles of my adventures.
dreamvision creations resin wolf mask parts
watching dreamvision creations tutorials with cat
Above left, my freshly ordered mask parts from Dreamvision Creations on Etsy. I didn't want to make any of my own parts this time around, to try to limit the number of variables should something go wrong. Above right, Ezzy and I watching the Dreamvision Creation tutorials online. Ezzy wanted to make sure I didn't miss any important details, he is a very helpful cat.
handpainted resin wolf eyes with reference picture
Left, a reference photo and freshly painted resin eye blanks. This was probably my favorite part of making this mask.
assembled dreamvision creations resin base
handpainted resin eyes showing follow me effect
Above left, a dude who seriously needs to lay off the coffee. Hinges have been added and all the various parts glued into the mask base. Above right, eyelids added. It's so cool how the eyes seem to follow afterwards!
assembled dreamvision creations resin base with ears
Left, straps, springs and chiffon over the tear ducts have been added, as well as Foamies ears. I also figured out how to fill in the space between the upper and lower jaw of the base with  Foamies, something the Dreamvision Creations tutorials didn't cover! The cat hair beard and mustache are my daughter Isabelle's work.
color sketch for fursuit wolf head
patternwork on assembled dreamvision creations resin base
Above left, a sketch of my idea for the color and pattern of the mask; above right, the actual duck tape patternwork for the fur. My daughter called the mask at this stage "Green Anubis".  I thought I was so smart to use wet erase markers to draw the patternwork, and maybe it made fiddling with the pattern a little easier, but predictably some important reference marks got wiped off. Six of one, half dozen of the other...
cat sleeping on laid out pattern for fursuit wolf head
 

And the patternwork laid out on the fur. Ezzy approves.
regretsy sewing machine
But... (OMG!!) SEWING!!!!! This was pretty much my view of a sewing machine at this point.
sewing machines and more barre vermont
Note the part on this sign that says, CLASSES! The owner of this store hosts Open Sew classes twice a week, I'd take my sewing machine and fur there and sew under her supervision. If I got stuck (which was often) she'd be there to offer advice and help out.
sewing together fur for fursuit wolf head
front of hood for fursuit wolf head
sewing together fur for fursuit wolf head
fur partially sewn together for fursuit wolf head
back of partially assembled fursuit wolf head
Sewing sewing and more sewing. Top row left, I bravely start pinning pieces together while Isabelle works on a chibi Cthulhu. Top row right, hubby models the front half of the hood. Middle picture, I have finished sewing the face together while Isabelle makes faces too. Bottom row, one ear and the back of the hood sewn on. I later ripped the ear apart and re-glued it, as I didn't like the way the bottom edge was so much thicker than the top edge. Bottom row right, the back of the hood showing the Velcro cover over the zipper, and seams that need picking out.
fur sewn together but not glued down to resin base
And finally, the fur is all sewn together. Here, draped over the base....
fur glued down to resin base
And here, glued down. This was one of the more harrowing parts of the process. I wound up getting rid of my old Ad Tech glue gun and buying a Surebonder glue gun with interchangeable nozzles instead. I needed the glue to flow when I pressed the trigger, and I needed it to STOP when I released it! Ezzy provided moral support.
crazy lady shaving fur on fursuit wolf head
CRAZY LADY WITH CLIPPERS!!! Shaving down and adding some shape to the mask. This part was almost as harrowing as gluing down the fur. It's very easy to make bald spots with the clippers by accident!!
epoxy lips and dreamvision creations jawset and tongue on fursuit wolf head
Epoxy lip added. The tutorial recommended getting the lip more or less on and nicely detailed, and then testing to make sure the mouth opened and closed properly. I found out the hard way to MAKE SURE THE MOUTH WORKS PROPERLY ASAP.  As the epoxy was setting up and getting hard and crumbly, I  was tearing it off and reshaping it, trying to get it to fit right! Fortunately it all worked out okay in the end.
husband wearing unpainted fursuit wolf head hugging daughter
The mask, fully assembled and modelled by my ever patient husband Brian, loved up by daughter Isabelle. Time to get some paint on this puppy!
sean avram airbrush awesome shop flyer
sean avram awesome shop storefront
However, I could airbrush about as well as I could sew (which is to say, not at all) so I decided again some classes were in order. I took a one day, six hour 1:1 intensive with Sean Avram which helped enormously. He told me that airbrushing was largely troubleshooting, and for the next six hours we would see how many ways the airbrush could be clogged and unclogged again.
fursuit wolf head before airbrushing
Here is the mask with black hand painted around its eyes. Its buddy "Leo" is a sacrifical....lion... to warm up on before I actually airbrush the mask.
fursuit wolf head partially airbrushed
Black airbrushed inside the ears and around the nose and lips. Next, airbrushing some brown around the edges of the ears and back on to the forehead where it had gotten shaved off previously. Leo looks like he needs a shave too.
fursuit wolf head partially airbrushed
 Brown airbrushed along edges of ears, around the nose and on the forehead. I'm feeling rather pleased with myself for matching the paint as closely as I did to the brown fur on the neck and shoulders. I've also added a little grey shading around the lips.
fursuit wolf head after airbrushing
Lastly, areas of cream/light tan airbrushed under the eyes. Many of the wolves in my reference photos had these kinds of markings. I'm happy with how I've matched the paint on the cheeks with the color of the fur on the bridge of the nose.
fursuit wolf head finished
And finally... TA DAAAAAA!!!! All done. Looking forward to making the next one!!


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    I make masks. Because art is more fun when you put it on your head.

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