And how's that Rat-Head doing? Not bad ....

Sketch book time!

Sometimes I have to stop and draw something in order to know how it will come together. As if my hand movements on the paper help me to see?

So these are sketches of the rat fursuit head I am working on, with a different shaped nose than the last time. Although the drawing below does admittedly look like a pair of pants! Oops!

This top view sketch shows what I'm aiming for, so I plan to cover thin sheet foam in fleece and add shading. This may match the rat's ears! 

I have got my dummy head out again!

What is this?

Some lovely texture!

more cat head WIP ...

and so to make the pattern for furring the cat head ...



interesting shapes appear when I work this way ...



and the blue foam shape starts to look like a creature ...



sometimes the wrong creature - is this a bunny?



those ARE cat's ears!



and that's a little pink cat's nose!



creating the eyes, cutting the shapes for irises from painted acetate ...



and into the head they go!



eye can see you!

Cat's Cat Suit - the head! WIP

does a cat's head appear?



nore of a fox, that muzzle is much too long!



I started to shorten the muzzle, bit by bit, and added more foam to shape the skull ...



i made fabric and fur ears, worked more ont he shape of things like the eye holes and the muzzle ...



then today I got the glue gun out, and burned myself rather a lot!


(the thermostat may have broken on my gun!)

new screen saver - memory of my London trip!

Is that tiger asleep, or laughing very hard at my jokes?

foam dome ...

i have been working with my own body a little bit more ...

and so we said goodbye to our tiger ....

here brought to life by my good friend ....

Have fun, tiger !

The Last Post - of 2010!

And it's a tiger post! This time she got a lovely fluffy neck, what a throat ...



The neck is made from four pieces of striped fur, and four of the long white polar fur. Matching stripes is like a fluffy jigsaw!



Then our tiger got some teeth - no more gummy smile ...



Teddy bear makers often create pulled-toes, and here I have created - pulled teeth! Not the fangs, they are cones of foam covered in PVC, but the little teeth all in a row ...



Just want to say Fang you very much for reading my blog this year, HAPPY NEW YEAR! cat XXX

tiger tiger ....WIP - eyes!

cutting irises from acetate... cut the pupil hole first!



polish your baubles (thats my glasses cloth) and grab some UHU glue ...



delicate work ... leave to dry away from small curious people ...



and dear old grandma-tiger ... there she is!



she gazes out of the window and wonders when the sun will shine on her hand-painted orbs!



next, her neck covering! But then, the sun did come out and showed the eyes at their best ...

And here is the Nose!

to create this nose i covered thin sheet foam in fleece, sewed it in place then tinted the tiger head around it with copic markers. The nostrils are given depth by needle felting some black wool roving in place...

whose nose do you suppose?

i like t o draw things so that i really get to know them ...



a double layer of dense sheet foam provides the innards for a tiger's nose ...



there he is! and the nose seems to be the right size and shape ...



i use my copic markers to colour the nose, working on some beige fleece fabric ...



the next stage will be to wrap the pink fleece around the foam and stitch in place, before adding it to the tiger's muzzle ...

tiger tiger ....WIP - furring the head ....

this photo shows tiger's upper head fur is in one piece, almost ready ... eye liner is needed here ...



I have made the best possible use of fur, without constructing a 'white' tiger head and doing air brushing ... which I have never actually done! Mary is playing with 'snakes' made from fur salvage edges...



and here the eye sockets have been lined, I carefully hand-sewed black fur around the sockets, leaving the tear ducts free. These are covered with chiffon, now.

tiger tiger ....WIP - furring!

tiger by numbers, Mary watches me at work ...
this is the third time I have used this method to make a pattern for furring, but the tiger head is the hardest one yet ...



so Mary knows its supposed to be a tiger head, but she doesn't think it's very tigery. So she pretends to be a frog ...
I must not loose any pieces ...



i carefully start to cut shapes from four different kinds of fur and begin to sew then together. Matty parks cars on her drawing of children playing in our street ...



Behind You! This is beginning to work, esp when the fur is pulled tight as it will be when all stitched down ... I like to do an much sewing as possible and avoid glueing which is not as strong in many ways ...



and here, using some very careful hand sewing on account of the curves, the muzzle and cheek fur is starting to take shape ...



this is hard work, and requires thought, but the result is making me happy ... i am not an airbrush artist, but this shows you how you can create a tiger head using only commercial printed furs ...

some tiger head markings ....

it is sometimes only by making drawings that i really see something ...

dear old grandma tiger!

I have made some marking on the head, covering it in old curtain fabric, so will be cutting fur in the next few days!