Aggghhhhh! My fingers! I spent all weekend sewing beads onto my collar for my Lioness costume. There's a good 16 hours of work there. Most of the beads were approximately 4mm-6mm long... so you can see why it would take some time to bead the whole thing! All of the beads are stone or wood (no plastic!). The collar itself was drafted from a duct tape pattern. I used Buckram as a base for stiffness, and covered it with a layer of silk so the buckram wouldn't show through. Once I had my collar I began beading from the middle, and worked outwards so I could match the pattern on each side.
After 7 hours of beading....
After 10 hours of beading....
Completed! At around 16 hours T_T
The collar was a nice prep for the corset, which I also have to bead. It is significantly LARGER... however I will be using somewhat larger beads as well.

Lion King Musical Lioness - head sculpting part 2

More sculpting for my lioness headpiece. Clay smoothed down and scalloping and texture added:
Mold was made with rubber latex. It's a lot slower process than silicone, you paint thin layers of rubber latex onto the piece over several days. When the latex mold was thick enough, I made a hard case in plastercloth to hold the shape:
Resin was poured into the mold and rolled around to make a hollow headpiece. In order to strengthen the ears, I added some rigid expanding foam:
Finish headpiece removed from the mold:
In order to clean up some of the mis-cast errors, I used bondo to fill pocks, then sanded down the fills to a smooth finish:
The head was added to a headdress. The headdress was made with twisted 16 gauge wire, and covered with twine to look more natural. I installed some strips of sheetfoam to the inside of the headbase for comfort: Next up.... painting!

Ermagerd! It's finally been posted! Eeeee!

I made two german shepherd partials for a DZ Deathrays music video. DZ Deathrays are a metal band out of Australia. This was a HUGE rush project that was secret secret.... I made both partials in a week back in August and shipped them off the Hayes Brothers Studio in New York City for filming >_<

The Hayes Brothers Studio pretty much contacted me in Mid August and said "We need these by the end of the week" How could I say no? I was a freaking MUSIC VIDEO!

Anywho.... the Hayes Brothers asked for two "Angry looking" German Shepherds who were going to get into lots of trouble. I didn't know they were going to be Cops until last week when they let me have a sneak peek of the video. I just made the heads, handpaws and tails...

VIDEO:



*sort of NSFW.... naughty dogs are naughty

**They also spelled my name wrong on the credits T_T it's Jopling not Joplin..... sigh.... T_T

I love the Lion King Musical, and I loved making Scar. I just couldn't help myself, I decided I HAVE to make a Lioness as well.
I've started sculpting a headdress for a Lion King Musical Lioness.... I still need to do some smoothing and add the markings, but I was mostly concerned at getting the shape down first.

There are two different kinds of lioness heads in the show (well 3 if you count Nala), the singers and the dancers. The singer heads are a full head which rests on the actor's head like an african headdress.
This is a dancer head, it's smaller than the singer heads as it needs to be light and easy to move in for dancing. The costumes are slightly different as well for the same reason.
The Dancer heads also do not "cry" like the singer heads do (I was awful tempted to add the cry feature, but I would like to go for accuracy at this point.

More progress to come. I have thousands of beads bought on ebay making their way through the mail for the corset (FFFfffff! there are literally THOUSANDS of beads on those corsets... I'm going to be busy for a long while sewing those on!). I also purchased some silk for the drape on the back of the neck. Yes, 100% silk.... darn broadway, you couldn't go with a cheaper fabric huh?
I do like how that one photo shows a glimpse of Scar in the background :3 He keeps me motivated.

Things I've been working on....

Oh so many suits.... I have been pretty lazy when it comes to updating LJ with my new works... So here's a whole BUNCH of them: Roosters and Dinos and hyenas! Oh my! RJ Rooster - RJ is a real handsome bird looking for a few chicks. There are 8 different furs, 2 types of fleece and even some green silk in this costume. The tail is super heavy, I have to wear a shoulder harness to keep it up :I Temperance 2.0 - My second incarnation of my fursona Temperance. I'm not totally in love with her handpaws, but her body came out juuuust right. The feet are attached to the body for a seamless appearance. Her toes are ABS plastic I vacuum formed. Eden - I finished making a hyena commission for someone and decided I wanted a hyena suit too >_< Although I used the same furs and head sculpt, I tried to make her look more feminine with some simple hair styling and some subtle burgundy accents on her body.

Another costume commission done. This is a basic wolf partial with arm sleeves. The head is made from an ABS vacuum formed base, with sensitive moving jaw and tear duct vision. As per the customer's request, I recorded the process of furring the head and uploaded it to Youtube in two parts :3

Scar - Lion King Musical SDCC Masq 2012

I'm back from San Diego and the madness that is Comic-Con International. The highlight of my tip? Taking part in SDCC's annual Masquerade... where I am in constant awe of the skillful costumers who come out to strut their stuff on stage. I won Best Movie award from That's My Entertainment, and Best Performance from Comic-con International. I have a loverly certificate and medal to hang on my wall :3 Here is a video of my performance: He was the most challenging costume I have made to date (and the most expensive!), but it's SO much fun to play the villian. Nothing makes me more thrilled then to hear "OMG! You're a girl?" when I'm wearing him... it makes me feel like I made him just right! Scar is now officially retired. I have given him the greatest honor any of my costumes can receive; a place on my wall. The rest of the costume has been dismantled for parts, or thrown away. It DOES hurt in some respects to spend a ton of money on a costume, then just toss it. But I can't afford to save ALL of my costumes once they retire, and there is NO way to sell something this complex without major modifications. His head however, I was very fond of so I decided to keep it and hang it on my wall. He's a really handsome piece (well I think so anyway). It'll be nice to look at him whenever I like and show him off to anyone who visits my studio.

Cosplayyyyy! Toph Bei Fong and Red X

Phew, it feels like forever since I made a costume that didn't shed all over my house ^_^;; Here are two brand spankin new costumes ready to head to San Diego Comic-con in a couple of days: Toph Bei Fong from Avatar the Last airbender and Red X from Teen Titans Cartoon
I made everything on Red X except the gloves which are heavily modified motorcycle gloves. Toph was an impressive feat. I finished the whole costume in one day. I made everything on this costume, including the wig.

Plastic to Finish - Making a fursuit head with and ABS plastic base

Making a Fursuit head with an ABS plastic base:

Lessee... it's been awhile since I posted any progress. I thought it might be best to finish (or nearly finish) the costume, then post a super LOOOOng post about the steps and stuff... So, I am NEARLY done....I still have to make the gloves and the belt, then he is complete. Gah! so close now! I will have him done by Friday *knocks on wood* in time for the Calgary comic and entertainment expo (www.calgaryexpo.com). So let me show you what I've done sofar..... The mask! When it comes right down to it, with Red X the mask is the most essential part. Ever costume I have seen of Red X has a balaclava and a white faceplate. I thought it would be easier and more comfortable to have a full helmet. So! I wrapped my head in plastercloth and made a base of my own head, then filled the plastercloth base with expanding foam for a rigid structure to work from. From there, I used clay to sculpt the mask design. Once the sculpt was done, I used Rubber latex for a mold. Rubber latex is one of the slowest mold methods... you add thin layers of latex over 10-20 days until you have a thick enough mold. I had been having poor luck with Silicone lately (I am thinking it's either my cold basement affected the silicone I had stored there, or there was some sulphur contamination in my clay), so I decided to use this slower method. Once I had a nice mold, I used more plastercloth to make a hard frame to house the mold. I cast the mask using a slush cast. Basically you roll a fast curing resin around the inside of the mold so you end up with a nice hollow interior. I gave the mask a test to see how it fit my head. Yay! perfect fit :3 No matter how good you think your sculpt is, there will always be some repairs or cleaning to do to the finished pull. I used bondo and sandpaper to fill in holes and smooth out the whole helmet..... so much sand paper >_< so much sanding! Once I was satisfied with my sanding and clean up, I added paint. I airbrushed the white and black, using painters tape to get nice clean edges. The eyes are buckram. The same stuff I use for Fursuit heads. However, instead of black on both sides, I sprayed one side with black and the other white. The black side would be for me to look through (for some reason, it's easier to look through black buckram). And the finished mask! Yay! I am very happy with how it turned out. When I wear it with a balaclava, it's quite awesome :3 Annnd the uni. A pattern I drafted myself and used a zig zag stitch to add the red X to the chest. Cape is done as well, but apparently I haven't taken photos yet! Belt is on the way! Go me! I can do it! 2 more days :D

Ajax - red Tailed Hawk

A Red Tailed Hawk fursuit.
One of my more complex suits; there are 7 different types of fur (8 if you include the fleece for the legs/feet).

Head is an ABS plastic base with moving jaw. Feet are built over a sneaker, covered with fleece, and airbrushed for accents.






Video of the fursuit in action here:

Bea the Bee

More Bea.... because she is awesome and adorable :3

Watch me put her on:

Bea the Bee

Bea the Bee on stage at Further Confusion 2012 Masquerade.
Didn't win any awards this year, but it's always fun to go on stage :3

Foam vs ABS plastic Head construction

A visual example of the differences between my two head base types.

Soft foam and ABS plastic.


Currently, ABS is limited to Canine (Foxes, wolves and dogs) and domestic feline style heads (No tigers, lions or other large cats)