ZA Furries

So I have been doing some number crunching, importing a proper suit that I would like with all the bells and whistles would cost me well over R30k and especially the one I want from made fur you will cost around R50k.

I thought of opening a savings account and depositing money when and if I can into said account and hopefully reaching that goal of R50k so I can have my dream fursuit from one of my favorite makers however my budget period would be over 3 years as I do not currently generate any income. Realising that a extra hidden pocket on a suit will cost $100 extra to add on where as me making that exact same pocket and it won't even cost me R20 to make I started digging around on various websites and found that importing various professionally made parts eliminating the need to hand sculpt various parts and creating the perfect symmetry suit, wouldn't cost all that much to import.

The only imports I have to do is the green fur which I can import for around $65 for 200cm*150cm including shipping, a resin toony headbase for $95 and a precasted nose for $12 plus shipping of the two items which is $55. Totaling in $227.

Then already I have a significant portion of the suit covered, the rest of the items I need I either already have or it's easily found in craft shops all around me.

However my goal with this new suit I'm going to be making is pulling out all the stops I possibly can and making it as professional as I possibly can, I have made a few visits to professional tailors and hobbyist tailors and I have gotten excellent advice and I really feel I am capable of this. I also feel with the sewing experience I have gotten so far and the fact that I know the very basics of fursuit making quite well I can make this suit quite well.

I will be updating on this thread as regular as I can my new findings and progress but actual progress will take a while as I will be "hoarding" the materials first before I make this suit.

It will sport things such as:
-LED's on various parts
-Resin claws
-Digi legs
-Moveable jaw
-Realistic teeth
-Proper cooling system which I will make before furring the head and I will post pics here of how I do it
-The suit will even have a power supply to power all the electronics
-Attached to suit tail
-Various lengths of fur on various areas as seems fitting (Please advise, see ref attached)

So I want to ask opinions here on something as well, the shorter and longer fur variants I have in the colors I will be using. I want opinions as to where it would look best to use different length variants of fur without it looking bad.
This will be a benchmark of my skills and what I have learnt so far I will be focusing as much as possible on detail. It will be a longer term project I estimate it to be done at the latest in December this year if all things goes as planned. Though I have other commissions I have to finish first before I can attempt this momentous project. So I will not be taking ANY commissions for this entire year until this new project is 100% done.

I'm also going to be making video blogs on my YT channel on how, when and where I find the materials and I'm going to be documenting as much as possible my progress on the suit. I'll be posting everything here as much as I can.

I'm really excited for this project and I really hope I can make this a reality!

Ooooh very exciting! Would love to see how/where you source materials. Will be following with interest!

As for the longer fur bits like the headfloof, you might want to look into NFT. It is ridiculously expensive but you'd only need a very small piece of it. I wonder if it comes in lime green?

Anyways here is the first video of the Yote 2.0 series

Sudan Red wrote:Ooooh very exciting! Would love to see how/where you source materials. Will be following with interest!

As for the longer fur bits like the headfloof, you might want to look into NFT. It is ridiculously expensive but you'd only need a very small piece of it. I wonder if it comes in lime green?

I actually looked into that NFT fur and it looks amazing but at like $45 a yard it's a bit hectic and SA customs are going to nail me with import duties at the post office.

I am looking at Aliexpress at the moment to import fur 200cm*150cm costs around $65 which is not too bad but I don't know what customs is going to nail me on that, I guess I can expect somewhere along the lines of 40-45%, pay duties of R380 (Still fucktons less than R50k)

I have short pile green fur from a previous commission I did some time ago which will eliminate the need to shave as well, getting a much more desirable and smooth finish.

In the next video I'll see if I can show the process of me making the dummy I use to make the fullsuit and working from there on. I'll also be uploading a checklist of what materials I need to find and what I have in stock already.

So I'm looking into importing a few pieces of green faux fur, the website I'm looking at buying from only shows the price that they charge for it and that is also before the SA customs tax. I was wondering if anyone knows the tax legislature or where the tax information is gathered on textiles so I can have a read on what the criteria is for importing textiles especially considering that this will be raw materials and not a finished product. I have knowledge of TAX as I have tax as a subject at university and I understand all the terms and how a legislature works. I have checked my own legislature that I have and I can't seem to find anything on textile imports

So I was wondering, seeing as this new project is going to be a toony style suit but on a resin head base, what jaw set I should go with.



I can get either of the two, but idk if the realistic jawset will go well with a toony head. Although I like the realistic jaw set far more than those "normal" teeth sets as in the picture.

Also the lips is easy to make, like super easy only thing I'll need to get is Apoxie sculpt



I can get it in SA but it's SOOOO expensive http://www.wantitall.co.za/apoxie-sculpt/All/p1

So yeah I'd really appreciate some input and recommendations

I prefer the look of the "jaw set", personally.

I would say shop around for a jaw set you like the look of. You will then know exactly what the final product will look like. Crafting something yourself might be more rewarding, but if you have a very specific design in mind, you might not get it right and it will bother you (ME! XD) forever!

EDIT: I think you could even try felt teeth if you want a really supercute, toony style.

Sev wrote:I prefer the look of the "jaw set", personally.

Yeppers, I do too tbh!
I'm almost turnt to go realistic but I can't yet do that level of detail, maybe in the near future or so when I have completed this project seeing as it is going to be a resin base and I am going to move to resin base suits for all future suits. I have a thing for detail and a lot of detail goes into a realistic suit.
I really love the work that StuffedPandaStudios, DreamWorkVisions and Monoyasha do on their realistic suits, they are truly astonishing!

Sudan Red wrote:I would say shop around for a jaw set you like the look of. You will then know exactly what the final product will look like. Crafting something yourself might be more rewarding, but if you have a very specific design in mind, you might not get it right and it will bother you (ME! XD) forever!

EDIT: I think you could even try felt teeth if you want a really supercute, toony style.

I found the jaw set that I want at DVC, it has a special feature that I as of yet can't replicate i.e Glow in the dark
I've tried my hand before at making my own jaw sets with Fimo clay and felt to no avail because I'm too fucken precise and perfectionist (Ironic isn't it?) you might not get it right and it will bother you (ME! XD) forever! <= This all of this

Quick update on what to expect in the next vlog
-Breakdown of materials
-What I need to import
-Where I am finding what I need to import
-What are my import costs

YoteFox wrote:I've tried my hand before at making my own jaw sets with Fimo clay and felt to no avail because I'm too fucken precise and perfectionist (Ironic isn't it?)

I did that on my suit and I was quite happy with it...
Unpainted: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2930&start=30#p50948
Painted and varnished: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2930&start=30#p51309

Leeward wrote:

YoteFox wrote:I've tried my hand before at making my own jaw sets with Fimo clay and felt to no avail because I'm too fucken precise and perfectionist (Ironic isn't it?)

I did that on my suit and I was quite happy with it...
Unpainted: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2930&start=30#p50948
Painted and varnished: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2930&start=30#p51309

They looked great don't get me wrong!

The thing is my attempt with this suit has to be as near perfect as I can possibly get it and as I mentioned the glow in the dark is such a huge plus factor for me.




So I did the design of the head more or less on my graphics tablet, my skills aren't the best admittedly but it gets the point of what the design should look like on the head base
Sorry I haven't done a video yet, trying to juggle a lot of things at the moment and conditions haven't been ideal yet to film and edit a video. But I will be releasing the next update video before the end of the week.

It's up, after many retakes and one hell of a time editing the next video in the blog is online!

So when are you going to do your Five Night's at Freddy's impersonation?

Sev wrote:So when are you going to do your Five Night's at Freddy's impersonation?

xD would you like to see that?

I don't see why not.

Sev wrote:I don't see why not.

I'll try and be as creative as I can with this one
Probably only going to be me in vex suit and me without suit, sounds like it can be fun!

I was meandering when I found this - http://www.textileexpressfabrics.co.uk/ ... r%20Fur%22

So I made the first payment just now for the headbase and silicone nose using the rather lower exchange rate to my advantage I paid R500 less for the order.

Shipping eta 17 April, I will post on here the second I get more news on shipping etc.

Sudan Red wrote:I was meandering when I found this - http://www.textileexpressfabrics.co.uk/ ... r%20Fur%22

Also HOLY SHIT! 8 pounds for a meter, looking at R130 per meter excl tax and shipping

Edit: Seems they don't ship to SA... But we do have a Afrifur in England ^.^

YoteFox wrote:Also HOLY SHIT! 8 pounds for a meter, looking at R130 per meter excl tax and shipping

Edit: Seems they don't ship to SA... But we do have a Afrifur in England ^.^

Expect to be abused by us, Raven!!! *sends Creme Eggs in payment*

So this is looong overdue, I received my headbase in the mail about 2 or 3 weeks ago and I've just been so busy I haven't had time to post it here.

Please excuse the mess on my table, life's been busy and I haven't even had time to clean my room: So after paying the initial fee of $122 I think it was, too lazy to check I had to pay an additional fee... Which really swept me off my feet and I was kinda mad about it but what can you do?
I had to pay an Extra R1000 at the post office for VAT and Tax fees, makes the head around R3000 to import as is.
Worth it? FUCK YES!

Now I know how they look, feel and are made and I am totally planning on making my own and won't cost R3000

Though I am facing a bit of a dilemma in terms of my funds are running on fumes and time is an issue as well as fur. So I made another character ( I am not saying that furry word)

This would be the new me Most of these fur colors I can find, I already have the blue and I love this design so freakin much, a bit more than the green one.

Tell me what you think please. Also I really haven't had time for a video as the editing software I use is a professional editing suite and it takes me up to 4 hours to edit a single video (Looking for new user friendlier software)

Ooh, I like the new design, Yote!
I'll be interested to see where your project goes! ^.^

Nice to see how this assembly will come together. Shame about having to pay that import tax for the headbase though, but that's sort of to be expected in this country.

It looks awesome!! May I ask what the base is made out of?

Nasheera wrote:It looks awesome!! May I ask what the base is made out of?

Resin headbase made with a slush casting resin technique... It's extremely strong and rigid and weighs next to nothing

I made a bit of progress on the head, got bored one night and decided lemme do something. Will post pics asap

Gods it's been a while, life is just running at 300km\h a day for me and I can't seem to let it slow day just to return to this thread. I still need to make another video of the thread vlog series thing I've just been busy. I promise before my VAC is over the next vid will be online