I love this time of year, blankets and snacks, nights in, fluffy socks, oversized hoodies, nature crafts, crisp walks in the woods, bonfires, and most importantly, the quiet before the Festive storm... which I do need to mention now, as some of my last order dates for Christmas arrivals happen before the end of November:
Last Order dates for Christmas:
FOR UK CUSTOMERS
5th of Dec standard shipping option
19th Dec special delivery
FOR EUROPIEAN CUSTOMERS
1st of Dec
FOR OTHER INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS
28th of Nov
I also have gift cards available, which are instant, so if you'd like to gift from my store but are unable to get your order in before those dates, or you're not sure what to buy, a gift card is redeemable all year long with no expiry.
Finally, I'll be updating the theme of my website this week, so It may go down intermittently, but it won't be down for a long period.
Now to the important things...
Headbutts of Love
The goat has a pair of horns now, but I'm still trying to work on their production before listing them. Once I've made up my decision paralyzed mind between 3D printed or molded foam, you will see these in-store.
It would normally be an easy decision, but this time I decided to try my hand at printing a mold for this project, which took a lot more time as I had a lot to learn. But after everything this exploration taught me two very important things, 1. how to make a mold from a 3D model, and 2. Not to use a complicated 3-day print to navigate the learning curve of foam molding in a material I'm not used to.
Getting aHEAD of myself
All of this 3D print mold-making experiment has been building up to other things too, I'm currently working on replacing my feline fursuit head mold, which is getting close to retirement from overuse. I figured it would be nice to print the mold directly to save time and materials. This would also open me up to producing a new wave of designs without sacrificing precious workshop space, as long as the quality is still as good as pulling from a silicone mold.
Of course, I do still have the tendency to get ahead of myself when it comes to the number of new designs I give myself to work through, which is where the directly 3D-printed heads can come in.
Just recently, I've had another commission for a printed fursuit head, this one with moving jaw functionality.
I now have a listing in my store for these head base commissions, but I'm still ironing out the full details and the pricing options, given some complications with whether the design is a generic species I just don't happen to stock yet, or if the commission is for something unique, both would require a similar amount of initial work, but one would be something I could reproduce and the other would be a one-off.
So if you're interested in commissioning a fursuit head base, either having something unique made, or you'd like to see something I don't already have in stock, feel free to send me a message via my contact form and we can iron out the costing details from there.
Foxy LARP mask
Speaking of giving myself lots of new designs to work through, the latest of my new series of LARP masks is currently being cast in foam, ready for its photoshoot this week.
I just have the raccoon design to complete from this set, and I've got a good idea of the next three planned. I want to start a bird series, so I will sculpt an avian of some description, not sure what yet, a bovine will be coming, and I really really want to make a boar, so that's the one I know exactly where I'm going.
I'm also hoping to have some completed, wearable costumes from these masks to show for the next blog, but as the holiday season closes in, I'm finding less time for personal projects. I have been working on some armour and things though to complement these final costumes, which will lead to some photoshoots in the future.
Making something from nothing
Old materials, left over from projects have been building up in my workshop over the past few years, and as I'd said in a previous blog, I've been playing around with what I can use them for. Currently, I'm working on some armour, made from a rusted mini keg I can no longer use for homebrew. it's made a very nice pauldron.
I've also been working on the beginnings of a faux leather jerkin (or poncho depending on how much I have in the end) these material samples I acquired from a local furniture shop that closed down about 10 years ago, does that make them vintage?
Inktober
I made my best effort at Inktober this year until my busy schedule got the better of me. In previous years, I always overthought what I was doing and would spend hours perfecting the sketch, get frustrated, then give up. So instead of using this as an opportunity to get drawing again, or to improve on technicals, I decided to focus on getting over that psychological barrier that stops me from drawing at all. The objective was to not demand perfection from myself, but just to get something down on paper. And I'm really happy with the things I did draw in the end, so I guess that's the lesson we learned today... now if only I could apply that to my blog writing, I might actually get them out on time.
