silasopossum

[silasopossum]

prepping for sanding

[silasopossum]

ugh im unsure how to handle the nose though. i dont want to mix fabrics since the minky needs to be stretch over the nose to allow it to show the nose ridges, but im afraid that gluing them separately will cause an obvious seam to form on the snout.

[silasopossum]

stretch minky finally came!

[silasopossum]

finally got a new job. have money for fur. placed the order a few days ago but it might be a while since fursuitsupplies is on break... i also ordered some minky samples from bigz because i completely forgot to do that when i orderd my fur samples. i was deciding between fox and lux shag and just got the shag because of the length (the texture was preferable, but i liked how the color appeared on the fox a bit better. oh well). i also ordered some paint for the teeth and nose of the head (i will try to cover the nose with minky, but unsure of it'll look right as of now. might also try felt. the teeth will definitely need paint regardless, though). also got some foam to line the head... i still really regret getting the medium head instead of the small and i'm a bit worried it will look disproportionate on me, but we will make it work

[silasopossum]

sniffs you

[silasopossum]

FINALLY GOT THE HEAD. sending complaint emails to USPS works way better than visiting in person or calling them btw. according to my results. guy was very nice and i got the head today even tho its a sunday! the one issue w the head though is that its a bit big... i was right in between the sizing on the makers website so i just decided to size up and i really should not have done that lol. gonna need a lot of foam on the inside to line it... eyes were a bit hard to click in (was supposed to be pre installed but whatever) but ill glue those after its all finished. jawset is a bit difficult to fit in due to the shape but nothing a little foam cant fix... i will be needing to paint it tho

[silasopossum]

this may be the worst experience i have ever had with USPS. they have been stringing me along for over a week now and wasted a collective 3 hours of my time SO FAR (plus a day of me waiting at my house for a delivery that never came instead of oging to the grocery store like i usually do on saturdays) and now theyre trying to waste even more. silas is IN MY CITY and they keep telling me "oh were gonna send him out right now!" then they dont do it. then they call me. then icall them back. then they try to lie to me and tell me that actually nobody called me and i probably have the wrong number. what the fuck??? i was told 3 times by 3 different people he would be shipped out to me TODAY. he is not fucking here. i try to pick him up in person? he is "misplaced" and they cant find him and i should wait and maybe i will eventually get him redelivered to my residence so i dont have to waste hours on public transit.

[silasopossum]

silas is in my city! but for some reason they delivered him to the post office across town rather than... my house... or even the post officr within walking distance of my apartment... so now i have to go get him and drag him on the bus 😑

[silasopossum]

OFFICIALLY IN THE US

[silasopossum]

SILAS HAS DEPARTED FROM POLAND 🎉

[silasopossum]

just got the notification that my base is officially in transit to the USA, so im gonna discuss my plans for him rq :]

so basically, all my fursonas have historically been feline (once i got over my horse art phase. i was never really connected to my horse sona anyways). i WOULD have gotten a feline headbase, but the problem with that is very few makers specifically sell a BOBCAT base, it's usually a canadian lynx or domestic cat or lion or something. cool, but i love focusing on small details in species differences so it would bug me forever if i put my bobcat fursona on a canadian lynx base. the other issue is that if i DID make a fursuit for my bobcat sona, i would 100% want a realistic base, since her cartoony design changes so often. plenty of makers sell realistic 3d printed or resin bases, however i am NOT confident in my ability to transfer a realistic design onto a base myself (especially since most realism fursuits involve airbrushing. i dont think i could do that well in an ideal environment, much less my 115 square foot bedroom which is my only workspace). i just dont feel i would be able to do her justice... and i wouldnt really want a toony styled head for my actual fursona.

and making a base myself isn't an option because 1. i cant even sculpt clay symmetrically, it'd drive me crazy if i tried it and 2. aforementioned tiny apartment problems. im not dealing with foam going everywhere... OR learning how to 3d model and print or resin pour or whatever else people use to make fursuits.

so i was looking through makers just for funsies and then i found the opossum base by ligris cybernetics / ligrisprints. and idk why but every ounce of my impulsive body decided "YES. OPOSSUM FURSUIT. NOW." ive never even had an opossum fursona before so i have no idea why i was suddenly so sure about it. but i was! so i decided to just make a new character specifically for this project.

i decided on the name silas (at the URL implies) and i designed a quick character on the fly, based entirely off of photos of real opossums instead of already having an idea. this was interesting for me, since i didnt realize how common the white spots on opossum ears are? i always thought they were only black, but most photos i found showed a little bit of pink/white so i added it to the design

(quick sketch, drawn over the sale image on ligris cybernetics' website. i also loosely based this off of the stylization of my one other opossum character's design. the black bits under the eyes are going to be eyelashes, cut out of felt. the grey will PROBABLY be fur markings, but i might change that to black felt too)

opossums are also fairly easy to design, since they are typically recognizable with only two fur colors (white and grey), and their faces are usually mostly white. it'll be easier for me if i only have to buy two fur colors.

another thing i'm planning on is having handpaws- this will be easy since opossums always have naked fingers... so i'm planning on just buying a pair of fingerless gloves and adding fur to the glove part and leaving my fingers out. will be much easier to wear too

one thing im unsure of is how to fur a moving jaw... ill need to look up some tutorials for this. because i think if i dont add at least a little fur around the hinge, the mouth will look way too wide...

another small issue is that this maker tells tpu ears for basically any species EXCEPT opossums. so my plan is to buy some fosshape plastic and make ears out of that? ill also add minky fur OR felt to them to add the color patterns. i havent decided between the two yet, but i think painting the ears would look strange? even if it's technically more accurate for the real animal.

i also got some fur color swatches a few weeks ago. getting swatches from fursuitsupplies, i tried out baby pink monster, silver lux fox, super short white, silver beaver, and silver lux shag. i like the color of the silver lux fox best, but the texture of the lux shag seems better for an opossum character, so i'm unsure. the beaver feels nice but is too short for what i want the longer bits of fur to be. the super short is nice, but i will still probably get the fur all in one length and just shave it. the monster fur feels gross to touch so i'm definitely not using that. i already know what minky fabric is like so i didn't bother getting samples for that (but i probably will order samples when i decide concretely on what fur to get once the base comes in, just to be sure of the color before i spend money on it).

i'm thinking of covering the nose of the base with pink minky OR pink felt, but i'm not sure if that would work with the base, so i'll decide that once i actually get my hands on it. otherwise, i will be painting it. i also think i'm gonna make a tongue with minky fabric

tail will also be a thing. since opossum tails are prehensile, i want to make it posable... i thought about using plastic ball joints / doll spines, but i know from my longfurby adventures that those are kind of heavy, so i think i will use wire instead.

not gonna bother with a bodysuit, those sound hellish to walk around in. i'm just gonna wear long sleeves and long pants

another thing i an excited / nervous about is adding hair... i want silas to have hair. SPECIFICALLY revenge era gerard way hair

and i know a lot of fursuit makers create hair by putting together pulled-out yarn OR brushing out fur both ways... but i don't like how that looks. since if were meant to believe that a plush in the case of a fursuit tail is flesh, and fur is their actual skin/fur... then it's just like... amorphous globosus... or a gigantic skin tag / tumor... TO ME... many fursuits make this look amazing don't get me wrong but i just couldnt get it out of my head if it was on my own suit. so i decided that i'm going to try and weft the hair, like in this tutorial? https://www.tiktok.com/@chaoticreations/video/7334668616350092577 (sorry for tiktok link, i know this creator uploads to youtube but i couldn't find the short) and this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo4FCmT1DP8 i'm thinking that depending on how i'm able to fur the head, i might be able to make a kind of wig thing that magnets on? i don't want to add the hair directly onto the head in case it looks like shit and i get tired of it, so i want it easily removable. might use velcro instead... also want it really long in the back.

i also got the eye mesh pre-installed on the head by the maker. which will be easy for me if i like it... however i DID request slit pupils and i'm second guessing that decision right now. i'm also unsure if i shouldve made them green instead of grey... but i guess i'll see it once it arrives :]

i also was JUST barely in the sizing for a "small" size head according to this maker, but just to be safe i ordered a "medium" size head instead. if it's to big (which it probably will be), i'm going to add foam inside, which will probably make it more comfortable anyways. iirc you can also use foam to hide the hinges in moving jaws? so i can just use the foam for that too. not sure yet.

and i already have sandpaper and stuff for sanding down the 3d print. just gotta wait for it to arrive... probably a month since it's gonna go from poland to the usa... if it gets lost in shipping i WILL cry (since mail people love to just not deliver to my apartment complex. because apartments are haaaaaaaard to deliver to (even though all the doors are easily accessible from the street with no key necessary)...)