Is fursuitting infectious?
I'm thinking making a fursuit. Or rather, making or acquiring parts of a fursuit. I'm looking at the character of Orvan Ox for this. Orvan has the story of being a deliverymanox for Acme. This means he wears a typical deliverer's uniform. And that means that a full-body fursuit is not required.
Thus a headpiece, gloves, feet/hooves, and a tail, are all that would be needed. If I wanted (or had to), I suppose I could dispense with the feet/hooves and just have the right shoes for the job. The uniform instead of fur not only simplifies construction, but also means I shouldn't have nearly as much of a cooling problem. The uniform would also have a name right on it, which would make identification a bit easier for others, letting them avoid the squint-at-a-conbadge or such as well as the "Hey, you!" bit.
I think I have an idea of how to do the hands/gloves. This would be pretty much a regular, if long, glove, with black epoxy or such "thimbles" as hoof-like material at the ends of the digits. I could use standard four-digit gloves for this, though making things a bit thicker and four-digit might make for a better or at least more standard look. Which way to go? Five-digit is easier and would allow better dexterity. Four-digit wouldn't look "wrong" to folks expecting the typical cartoonish look.
As mentioned above, the footwear could simply be shoes to go with the uniform. Dull, but I could get away with it. Or I could make what would be a sock-moccasin combination and see about some epoxy or such for the hooves. Rather than a whole-foot hoof and trying for the digitigrade look, I'd make the hard hoof parts be more like toes or toenails over the end of the foot. Orvan is a biped, and plantigrade just works better for bipeds.
That leaves the difficult part: Orvan's head. Here I'm at a loss. I know what I want, roughly. I want the head of a bull and I want it to fit me well enough it's not flopping around or making me limit my movement to avoid it flopping about. I just don't know how to get that. The horns are another matter. Hard horns would likely look better, but they'd likely be heavier than soft cloth horns. Soft horns would also less likely to break or become a hazard to others.
As for the tail, I'm not above buying things ready-made if I can find them at a decent price. Then, the tail may well be the easiest part. Well, aside from scrounging around at thrift store for clothes suitable for the uniform.
Well, I have an idea of how to do some things. But I'm not sure I really do. Heck, I don't how to sew. Knowing how to sew would seem a prerequisite to all this. And if I do this, I'd like to have something ready and passable by RCFM 2005 (mid-late May). I have a couple ideas... er, but I'd best not talk about them just now.
I haven't really looked around at what getting anything made would involve. It might be better for me to buy stuff than make it. Or not. I simply don't know yet. What should I be looking at? Who should I be asking? Am I overlooking something? Can I get a head in life without building it myself? Hard horns or soft? Hooves or shoes? Five fingers or four? What materials to consider? What materials to avoid? Can I even do this in the timeframe I have? Or should I find something else to think about?