Paws and Wings

A-20 · Post by **A-20** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:50 am

I need some help on making paws for a costume. I don't have a clue how to start out on making them, nor what materials I will need. Here's a pic of the cat-boy I wanna go as:

Any ideas on how to make his kitty ears as well?
I've never made anythin' like this before, so any tips (do's and don'ts) would be great.

And I need help making wings for my head. Its an original character of mine that Misty thinks I should go to the convention as. Any help on making his outfit would be helpful too, but as of right now, I'm just concerned about his wings. (I'll post a pic of him later, I'm at school at the moment, so I don't have any pics of him).

Thanks~!

Sterling · Post by **Sterling** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:12 pm

kitty ears can be easy.

Get a hair band, either one that you want to match, a clear one, or add hair to it to be more discreat. Add aa little loop in wire and flod the cloath over the wire. now glue the wire to the head band and sew the fabric.

The wire should be 2 peices a "U" shape or "V" for the peak of the ear. and the other a "/" shape to hold the position, and give it a little shape. attacth the wire and you shopuld have something that looks to be close to the shape of the ear.

for the paws, get some slippers and make paws cut outs and heave cotton fluff or pillow cotton inside to fill it up. for the hands, use gloves.

A-20 · Post by **A-20** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 3:09 pm

Is there a specific type of wire or material (for the ears) I should use? Or does it not really matter?

Oh, here's a pic of my original character, done by Tooaya from Gaia:

Sterling · Post by **Sterling** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:05 pm

stiff poseable wire

mindtailor · Post by **mindtailor** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:35 pm

Floral wire should work, but I don't think you even need it. For the ears, cut a wide triangle (you'll be folding it in half) of fur for his ears, and a triangle of the same size of a thinner, darker fabric for the inside. You can sew the two together on the /\ edges, but not on the bottom. Now fold it in half, so the fur is on the outside. Get a hot glue gun, and fill the inside of the ear (between the layers of fabric) with glue, press them together, and hold it in the folded shape. That way, it'll be stiffer (like an actual ear!) and you won't have to use wire. Then attatch that ear to the headband, and repeat with the other one.

For the wings, get a headband and some floral wire / short pieces of baling wire / thick soldering wire, then make the wings with feathers using the wire as the "bones" along the top edge, leaving the end of the wire exposed. Now attatch the end of the wire to the headband, lower than the cat ears (using lots of hot glue :D). Hot glue (when cool) can pull on hair, so put a layer of floral tape or fingernail polish over it.

For the paws, look for an explanation for Dejiko paws, they're pretty much the same.

janmurphy · Post by **janmurphy** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 6:51 pm

Ive seen 1/4inch copper piping used with great results.
http://www.paper-wings.org/tutorials/wings/wings.html
Thats the tutorial that uses it. And they use duct tape so you dont have to soder anything.
For the tail...
Might wanna check out http://www.stripedsmiles.com/CostMakingTail.html and use straight tan long pile fake fur instead of the curly stuff in that tutorial.

PS thats a boy? a boy named Plum?

A-20 · Post by **A-20** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:44 am

mindtailor wrote:Floral wire should work, but I don't think you even need it. For the ears, cut a wide triangle (you'll be folding it in half) of fur for his ears, and a triangle of the same size of a thinner, darker fabric for the inside. You can sew the two together on the /\ edges, but not on the bottom. Now fold it in half, so the fur is on the outside. Get a hot glue gun, and fill the inside of the ear (between the layers of fabric) with glue, press them together, and hold it in the folded shape. That way, it'll be stiffer (like an actual ear!) and you won't have to use wire. Then attatch that ear to the headband, and repeat with the other one.

For the wings, get a headband and some floral wire / short pieces of baling wire / thick soldering wire, then make the wings with feathers using the wire as the "bones" along the top edge, leaving the end of the wire exposed. Now attatch the end of the wire to the headband, lower than the cat ears (using lots of hot glue ). Hot glue (when cool) can pull on hair, so put a layer of floral tape or fingernail polish over it.

For the paws, look for an explanation for Dejiko paws, they're pretty much the same.

So I don't really need any wire to make the ears?

janmurphy wrote:Ive seen 1/4inch copper piping used with great results.
http://www.paper-wings.org/tutorials/wings/wings.html
Thats the tutorial that uses it. And they use duct tape so you dont have to soder anything.
For the tail...
Might wanna check out http://www.stripedsmiles.com/CostMakingTail.html and use straight tan long pile fake fur instead of the curly stuff in that tutorial.

PS thats a boy? a boy named Plum?

'kay, thanks for the links! I'll check 'em out ^_^
Yes, that's a boy and his name is Plum. He's from Apocripha/0

mindtailor · Post by **mindtailor** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 5:57 pm

Nope, you don't need any wire to make the ears. In fact, I don't think I've ever made a pair of cat ears (and I've made a few) that I put wire in for support. Usually fur and fabric ears will stand up of their own accord, and if they need something extra, hot glue works well, and even makes them seem more like real ears.

A-20 · Post by **A-20** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 8:02 am

Okay, so no wire. Got it, but, is there any kind of specific material that I should (or shouldn't) use?

WINGS · Post by **WINGS** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:14 am

For my Mew Mew Ichigo, I just used fur for the outside and pink fun foam for the inside, I glued the fur to the fun foam then I folded it almost in half, It was just enough that the pink showed(the inside of the ear). I hope that helps, oh and I glues them to a headband.
WINGS