Critter Costuming: Making Mascots and Fabricating Fursuits

I heard about this book several years ago, when I was interested in making costume. The writers had their own website with a few samples of what was inside. At the time the only way I could find it was if I imported it from the USA, which was a real pain because it would have meant paying out a fortune to get it over here.As soon as I found out I could get here, I immediately ordered it. The book does not disappoint!There's no other book like this one. It doesn't give you the step by step on exactly how to make the exact same costumes on the front of the cover. Instead it breaks the creation process down into the different sections, such as the design process, making the head, making the bodysuit and even how to perform in these sort of costumes. It will give advice on what sort of things they did to get the finished look, for example, they showed how to make the werewolf gloves or how to make a mascot head out of polyfoam.The book even gives some excellent guidelines on what sort of materials you can use and how effective they are. I found the chart on the different types of glue to be valuable, as I often have problems getting certain materials to stick with the glues I use.I would advise anyone who is thinking about getting this book, it is ideally for someone who may have the basics of costume making down already. I use this book as a guide when I'm stuck on how to do something or need ideas for my next project. The internet is your best friend when it comes to achieving the exact costume you want, following the advice of other creators. But this is one you should definately get for your library!

Considering that I can find no other books of this type available, I felt it was a good value for money in size and written quantity. However, the book felt dated to me: it was all in black and white and the pictures of the suits themselves felt as though they were made in the 'earlier' years of fursuiting. It felt as though I were reading a book from the 80's (though again, this may have been the case, and that is not the writers fault!).Ultimately, compared to the techniques available today, it felt out of touch. I am not a complete novice to costuming and many techniques I expected to be mentioned were not. I also felt that the steps could have been demonstrated better: mostly, I felt the artwork was juvenile and the techniques needlessly complex.That said, it has offered some good tips to me. For a novice at fursuiting or costuming it might well be a great guide, (though some of the ideas on how to make a head seemed overtly difficult) and I expected the sections to be more obvious, on how to make tails, feet, hands...but it seemed to scoot around these and generalize. One costume, being a tight, spandex type costume was quite horrendous - I certainly have never seen that before in the fursuiting world, and I am glad of it!Overall It is not a bad book. It is unique, and there should be more like it; currently it is one of a kind in the field it is discussing and that makes it useful. However, if there had been others around, I dare say I would have bought those instead. In the wake of the internet and free tutorials online, the book feels as if it needs to catch up with the needs of costumers.

Really good to read, gives you details on how it is made, lots of pictures and information where to buy

Just as it says and quickly delivered great for costume making good tips

a brought this book, as i knew nothing i started withthe wireframe heads technique, it was for me a distastersome of the methods layed out in the book are fine ifyou know something already, but being in the UK the productsmentioned are US names this makes it hard for UK readers, to obtainreally easy to get materials should have been listed. don't getme wrong it does have some useful points, as it's the only bookon this subject as far as i know, so i got it.but i was a bit disapionted there's no real pattern guides for the bodypart of the fursuit but if you want to make tails or give yourself some ideas for construction it's worth it, it's not all bad, but thisbook i think assumes that you already have previous experiece withthe subject, i just hope a better book comes out soon.i give it 3 stars as it was done with thought, but there's a lotof room for improvement for this title, i hope if he does anotherbook he puts a lot more thought the total beginner, but still i'mkeeping my copy.

Daughter has found it really invaluable for her projects