Starting a New Fursuit... Rutto

After making the body for Gibbs there's been this hole. All the planning, the figuring out, the research, it was all both annoying, but really satisfying at the end of the day. I am not someone who is known for finishing the projects that they start.

Turns out, it just takes the right motivation for me. It's either that, or maybe I've just been doing the wrong projects. In any case, I want to start a new project, another fursuit and this time, I want to document the entire process! The main issue... she's going to be, kinda, unique.

Rutto (Finnish for plague) will be a sort of, plague doctor/avian hybrid mix. Being as such I can find ref sheets close to what I want, but nothing quite exact. Considering the head will just be a plague doctor mask with a fur hood, I am not to worried.

Right now, I have some fur samples from HowlFabrics coming of the different fur piles they offer in black because I want to see how well they will layer.

For the most part, Rutto will be black, with a dark purple belly, and she will consist of 3 different fur lengths:

• 4in for the top half of the body (including shoulders) going downwards in a V shape
• 1.5in for the bottom half
• 0.5in for the belly and arms

I am half tempted to also include a 1.5in pile fur for the belly that will follow the same shape as the V of 4in pile fur on the upper half, but I think an all around shorter belly would look better. This is a micro-detail that I am not fully sure will matter since she will be wearing a form fitting vest whenever she is out.

Right now, any physical work on Rutto won't start until mid-November. There are several reasons for this: I want to focus on trying to figure out Gibbs's personality first, before starting another suit. It also took me almost 2 months to make his body, between planning, saving, cutting and sewing. Right now I do not have that kind of time or energy to commit to another fursuit, especially one that I will be doing 95% of the work for.

The only parts I do not plan on making are the mask itself, the feet paws, and the hand paws. I do not have the kind of skills to do that. Instead of putting time or energy into that I'd rather figure out how I am going to do the feathers for the tail and arms.

I really want to try and document the process of making this in real time, rather than doing a whole lumpsum post after the fact. This was originally what I was going to do with Gibbs as well, but considering I spent most of my time on Reddit threads trying to learn everything for the first time, this should be easier (I hope).

If you want to see me try (and fail) to document everything you can follow me on TikTok and Instagram, where I will be posting short form content or YouTube where I will be doing both short form, and maybe a long form post at the end of everything! I also have a Trello board I am working on that you can follow to see live progress updates when I start.