Construction on these book projects is well underway. This leaves me with a quandary: I still have a bull costume perk that needs to be claimed! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a contributor to this huge project, jump right into my queue and get a costume long before I will be open again, AND to get a costume that will be instantly recognized by a significant portion of the costuming community! As always, SHIPPING IS INCLUDED IN ALL PERKS FOR EVERYONE, even international shipping!

These additional funds will be put toward the cost of making even more video tutorials, acquiring more equipment/supplies, and research and development projects, including animatronics supplies, new materials to test, education materials, and the time involved in testing novel materials and concepts, along with covering the additional fees and taxes that come with receiving these funds. I have already begun doing some of this R&D, and have some new tricks for the book because of it!

I've blown past some of my goals already! Here's what I'm doing past my original project concept as bonuses:

All head blanks from the "Gryphon" tier will come cut and hinged!

All funders that contributed before the Deadline Funding period ended will be getting additional goodies! All mailed perk items will come with magnets, stickers, buttons, or all of the above. "Crow" tier PDF backers will also receive 'The Art of Mordrude's Monster Manual' bonus PDF. "Wolf" tier backers will receive a link to download my video tutorials. Finally, I've created a new perk ("Chimera") exclusively available to any backer who contributed before the Deadline Funding period ended, featuring a handmade pendant!

My first stretch goal is being celebrated by an assortment of basic video tutorials! The one linked above is the very first one completed, and should serve as a great teaser for things to come. These will include methods such as: eye painting and gluing, making silicone molds for claws/jawsets, making Ultracal molds for pawpads, making 2-part Ultracal molds for tongues, molding horns, urethane resin pours (claws/jawset casting), casting silicone noses/pawpads, rotocasting resin horns, rotocasting resin bases, airbrushing, patterning a head with a moving jaw, patterning paws/hands, and whatever else I can come up with that deserves some action shots!

I’m Sarah “Mordrude” Wilson, and I’ve been creating fur costumery for over a dozen years, the last five of those professionally. I've had my work featured in galleries with Hollywood professionals, highlighted by the local media, and ran a yearly auction benefiting my local no-kill shelter. Throughout this time I've been making tutorials and updating them when I find easier, more economical, or more effective techniques to help others realize their own dreams of bringing their inner monster to life. 

I believe I have! I’ve seen these tutorials shared frequently on messageboards, and have allowed their use in con panels across the globe. I frequently receive comments of gratitude for offering these, and it’s extremely rewarding to know I’ve been able to help others achieve their dreams, whether that may be bringing their beloved characters to life, or giving other aspiring novices the tools and knowledge to improve the quality of the costumes they offer. I have been asked multiple times to go further in depth, but there's a limit on how much info I can pack into an image designed to be easy to share without making the images or text illegible. There's also the matter of the time and effort that goes into making these, which is time and effort I lose out on by not working on projects that pay the bills, as I do this for a living.

Suddenly, I came upon a solution to both of my qualms: why not a tutorial book - a monster manual of sorts? I can share more in-depth tips, tricks, and tutorials along with bits on design and theory with less worry of everything being fragmented, and I can have some recompense for my time and efforts. Plus, I'd get to have my name on a book! How awesome is that?

So I started planning! I looked back at my different tutorials, tips, tricks, and treatises on shaping, and added the multitudes of tutorials people have been asking for that I've not yet done due to constraints such as time, money, materials, and equipment. Tutorials like:

• Patterning and sewing fur, including darts and hoods
• How to achieve realistic texture on pawpads, noses, and tongues
• How to hinge and articulate a moving jaw
• How to mold, cast, and attach removable horns
• Molding a jawset from a real skull
• Creating digitigrade and unguligrade padding
• Installation of eyes and eyelids that have depth and expressiveness
• And so much more I need a book to contain it all!

I don't expect to retire because this book tops the bestseller lists. In fact, in addition to the physical rendition of this vast repository of costume building knowledge, I will be making the final version of the Monster Manual available in PDF form for $10. In addition, I will also condense most (but not all!) tutorials into my standard bare-bones image format and post these for free on my website, as I always have. In this way, virtually everyone will be able to benefit from this project!

Best of all, I'll get to create three costumes for three supportive fans! These will be my only queue openings until this is finished, so if you want a costume that is made to size from me before 2018 this is your chance!

Whether you’re preparing to build your very first costume, or are a seasoned pro looking to improve their work, or are just curious what goes into making realistic creature costumes, I've aimed to provide useful and interesting content for aspiring artists and fans alike. 

So please, if you've used my tutorials in the past and benefited from them, consider chipping in what you can to make this happen - you'll not just be helping me, you'll be helping raise the bar for the world of animal costuming!

All of the supplies and equipment for the book projects have been ordered and are here! I have already finished my new Duct Tape Dummy (DTD) tutorial, and released the free version to the masses. Next in line is the foot  DTD tutorial photoshoot, and then I can send along the materials for making DTDs to my costume tier backers!

Anticipated start date on these costumes is the second week of February. Production time on this batch of costumes and all the tutorial photography I'm estimating at about nine months, and the book compilation I anticipate to take an additional three months on top of that. My goal is an early 2016 book launch!

I am the only person capable of doing the work needed to fulfill this project, so if I have a catastrophic injury or are otherwise incapacitated, delays will occur. Life happens, but I have a consistent track record of completing my projects or reimbursing people, no matter what it takes. This project means a lot to me, and I will do everything in my power to make it go off without a hitch, but you can rest assured that I will follow through and make this worthwhile to every supporter!

Even if you can't contribute financially, you absolutely can still help! Believe it or not, there are still people who haven't heard of my Monster Manual, so sharing a link here on your social media sites helps your friends, me, and the whole costume making community connect to make the most of this opportunity. You can use the handy share buttons at the bottom of this page.

 If you are running a fursuit-related panel at a convention, you can help even more by mentioning my project!