ISSUE 303
Hi you all! Thanks for joining us for another edition of Furry Weekly! It’s always good to have you!
As usual, we have our announcements to get through, and we’d like to continue calling your attention to the Recruiting section specifically. We’re looking for folks to join our team, so we hope you’ll read about that along with our other announcements! You can also scroll ahead to the Content Lineup if you just wanna get straight into the issue!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
RECRUITING
Here’s a list of the roles we have open at Furry Weekly:
- Art Corner Host
- Furry of the Week Host
- Radical Raffles Host
- Species Spotlight Host
- Fursuit Designing Tips Co-Host
- Available Artists Host
- Cover Artist
- Content Artist
- Content Migrator
- Editor
You can reach out to Yeshua, or Carkas if you’re interested in helping out, or have any questions. If you want a description of the roles, check out this document! If you have any suggestions for other roles or things we could bring into Furry Weekly, please let us know as well, we’d be happy to hear your ideas! All in all, we still need lots of help in general, so please do consider joining us or sharing with other friends in the fandom if you can! We’d really appreciate it!
SEND US YOUR STUFF
Our goal here at Furry Weekly is to showcase the creativity the fandom has to offer, and if you haven’t noticed, most of our segments center around featuring folks in the community! So we want to remind you that you can submit your content to us! We actually have two new ways for you to send us your stuff:
Email us: Email us at furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com! You can submit your work (e.g. artwork, writing, quote, original species), tell us you are interested in appearing in a segment like Furry of the Week, Fursuit Focus, or Character Interview, or suggest someone to be featured in one of these segments.
Fill out our form: Check out this Google Forms link and fill it out based on the content you want to submit!
Remember that if you either email us or fill out our Submissions Form, you’re giving us permission to feature you or your work here on the magazine! We will always link back to you if you or your work appears on Furry Weekly!
READER SURVEY
We’re always looking out for what you, our readers, have to say about Furry Weekly! Like we said above, our goal is to showcase a little bit of everything in the fandom, especially giving a small spotlight to all kinds of creators and folks in the community. So we want to know what you think about what we’re doing now as well as what you might want to see from a furry magazine. So whether you’re an avid follower of Furry Weekly, or maybe you just found us, we want to hear what you like, what you don’t like, and what you would like us to do in the future! That’s why we have a short survey on this topic. We would seriously appreciate it if you took just a few minutes to take it and give us your feedback! You can do this multiple times as well! The link is below!
Click here to take our reader survey!
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That’s all for our usual announcements, thanks if you read through it all! Now it’s time for today’s content, so we hope you enjoy! Let us know what you liked the most, too! There are tons of ways to contact us, but you can also reach us on our social media! We’re @FurryWeekly on both Twitter and Instagram
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SEGMENT LINEUP
[✔] Furry of the Week
[❌] Art Corner
[❌] Writing Showcase
[❌] Fursuit Focus
[❌] Species Spotlight
[❌] Animal of the Week
[✔] Art 101
[✔] Writing 101
[❌] Fursuit Designing Tips
[✔] Photography 101
[✔] Available Artists
[✔] Radical Raffles
[✔] Character Interview
[❌] Convention Calendar
[✔] Furry Quote
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FURRY OF THE WEEK
Hello, everyone! This is Danielle once again coming back to shine some more positivity onto you from the furry community. We have another special feature for you this week!
Before we put the spotlight on this week’s feature, I wish to remind all of you that we’re still looking to recruit more hosts for this segment. If you like spreading positivity, then this might be for you! Feel free to message our boss, Yeshua, or our HR, Carkas, if you’re interested in hosting Furry of the Week.
Go get yourself a free Telegram sticker by Vix!
Since Vix is looking to give back to the community as well as to get back into drawing, she decided to offer free Telegram stickers. Yay!
The second image above is an example of what it’ll look like. We’re not completely sure how long she is doing this for, but if you’d like to try, you can comment a reference and an example of the sticker you like on this post.
Thank you for your generosity, Vix! I hope you enjoy making them. The ones you made so far already look amazing and cute!
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That is all for this edition of Furry of the Week. We’re always on the lookout for candidates to feature for their amazing contributions to the community.
Have someone that you’d like to nominate for Furry of the Week? Feel free to fill out this form with your nominee. You can also submit content by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com, or you can directly message me on any of my platforms.
Tune in next time for another mystery Furry of the Week! In the meantime, please enjoy the rest of this week’s Furry Weekly issue, and I’ll see you guys again. Bye for now!
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ART 101
Leaps, bounds, and stretches: Legs help us find and center specific types of movement and forms for our characters. And for furries, we often deal with the language of two different leg types: plantigrade and digitigrade.
Hi all, Shroom here! It's time to begin part four of our long lesson in the art of anatomy.
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Legs are a bit interesting and fairly familiar in structure to our previous lesson in arms.
Which means we can use similar shape and muscle principles to tackle how we want to draw the legs of our characters. Let's start with base structure:
We can view a typical leg as having three distinct segments: the thigh, the knee, and the calf. The knee, despite being smaller than the other leg components, still holds significant shape weight. Remember way way back when we first started talking about shapes? We defined the knee as simply a soft oval and the leg as two cylinders. Well, much like our arm lesson, we're going to go into a bit more detail.
The thigh is fairly interesting in the type of shapes it utilizes. In part, because the thigh has to work around the ball and the hinge joint of the leg. It's much like the bicep and the shoulder. Since the thigh blends into the hip, and thus the ball joint, we have to account for that as we draw.
Oftentimes, I tend to draw out this shape similar to that of a stretched "pear". A bulk of the muscle within the thigh is constructed around the femur: the bone that connects your hip to your knee. So, I've largely opted to visualize the bulky part of the pear to match the bulky part of the thigh. When the pear starts to thin out, I visually see that as the knee.
When discussing the deltoid last week, we pointed out how it often acts as a cap over where the arm connects to the torso. A similar principle can be applied to the knee, but not quite.
When the leg is bent, this shape principle works well in describing how the knee visually interacts with the muscles around it. However, in a standing or stretched position, the knee operates differently.
This is where that soft oval shape returns. It visually helps us understand where the knee is and thus how the muscles around both the thigh and the calf bunch around it.
And speaking of the calf, we have to talk about the gastrocnemius muscle. Or the muscle on the back of your lower leg. It's strange to say, but more often than not this muscle visually mimics how we defined the bicep. It's typically a round, somewhat squishy muscle that helps balance the curve and flow of the leg.
We'll discuss this principle more in a later segment, but legs really benefit from a defined "line of action". A line of action often helps artists figure out the flow and dynamism of a pose, but here it can help us define weight and balance.
In our lesson about paws, weight held great importance because they were typically how the subject remained grounded. Legs are beholden to the same rule. Thus, a line of action for the leg helps us keep in mind the figure's center of mass. Or how they're holding themselves up.
But, wait a minute, don't we have two of these things?
That's true! Unlike our hands, feet, and arms, legs have to share the same visual space. Arms, and by proxy the others listed, can be posed and positioned independently of the other without much fuss. The same cannot be said of the legs. Since they are so closely positioned together and work to keep the figure upright in terms of defining and communicating form and weight, the one cannot be removed from the other.
How you choose to pose one leg will affect what the other one does.
Being able to balance the position of legs comes with practice, but we're not quite done. This largely covers plantigrade legs, but what about digitigrade?
Well, not much changes in principle, only shape.
This is where that line of action really starts to help us out. A common struggle with digitigrade legs is proportions. Digitigrade legs are shaped differently, but still have to fix themselves into the same visual space as plantigrade legs.
Our line of action, however, streamlines this process. Because remember, this line helps us capture the center of mass and regardless of the leg type both have to accommodate it.
For digitigrade we add one more segment to the leg that acts as a bit of a raised heel we saw before in our lesson about paws. Using these segment breakdowns we can complete the general anatomy of our legs.
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If you have any suggestions for future segments or simply have some questions regarding anything I’ve discussed feel free to reach out to me! Regardless, I hope to catch you all real soon as we further our art journeys together!
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WRITING 101
The August sun hangs low in the sky, casting golden sunlight on the Nation’s capital and its impressive baseball stadium. A chill and dry gust, rare for this time of year, breezes through the stands. Though the mid-week matchup draws less attendance than a weekend game might, plenty of fans still pack the seats. Most have already shifted down into the shade to escape the still-warm sun, but a lanky pinkish-red snake lounges in the upper decks, still dressed in his work clothes and basking in the light.
“Ahh…” sighs Phoenix. He slouches into his seat and lets his head fall back. His hood droops as well, cascading onto the concrete behind like loose bed sheets. “This is the weather I live for.”
The Camera, hovering in its own seat, glances up and down at the snake’s rail-thin frame. Indeed, a reptile like Phoenix must be glad to have a lovely evening like this, simply lounging in the sun. Though this may be a different story if it was a July day at one in the afternoon.
Phoenix lifts his head in time to see the fielders toss their practice baseballs towards the dugout. The on-deck batter is taking slow, measured swings while one of the coaches speaks in his ear, presumably prepping him for the all-important first at-bat.
“Looks like they’re about to start.”
The Camera whizzes enthusiastically to get Phoenix’s attention. He turns his head in response, hearing now trained to better understand his machine companion’s noises.
“Writing 101? Uh… yeah, we can cover that before the game starts.”
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Hello friends, and welcome to Furry Weekly’s Writing 101! I’m Bryce Griffin, here to get all you writers out there the inside scoop on literature tips and tricks. Let’s get started!
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Taking a Break
One of the most frustrating issues any writer (or any artist) may encounter is running out of steam. Be it burnout, a lack of creative or physical energy, or something else that’s disrupting the creative flow, no creator enjoys wanting to create yet lacking the resources to do so. To this, I offer a straightforward suggestion that, while not intended to cure burnout sowed by months or years of intense creative expenditure, may indeed help short-term writer’s block.
This seems almost too easy of a suggestion. How can something as simple as “take a break” help in the long run? Think of the situation like an old-fashioned steam train. The train only has so much water in its reservoir. There was no way for the train to replenish its water while on the move. Eventually, the train would need to stop its journey to take on more water. If it kept going, even with a full car of coals and a roaring fire in the firebox, the water would run out, and the entire train would be halted from lack of steam.
To refill your own “reservoir,” you’ll need to take a break. This may sound obvious or even a little silly, but you’ll realize that this analogy holds water if you’ve ever been in this situation yourself. There’s never any shame in taking a break from writing. It’s important to know not only when to take a break, but also how to recharge your creative energy.
The point of taking a break is to give your brain needed time away from a project. A few days away will let your eyes rest and give your mind time to chew on the next steps. A few weeks away is useful if you have a larger issue in your writing and need to re-evaluate overarching approaches to the project. Months away from a project (or longer) are likely reserved for reconsidering the entire project. Such long break times may afford needed wisdom and insight, such that, when the time comes, the additional knowledge will help you cook up a much better product compared to if you forced yourself through irreconcilable issues.
I always encourage you to keep creating new writings! Never stop working on something you love. But if a project is giving you hell and you can afford the time, then perhaps a break is in order. Just don’t forget the passion you carried into the project in the first place!
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Want me to take a look at your work? Got a general question for Writing 101? Just shoot me a message on Discord! I’ll be happy to answer any writing questions or even critique your work.
Thanks for joining me in Furry Weekly’s Writing 101. I hope you enjoy the rest of the magazine!
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Phoenix glances through the text on his phone. Nothing much had changed out on the field, lending him and the Camera ample time to cover this week’s Writing 101 segment.
“All right, that should be it. I don’t think I missed anything....”
At that moment, the on-deck batter steps up to the plate. He works through his routine, adjusting his gloves and shin protector while the pitcher performs his last-minute stretches. The catcher squats behind home plate as the umpire dons his facemask.
“Ready for some baseball?” asks Phoenix, smiling at the Camera.
When the batter readies his stance and raises his bat, the umpire points at the pitcher. Though his words would never be heard from this high up in the stands, everyone knows what two famous words the umpire just spoke into existence:
“PLAY BALL!”
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PHOTOGRAPHY 101
Hello, friends and photografurs! Welcome back to this week's Photography 101! I'm your co-host, Jaden! We’re going back to basics and talking about the rule of thirds! Been a super long time since we last talked about this, so let's make sure it's still fresh in your minds!
The rule of thirds is a basic artistic principle that states things like paintings and photography should imagine their image is divided into nine equal quadrants with two lines going vertically and two lines going horizontally, the main subject should then be places along any of these lines or their intersections to create a more visually appealing result instead of just simply centering the subject.
The rule of thirds aims to make your composition more appealing by following what the human mind naturally observes first and makes your eyes focus on. so if you go through a lot of your photos you may find you were following the rule of third by accident! Take this photo of mine for example, one of the very first photos I've ever taken back when I didn't even know what shutter speed did, let alone the rule of thirds.
Following the rule of thirds will greatly improve your composition skills and make your photos more appealing to look at by following human nature and what people instinctively look at first. So give it a try!
The rule of thirds is always something to keep in mind, however it's by no means something you should stress about like lighting. You'll find that your mind will naturally want to follow the rule of thirds, and even images that initially look like they break this rule, and look to be center focused end up following the rule quite well!
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That concludes this week's segment! If you have any questions or would like to share your photos, don't be afraid to shoot me a message!
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AVAILABLE ARTISTS
Hello, everyone! Danielle here once again to bring you the latest and greatest artists to consider commissioning.
Before we get started, I wish to let all of you know that we’re looking to recruit more hosts for this segment. If you’re a connoisseur of furry art, then this might be for you! Feel free to message our boss, Yeshua, or our HR, Carkas, if you’re interested in hosting Available Artists.
We have three artists this week! Let’s dive in.
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We start with RottingPixels, also known as Balthasar, an artist who specializes in neat pixel art. If you’ve been looking to get pixelated art, then this is an artist for you! He offers pixelated busts and pixelated full bodies (non-animated and animated) as commission options.
You can find Balthasar‘s prices, terms of service, and links to his other platforms on his Carrd. Feel free to message him if you’re interested in a commission and/or if you have any questions.
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Next, we have Evi, an artist who specializes in cute furry art. Her painterly style looks amazing! She offers busts, half bodies, full bodies, pixel animations, and simple animations as commission options.
You can find Evi’s prices on her Carrd. If you have any questions and/or are interested in a commission, feel free to message her on Instagram or Twitter/X.
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Last but certainly not least, we have Ses Aeon, an artist who specializes in cute furry and human art. If you like the video game series called Freedom Planet, then you’ll enjoy this artist! Commissions start at $35 and can increase from there depending on the number of characters and amount of detail you’d like.
Unfortunately, Ses Aeon doesn’t have a price list, but feel free to message them with any questions. You can find links to Ses Aeon’s other platforms on their Linktree.
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That is all for this edition of Available Artists. We’re always on the lookout for amazing artists to put in the spotlight.
Looking to recommend yourself or others for this segment? Feel free to fill out this form if interested. You can also submit content by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com, or you can directly message me on any of my platforms.
Thank you for reading and checking out these amazing artists. Keep being creative!
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RADICAL RAFFLES
Hello, everyone! Danielle here once again, and I’m here to bring you some fun raffles to potentially participate in.
Before we get into the raffles, I wish to remind all of you that we’re looking to recruit more hosts for this segment. If you enjoy coming across raffles, then this might be for you! Feel free to message our boss, Yeshua, or our HR, Carkas, if you’re interested in hosting Radical Raffles.
We have four raffles for you this week! Let’s take a look at them.
First, we have a raffle by RottingPixels!
How to Enter:
★ Follow and repost.
★ Optional: Comment your favorite character (movie, video game, original character (OC), etc)
Prize:
★ Pixel pagedoll or two icons
Deadline:
★ September 15th
There’s plenty of time to enter!
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Up next, we have a 600 followers raffle by Evi!
How to Enter:
★ Follow and like the post. New followers are welcome!
★ Share the first slide to your story, and comment anything on the raffle post.
Extra Entries:
★ Tag up to three friends (+1 each).
★ Like up to five of Evi’s posts (+1 each).
If you have already liked it, please let Evi know.
Prizes:
★ 1st place: Full body with a scenery background
★ 2nd place: Bust with a simple background
There’ll be an extra winner if Evi reaches 700 followers that will get a simple animation!
Deadline:
★ September 30th
There’s plenty of time to enter!
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Celebrate with a 20k raffle by Bixxbyarks!
How to Enter:
★ Follow and repost to your story.
★ Tag three friends, and comment what your brain cell would be.
Prize:
★ Custom acrylic brain cell keychain
Free shipping within the United States; international shipping will not be free.
Deadline:
★ 20k followers goal
As of August 21st, Bixxbyarks has 17k followers. There’s plenty of time to enter!
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Last but certainly not least, we have a 1k followers raffle by Crab Rangoons!
How to Enter:
★ Follow, like, and share the raffle post to your story.
★ Comment on the raffle post.
Prizes:
★ 1st place: full body
★ 2nd place: half body
★ 3rd place: headshot
Deadline:
★ 1k followers goal
As of August 30th, Crab Rangoons has 966 followers. There’s still time to enter!
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Those are all the raffles I have for you this week. There's always more out there, and we'll make sure to find them and bring them to you every week.
Would you like us to showcase your own raffle? Feel free to fill out this form if interested. You can also submit content by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com, or you can directly message me on any of my platforms.
Thank you for taking a look at this week’s raffles. Stay tuned because more radical raffles are coming your way!
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CHARACTER INTERVIEW
What’s up everyone? It’s Yeshua once again and I’m psyched to be back with another Character Interview segment! If this is your first time checking out the segment, we basically chat with some cool folks in the fandom and get to know more about them and what they do here! Stick around because I’ve got an immensely talented member of the fandom to share with you all.
YESHUA: I don't want to waste any time because I'm super excited to chat with today's guest! It's Aura! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk, it's so good to have you! I'm sure some folks recognize you, but for those who are reading about you for the first time, mind telling me just a bit about yourself and what you do in the fandom?
AURA: Yeah! Thanks for having me! My name is Aura and I’m the owner and designer behind All Bark No Bite, a furry company that specializes in making custom fursuit head bags.
I’ve been doing this as my full time job for the past two months now and I’m so thrilled with how many people have shown interest in my products!
My fursuit head bags are customizable! And, I have lots of different colors, materials, and accessories to choose from.
YESHUA: I gotta say, I'm sure those bags are definitely turning some heads! They look so well made and the concept is surprisingly novel! I definitely want to spend a good bit of time talking about them so let's see what we can get through! Let's start with getting to know more about the bags themselves. From what I understand, there are three options for the two main materials of the bags: the inner and outer fabric. The outer fabric can be either vinyl or suede, while the inner fabric is spandex. Why did you decide on these materials when you conceptualized this idea?
AURA: So far, a handful of my customers have taken their head bags to conventions, on hikes, and some have even traveled on flights to other countries! They've definitely gotten a LOT of looks from other furs! Some of my recent customers messaged me because of the ones they saw in-person.
You're right! The outer material can either be vinyl or suede, both of which have a foam backing, and the inner material is your choice of spandex. I chose vinyl because of its durability and classic handbag appearance, and I chose suede for its soft texture and multiple colors! So far, I've made about half of my bags in vinyl and half in suede. It really just depends on what my customers are looking for. I chose spandex for the inner lining to give my bags a professional, finished appearance while giving a pop of color for when you look inside.
It took a couple months of prototyping my materials from different distributors because I really wanted to make sure that I was getting quality fabrics for my customers. I don't skimp out on anything that has my name attached to it.
YESHUA: No better way to learn about a product than seeing it in person! It's cool to see that these fursuit bags are not only getting noticed online!
I'm not a designer by any means, but I think you hit a really good balance with the two choices for the outer fabric since of course that's what's going to be seen the most; they are two solid options and I'm sure most people will be happy with one of them! And for the inside, although it's just one choice for the material, the different color choices are great to have so folks can match it with however they choose the outside to be!
And while I don't have one of the bags myself, just from seeing photos and videos of them, it definitely seems like the fabrics are high quality! Everything looks so slick!
I know you're just getting started with this operation, but do you have any plans to offer more customization options? Or is this what you're going with for now?
AURA: I appreciate that! This has been something I've been thinking of doing for a couple years now and it's a breath of fresh air seeing it finally up and running.
As of right now I offer a few customization options like AirTag pockets, extra straps, extra bags for antlers/horns, and NFC name tags, but I DO plan to add more options down the line. However, for the next few months what I'm currently offering will be the same.
YESHUA: I can imagine! I do want to ask you more about what it's been like getting this project to take off, but we'll get to that later.
Those extra options sound great! Definitely gives people a little more to add to the bags. Do you have anything you can share about those future options you're thinking of adding? Any sneak peeks perhaps? No worries if you gotta keep it under wraps though, just curious!
AURA: Something that I'd really like to implement is embroidery! I don't have an embroidery machine juuuust yet, but I will down the line. It would allow custom patterns for eye designs, small symbols, character names, etc. That would be super fun to add down the line!
YESHUA: Oh that does sound like a great addition! You all heard it here, there's definitely some good stuff coming that's worth keeping tabs on!
Now, it might be a bit obvious to some, but maybe it's not for newer fursuiters — like myself — so I'd like to hear what you have to say for this next question: why exactly should someone get a fursuit head bag? Tell me about their practicality.
AURA: Great question! And it's often the first thing that comes to mind for new customers. For years, friends of mine would travel to conventions with their fursuit heads in tote bags, or go to parties with their heads tucked under their arms, on the rare occasion you'd see a fursuiter walking through TSA with their head in a trash bag (which I'm also guilty of doing).
This works! Believe me, I did it for years too, but it often would crush my fursuit head in weird ways. Those tote bags were awkward to carry with such a bulky item inside. My fursuit head bags are custom fit to a specific head for the most protected way of traveling. And, they protect your head from every single angle. Especially when it's raining and you need to walk outside for a brief moment, it's a really big help!
YESHUA: That makes a lot of sense! I feel like everyone has their own experience with transporting their fursuit, but it seems like some of the examples you gave are definitely pretty common. I understand the idea of having a bag that perfectly fits a fursuit head without harming it, and also protects it from anything that could potentially stain it or get it dirty. That's all fantastic! But here's something else I'm curious to get your take on: how would you recommend fitting the fursuit head bag into people's plans for transporting their entire fursuit? Whether it's a partial, or full suit. Or would you say it's more like, there are ideal scenarios for using a fursuit head bag, kinda like the ones you just described?
AURA: From what I've seen in the community, a lot of furs prefer to travel with their fursuit head separately from the rest of their fullsuit. There's been a few horror stories of TSA damaging or losing checked bags with fursuits inside them, so heads are almost always a carry-on or personal item during travel. Or, on a more day-to-day example, you could be going to a friend's party and need to have your hands free while bringing in snacks and drinks. A fursuit head bag with a shoulder strap would be perfect in that scenario!
YESHUA: That's pretty interesting! I'm definitely not incredibly well versed in traveling with fursuits but based on how you're explaining it, I can absolutely see the bags being ideal for flying, and on more mundane scenarios. I personally put my head, tail, and paws all in a storage container, so I was thinking if I were to have a bag, I'd probably have it separate from the tail and paws! It's definitely interesting to think about how these bags can come in handy because there's a lot of different scenarios where someone will be transporting their suit, whether they're flying, driving, or even just walking somewhere. The more I think about it though, the more I see the bags being useful, especially with straps! So it's truly impressive to think about just how practical you've made these items!
Shifting gears just a little, can you tell me a bit about how to care for a fursuit head bag?
AURA: Caring for them is pretty simple actually! All my fabrics can be machine washed on delicate! Now that's just in the most extreme cases, but it's definitely an option. I make sure that everything in my bags can run through the wash worry free. In normal cases though, a damp rag with some soap should get basically everything out!
YESHUA: Sounds pretty ideal! Any time something is low maintenance there definitely isn't much to complain about, hahah. I want to change topics just a bit, although we'll still be talking about the fursuit head bags. Before I do that though, is there anything else you'd like to mention or talk about that you'd like people to know about the bags?
AURA: I'd love for people to know that my turnaround time for them is relatively quick! I feel like a lot of physical commissions in the fandom can take months and months to complete, but my bags only take about a month to complete if you're at the end of the queue, occasionally it's faster than that. Also, I'm always up for a custom challenge. Multiple furs have needed very niche add-ons, and I'm always down for a custom idea!
YESHUA: I bet folks won't complain about that turnaround time, especially for a physical item like this! Same for add-ons! I'm sure you'll get more people with cool ideas!
I'd like to talk a little more about the origin and inspiration behind this idea. We already touched on this a bit when you mentioned you and your fursuiting pals experienced some inconveniences while traveling with fursuit heads. Were those experiences pretty much what led you to come up with these custom bags? When did you decide you were going to go all in with this project, and aside from the prototyping you made, at what point did you feel you hit the sweet spot you needed to actually start offering these bags?
AURA: It started a few years ago in college when I was taking an extra class for credits. Half the semester was backstage theater prop making, and the other half was costume design and sewing.
My final project for the sewing portion of the class was to make a bag. Any bag, any size, any material. So I made a fursuit head bag out of cotton and nylon.
I was really proud of it at the time and started to bring it around cons. After having issues with my previous employer, I quit my job and started this business full time so I could pursue something I would really enjoy.
YESHUA: Wow, I always love hearing about people doing college projects on things they enjoy! How interesting that's how that idea started! While I'm sure those issues with your previous employer played a part, did you have the idea to make the fursuit bags into a business pretty quickly after you made yours? You mentioned you've been doing this as a full time job for about the past two months, so it's still a relatively new operation, huh?
AURA: I had always thought about doing it after making that first prototype in college, but the lack of enjoyment at my previous job is what finally pushed me to do it.
My business has only been up and running for the past couple months, but it’s the best job I’ve ever had.
YESHUA: That's completely fair. I'm sorry you had a rough end to your last job, but it's great to hear it really was just the beginning of something better! I'm seriously impressed with how fast you've taken off with this project. Seeing folks in the fandom do cool stuff like this will never not be amazing. Anything else you'd like to talk about with regards to the fursuit bags? Or do you think we covered everything pretty well?
AURA: I think all these questions are great! Pretty much covered everything there is to touch on, and I just hope people love what I have to offer.
YESHUA: I'm sure there are tons of folks who do! I may not have one -- yet -- but I'm a big fan already!
Then, shifting topics again, you've kinda alluded to it, but I wanna talk about your experience as a fursuiter! Tell me, what are your favorite things to do while fursuiting and how often do you do it?
AURA: Typically, I only partial fursuit at parties and local events, but I fullsuit a handful of times every year for the few cons I attend. Been doing that since 2019 and only ever had my one suit. I really like just roaming around and taking pics with friends when I have the chance.
YESHUA: Are those cons you mention the same ones every year? Or are they different ones each year?
AURA: It all really depends on which friends will be attending, that’s my main factor in going. But I usually attend FWA every year if I can.
YESHUA: That's fair! Cons are probably the best times to get together with friends so that makes sense. As for FWA, what is it about it that keeps you going back? Anything in particular?
AURA: It's just the most entertaining con for my friends to attend! Lots of rooms, plenty of space, and good food nearby.
YESHUA: I haven't been to a lot of cons myself but I gotta agree there, FWA is a ton of fun, definitely my personal favorite!
Is there anything in the fandom you'd like to do in the future? Whether it's a pretty serious goal, or just something fun you'd really like to do?
AURA: I don’t know about any fandom, but I'd love to go to a speedrunning competition like GDQ to watch people run some of my favorite games. Stuff like that has always been on my mind, I just haven't done one yet.
YESHUA: You know, I actually used to be really into GDQ! Always seemed like a lot of fun; I hope you do get the chance to see that in person! What about here in the furry fandom? Anything you're interested in doing or trying?
AURA: Besides my current business of making custom travel bags, I’d love to dabble in fursuit heads themselves. Preferably 3D printed head bases made from TPU so they could easily squish and reform.
YESHUA: Oh that sounds great! That'd be something really cool to maybe chat about once you get deep into it! I hope that goes well for you along with the travel bags!
Well, it's been great chatting with you about the stuff you're doing, Aura! The fursuit travel bags are just such a neat and novel project so I'm really grateful for taking some time to talk about them and a little bit about yourself! Is there anything else you'd like to mention or talk about that we perhaps didn't touch on? Or any final remarks?
AURA: Of course! I can't wait to see what else comes from this work I'm doing and hopefully when I look back in a few years, I see this as the beginning of something amazing! You touched on basically every subject I can think about as well, so that should be it!
YESHUA: I'd definitely love to keep tabs on how your work progresses! I wish you the absolute best with it all. Thanks again for your time!
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That’s it for this edition of Character Interview! Aura’s project is so incredibly cool and I’m very happy to have had the chance to share it with you all! Give him a follow if you’re interested!
Don’t forget I’m always looking for other neat folks in the community to interview! If you know someone you’d like to see here, or maybe you want to be interviewed, just lemmino through one of my socials! You can also emails us at furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com to let us know you’d like to be interviewed!
I’m hoping to bring you all more interviews, but until next time, take care!
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FURRY QUOTE
Howdy, all! Tide here again. I want to start off by asking people to send in quotes you would like featured! You can send them directly to me on Instagram or to Furry Weekly by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com. Without your input I choose what feels right for the week, but what do you want to see? So. This week I decided to pick a very short quote that I live by from one of my favorite poets, Shane Koyczan.
”If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.”
Being hurt is a part of the human experience. While it would be great if that was not the case it is simply an unavoidable truth and it is easy to say when you get knocked down get back up, or just keep moving even if it is a crawl, but it is harder to actually do so. You can’t just ignore the hurt and let it fester, you have to do something with it and what better to do with pain than create. Now, I think it is important that I mention that you don’t have to be “creative” in order to create. What the world thinks of as creativity is something that comes with time and practice just like any other skill you have learned. It doesn’t matter if what you create is worthy of some prize or not, what matters is that it allows you to express what you are going through. This could be through sculpting or drawing or writing stories where characters go through the same things you did, making music, or, my personal favorite, poetry, among many, many other possibilities. You don’t have to show that art to the world, but it helps to show that art to yourself, to acknowledge what you are feeling and to be able to say that despite it all, this pain is not who I am.
Living in a world without pain sounds awesome, it would be a literal utopia, but the thing is, without all of the negative things that happen to us, how do we value each and every amazing moment? Don’t get me wrong, I hate sadness and frustration and anxiety just as much as the next person— I’ve just had to force myself to reframe things so that I am not in a state of constant suffering. Yeah, it is easy to remember all of the terrible things that have happened to us, but now think about all of the joy and how amazing all of the joyful times feel in relation to the bad ones. So yeah, you are going to have bad days, quite possibly a lot of them, but if you learn to make art with the pieces you not only give yourself a healthy emotional outlet but you learn to create something beautiful in the process. In doing so, you learn to find beauty in the broken.
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That’s it for this week’s Furry Quote. Now that you’re all caught up, think about the things that have been weighing on you lately, and find a way to express all of those emotions and set them free in a healthy way.
Do you have a quote or topic you’d like us to discuss next? Feel free to submit content by emailing furryweeklysubmissions@gmail.com, or you can directly message me on Instagram.
Thanks for stopping by, and until next time.
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