A fursuit head with a moving jaw is typically a helmet-like structure that goes with a fursuit body. The fursuit head goes on top of a fursuit to give you the complete look of your beloved animal or cartoon characters. But you can also wear it for fun even if you do not have a fursuit to wear the head with. The moving jaw of a fursuit gives it a more realistic look as it moves when you talk. With enough skills in art and crafts, you can easily make your own fursuit head with a moving jaw.
What is a Fursuit Head with a Moving Jaw?
To know about fursuit heads with moving jaws, we must first talk about a fursuit. Fursuits are basically animal costumes that are worn by people to recreate their looks as an animal or fictitious characters. It can be homemade, custom-made, or simply bought from a costume store. Cosplayers often require costumes to cosplay as different characters. To cosplay as a character, it is necessary to get into its looks properly. If you are cosplaying as a furry or animal character, a fursuit can help you greatly to get into its look.
A fursuit head is a helmet-like structure that goes on top of a fursuit. It is created with elastic straps, foam, and furs. By adding a moving jaw, you can make sure your fursuit head moves as you speak. You can make it according to the character you want to dress up as. A complete fursuit head comes in handy when it comes to wearing costumes at cosplay events, Halloween, and costume parties.
Fursuit Heads vs. Simple Face Masks
If you are a cosplayer who worked very hard for the body of your costume all night long, that effort might go to waste if you are dressed up as the body of your beloved character but your simple-looking head is still popping out. To cosplay properly, you need to completely get into the character. The reason why a fursuit head is better than a simple mask is pretty simple. A mask is often deprived of the realistic look of a character and might not give the vibe of your favorite character coming alive. On top of that, a mask is pretty much a static structure. So no matter what you do, it looks and remains the same. On the other hand, you can a fursuit head with a moving jaw that looks very realistic. It goes very well with the fursuit and looks like one big structure. By adding a moving jaw, you make sure that the mouth of your fursuit head moves as you speak. This makes your look closer to the character you are playing and brings it to life.
How to Make a Fursuit Head with a Moving Jaw
If you have good hands in arts and crafts, there is a high chance that you can easily make your fursuit head with a moving jaw all by yourself. To make it, you will need the following items-
- Elastic straps
- Foams
- Hot glue and glue gun
- Pencils or markers
- Scissors or box cutters or anything sharp to cut with
- Colorful clothes with fur
- Trimmer
First, you need to take the elastic straps and cut them according to the measurement of your head. You need to measure the circumference around your forehead. Then you need to measure the area around your jaw to your scalps, perpendicular to the measurement taken around your forehead. Then cut a little more than the measurement you took to ensure you can create a proper circle and join the two ends of your elastic strap properly. If you know how to sew, you can sew the ends together for a better outcome. But if you can not sew, you can easily get the job done with hot glue.
After you finish making a circular elastic strap according to your measurements, you need to work on your foam base. It is better if you have a dummy or mannequin head to put the elastic straps on and work with them. But if you do not have them or simply can not find one, you can still continue your work. To start this step, you need to choose a design for your fursuit head. It is preferable to have a 3d design as it will help you create your foam base. Start cutting the foam according to your design. The better your foam base is, the higher the chances of creating a beautiful fursuit head. So be very careful when cutting the foam. Make the foam base as smooth and accurate in texture as possible. Create the foam base piece by piece and glue them together. For example, if your character has a long nose or an ear, you can start with that. To cut properly, first outline the parts you want to make on the foam with your pencil or a marker. It is a smart decision to cut a little extra as you can easily make the parts smaller later, but you can make them larger if your piece is cut too short. After cutting, attach them to the elastic straps with hot glue. Make sure to attach the parts to the proper elastic straps or it might not be properly movable. Keep enough space below to make sure you can put your head in it easily and comfortably. Be very careful while attaching them as hot glue might burn your skin if they come in contact. Also if you do not attach them properly, it will be very hard to remove them and there is a high chance you will have to start the whole process from the scratch. You can keep the eye socket open or draw an eye according to your character on cardboard and attach it to the eye socket.
After attaching the foam base properly, it is time to put the fur on your fursuit head. Take a colorful piece of cloth with fur on it. Usually, such clothes have very long furs attached to them. You can trim the extra length from them using a trimmer. But you have to be very careful about how much you trim. If your fursuit and its head have an uneven ratio of fur length, it might look really bad. So it is wise to have a few practices runs on spare pieces of clothes to trim according to your desired length. After the trimming, attach the clothes to your fursuit head using hot glue. After it dries up, you can have your very own fursuit head with a moving jaw.
Conclusion
If you are into crafting or cosplaying, you can have a lot of fun by making a fursuit head with a moving jaw. But making one of these requires a lot of patience and practice. So do not lose hope if you have trouble making them for the first time.