So I'm working on getting this website redesign together on the side, and I'm pretty excited that it is really close to done now! I have one major task left, which is to set up a customer photo and video gallery.

I have found a good number of videos floating around, but I have found that I am seriously lacking customer photos, and I'm having a lot of trouble finding any. If anyone has taken, or knows someone who has taken some photos of our costumes out and about, could I trouble you guys to link/send them to me? Right now I have a big four images, and I'd like a few more in order to get a respectable gallery together.

I appreciate the help!

The masks have eyes and teeth! Here's one of those creepy eyes and teeth photos:


Left to right: Isaac, Ronin, Katia, Melissa, Manojalpa

Ronin and Manojalpa's eyes light up.

The next step is attaching Isaac and Manojalpa's horns, and then furring!


The gloves are basically done, they will be ready to photograph early tomorrow. The tails are under way. Bodysuits will be under way very soon, as soon as the tails are sewn. All the patterns are done now, so it's just cutting fur out and sewing it.

So we've finished all of the outstanding repairs/alterations and small preliminary projects, and have finally got this ball really rolling.
At this point, nearly all the casting is finished.


Masks cast:

 For the first time ever, I am closing new quote requests until December 5th!
I will answer all quote requests that I received today or previously, but I will not be answering any more until the 5th of December.

I've started receiving a high enough volume of people asking for quotes that it's starting to take me hours per day to answer them, and even still I have almost a week long backlog. By all means, the increased volume of emails is a great thing, and I thank all of you for your interest! However, I really need to get some work done.

Currently I am still way, way behind on the quote requests that have recently come in. I promise I will answer all of them.

 If you're going to FurFright this weekend, keep an eye out for us! We'll look something like this: qarrezel.deviantart.com/art/Grey-Witch-and-Iron-Beast-140408225
(We don't have a dealer's table; we'll just be out and about around the convention).


In other important and related news, we have been incredibly busy this week getting ready for this convention, and I have not been able to answer any emails for several days. And since we're leaving for this convention basically right now, I won't be getting to any of them until Monday or Tuesday when we get back (and even then it may take me a couple days to work through the pile). If you have sent me an email this week and haven't heard back, I will get back to you as soon as I can! I'm sorry about the wait time.

DONE. Finally.


     
Davin complete

      Qi-Lin parts complete


Everything that is paid in full will be shipped Monday.  If you are one of the couple of people who still have a balance, I will ship as soon as they are paid (which could be Monday, if you were ready to send payment tonight or tomorrow).

 So the queue actually filled overnight this time; by the time I got to my inbox this morning, there was already more than I could fit.  It is a much smaller queue this time around, though, for the sake of our sanity.


The Fall Queue:


Isaac: Wolf demon mask (moved from last queue)
Qi-Lin: Bodysuit
Isis: Bodysuit
Manojalpa: "Moon Dragon" mask, gloves, and tail set
Katia:  Dragon-wolf mask
Melissa: Beast-thing mask
Jillian: Beast-thing fullsuit
Ronin: Snow leopardish head, gloves, feet, and tail set

Also, little extras being started with this queue:

Fionnadh: spare gloves and feet
Hallan: Sandals for lion paws
Candace: antler and hoof castings (in exchange for horns to mold)
Enoonmai: cat face

It's a Qi-Lin!

Many photos:





Hallan mask finished.



Isis mask finished.



Davin mask finished, with lights on. The color of this photo is a bit on the blue side, now that I see it uploaded.



Amber mask finished.


I'm going to work on Feidai's hair a bit before posting photos of her.  The Qi-Lin is nearly done.
I need to airbrush the bodysuits, gloves, and tails.  Feet are almost done.

 I am postponing the queue opening date again.

I am moving the queue opening date to OCTOBER 5TH
(I've updated the previous entry to say this, also)

We are still behind, so I'm having to push our honeymoon back yet again, and thus the queue opening date has to move again, too. 


I'm still being slow with photos, unfortunately.  
Here is Razz finished: qarrezel.deviantart.com/art/Rat-Masquerade-Mask-137268496
Fionnadh finished: qarrezel.deviantart.com/art/Okwaho-137631143

Sorry these are on DA, I don't have time to put them elsewhere and make this a pretty entry.
More photos to come, especially as Isis's mask is now done, and Feidai's mask is done.  

 Alright so things are totally nuts right now.  As if they weren't toally nuts before.  We've had to do some rescheduling, so I am here to announce a few major updates.

First, we're running behind on the queue.  I was really hoping to be done everything by now, but that turned out to be impossible.  So, we're taking off for the wedding tomorrow (obviously), but then getting right back to it.  We have postponed our honeymoon so that we can finish everything hopefully this coming week.  Luckily there isn't a huge amount left to do, so a week should be enough time.

Next big update - I AM POSTPONING THE QUEUE OPENING DATE!  Because we have to postpone the honeymoon, we'll probably be away around the time the queue would have been opening.  So, the queue will open October 5th.

Again, the queue WILL NOT open on the 22nd of this month - the queue will now open on October 5th
I'll be sure to remind everyone of this on the 21st so that there is no confusion.

In other news, a number of things have been finished this past week, I just have no time to post photos.
Razz's mask is done, shipped
Amber's partial set is done, shipped.
Fionnah's suit is done, shipped.
Hallan's partial set is done (sandals later)

And other than that, almost all parts are done.  All of the gloves are done aside from airbrushing.  Feet only need to be stitched now.  P.NG's staff is in three parts (skull with lights, horns which need attaching, and neato stick) which just need to be put together.

And finally, I have been running all over the place like a crazy person for the past couple days, and I have not had time to answer any emails.  I don't see myself having the time to get to emails for another day or two, so please forgive the wait time.  I will get back to everyone as soon  as possible.


I really want to apologize for dragging everyone along through all of this chaos.  I am so, so sorry about the compromised service over the past few months,  and I really want to thank everyone for being so patient and putting up with us, and I promise that our lives will be much more sane when all of this is over.

I'm going to be sending out bills tomorrow.  I'll be billing for default amounts; if anyone wants to pay off more, just let me know.  We're hoping to get everything finished up in the next few days.
After the 9th of September, I won't be able to ship again until sometime after the 22nd (in other words, no shipping between 9/9 and 9/22).  If you would like your costume shipped before then, please make sure to pay off your balance by the 8th so that I have time to ship.


More stuff!


Hallan:
finished, except that I still need to add the eye mesh and jaw elastic, and put some grey streaks in the mane.


Razz and Amber:
Razz needs to be painted, and I plan to add some decorative ribbons to the sides.  Amber needs to be primed, painted, and have the wefting added.

This is very image-heavy, so images are thumbnailed. Sorry for the post being rather long, too.



Carowyn finished:

J.C. finished:
Second image added to show that one side of the face isn't shaved shorter than the other.  There was a breeze outside when I took the photos, and I didn't notice how it had been blowing the fur until now.
The flash in the second photo is absolutely killing the fur colors.

  Isis:
finished, save for some finishing touches, namely eyelashes and a bit of stain on the horns.

Hallan:

 I have emerged from the fur-cloud briefly to bring you this update!

Currently:  Carowyn's mask is done.  J.C.'s mask is done.  
All of the other masks are done save for airbrushing and facial decorations, horn painting, and electronics (for those masks for which those last few things apply)

The bodysuits are completely sewn.  We need to insert the padding and airbrush them.

The gloves are completely sewn.  They still need claws and pawpads.

The feet fur parts are sewn, and the understructure parts are ready to assemble.

The tails are all sewn - they need to be turned, stuffed, and airbrushed.

So, the light at the end of the tunnel is very visible at this point!  I'll be finishing more of the masks tomorrow, and I'll post photos of the finished masks tomorrow as well (starting with J.C. and Carowyn), plus the other masks in progress.  
So, photos tomorrow, no earlier.

 
Crazy Week, because as of now, we are truly working like crazy.

Desperate times call for desperate measures - I will not be answering any emails or messages this week. I will not be online anywhere at all, in fact.   We are going down to the studio, and we're not coming out until the end of the week, or until everything is finished, whatever might come first.
I will be back, hopefully no later than the 4th of September, and I will reply to all messages at that time.  I also hope to have a rather huge update on the state of these costumes.

 No photos at the moment (because I only take photos when stuff is at a point where it looks nice/recognizable), but several things:

I have furred the faces of Carowyn, J.C., Fionnadh, and Hallan.  They are currently unshaved, and I don't plan to shave them until I have the hoods on them, so I won't be taking photos of them for a little while.  
Seriously, if I took photos of unshaved masks, you guys would probably wonder why I was making so many English sheepdogs.

The pre-furring alterations of the other masks are nearly complete - the Qi-Lin needs a new nose and horn mountings, Isis needs horn mountings, Feidai still needs fang extensions, and Davin needs a quick bit of eye work.  My goal is to start furring those on Wednesday.

The two theatrical masks, Razz and Amber, have the second to last prep-layer on them, so in a few days (yay, drying time) I should be able to start painting them.

And finally, Laughing Scarab has finished cutting out the mountain of fur and fabric pieces, and is now sewing, starting with hoods and gloves.

 

The masks have teeth!




top to bottom, left to right:  Isaac, Davin, Amber, Razz, Hallan, J.C., Fionnadh, Feidai, Qi-Lin, Carowyn, Isis

The Qi-Lin is still needing surgery, Feidai is halfway through getting surgery, Davin and the Qi-Lin are both needing eyelids again, since in Davin's case I completely changed the eyes, and in The Qi-Lin's case, I had to make a correction.
They still need tongues, obviously.  

Presently I'm doing interior work on these - padding, cloth on the edges, chinrests, elastic straps - in preparation for furring starting this coming week.
Scarab is cutting out all of the fur, and has been for the past few days.  There is a lot of fur to cut out.

 The next queue will be opening on September 22nd.
A little later than I had said before, but I have a good reason.  I'll be getting married in early-ish September, then going on vacation for a little while.  I don't want to open the queue before or in the midst of all of that, so I have decided to wait until afterward (like a smart person, durr).   Completion dates will be in late November.

The current queue is still going to be finished in the same timeframe as planned.



Some quote/commission tips (and a couple new things since last time):  

1.) Email your quote request! I don't give public quotes, and it helps me stay much more organized to have your email on record.  Gmail lets me search through old emails, so I can keep records forever.  Furthermore, it is best for everything to be neatly in one place.
A secondary note - As of this queue, I won't respond to establised commission correspondence in FA or DA notes.  Meaning that if we have a nice email dialogue going, and you suddenly continue the conversation in an FA or DA note, I will not reply to you there; or more likely, I will reply asking you to please email me instead.  I've had problems keeping track of necessary information because of people doing this.

2.) To qualify for the Artistic Liberty Discount: Don't submit concept art, just a written description, and let me interpret from that.  You agree to not nit-pick, although suggestions are allowed.
The more open (dare I say Vague) your description, the bigger the discount!  The biggest possible discount is given to requests that go like this:  "I'd like a full-body costume, digitigrade would be nice, and I think it should have horns, and maybe be kinda dragony."  I can promise that you will get a Very Cool Costume.

3.) If you're after something specific and you don't want to leave anything up to interpretation, concept art (or photo examples) is very helpful.  However, concept art alone is not enough - you must submit a detailed description or a list of features that you feel must be included on your costume, so that first, I can quote accordingly, and second, I don't overlook something and have to go back into it later.  Often, what might be key features end up not being very noticable, or can't be told apart from stylization - and visa-versa.  Seriously, describe every bit of your concept art that is remotely important, even if it seems totally obvious.
I also like personality descriptions of your character (if established), and other interesting information, as it allows me to put more personality into the costume.
Please don't send me stories to read, though.  Just descriptions and/or lists.
Also keep in mind that I can't replicate concept art exactly (unless I drew it, perhaps).  

4.) Just to drive this home, if you intend to submit concept art, submit it right away.  Don't submit just a description (and worst yet, qualitfy yourself for the artistic liberty discount), only to turn around later and submit concept art.  From now on, if someone does this, I will not be held to the details of the concept art.
Same thing with descriptions - if your character has a particular feature or detail that you really want on the costume, be sure to tell me about it right away.  Once again, if you leave out a feature in the description, then my interpretation (or misinterpretation) goes.
By "right away", I do mean before you finalize a quote/get on the queue.  Don't get too stressed if you forget something and have to send it to me in your third email or something, I'm not that mean.

5.) As always, I accept payment in increments!  I need 30% up front at the beginning of the queue to reserve your space and begin, and after that, I can accept payment in increments of at least 10% per month, but no less than $100 per month.

6.) Please be prepared to take your measurements and/or make a duct tape dummy (if you're getting a fullsuit), and get them to me ASAP after the queue opens.  You don't need to rush ship or anything, but I can't really afford to do something like wait a full month for those things.

7.) Finally, quotes given before June might not be valid.  Please double check sometime before the queue opening date.

 I've got the last of those eyelids sculpted on now.






I will be sending out invoices tomorrow afternoon, so everyone knows. 

 So here is where we are on the masks as of right now:




Top to bottom, left to right: Isaac (still needs use-your-own-eyes modifications), Hallan, Fionnadh, Feidai, Davin, Qi-Lin (still needs some major modifications to make it not a wolf face), Isis, J.C. (still needs eyelids), Razz (still needs eyelids), Carowyn (still needs eyelids), Amber (still needs to have the eyes set).

So, I should have another update tomorrow.
If anyone wants a close-up of their mask at this stage, just let me know.

Also, for some reason I received a huge crazy ton of emails this week.  I'll be getting back to everyone as quickly as I can, but it's definitely slowed down my overall reply speed.  Sorry in advance if I keep anyone waiting.