My first rabbit plushie

[KimitsuKouseki]

So maybe some of you saw in my other posts how I plan to make plushies with my rabbit skins. Curently working on my first one. I chose a flemish giant young male skin as my first attempt. Him being bigger gives me a bit of room to work with. Still a lot of work to do before he'll be done, but today I set the first eye in place so he's starting to look a bit better. Let me know what you think :bunnyhop:

Btw thats my tanned skins pile he's next to XD

 

[Preitler]

That's... interesting

Are those for decoration, like taxidermy, or for cuddles - the thought has a strange touch for me, somewhat too close to the real thing
Those sure would make a nice insulation at drafty windows

I'm happy to get a mostly intact square piece of pelt off a rabbit, no idea how you skin a rabbit like that? How flesh, tan, and break the hide? Do you break it at all, or would the ears go floppy?

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

They're for both decoration and cuddles. Im giving it a wire squeletton so it'll be posable. It's flat now because the legs arent done yet. Also I figure people that cant own pets for various reasons might like em too. This is the first one so I dunno yet how easy or hard it'll be to sell though. To me though if it works itll be like giving the animal a second life.
As for the skinning and tanning procress. Here's a few fresh skins I made:

even a baby I was very sad to lose

Nothing much to it, just time and being carefull. Takes me around 1h to skin a rabbit. The only bones left are the toes btw. I remove the tail and and feet bones. Well, exept on the baby, cause those were just too tiny to remove.

During the tanning process I didnt break the ears, if I did they'd be wobly and uneven. The cartilage is still in the ear afterall, cant rly "break" that without actually breaking something. Would be nice if it could keep some squishyness, but I tried removing the cartilage and slowly breaking the cartilage and disliked both results greatly.
As for keeping it intact when tanning, again I have to be very carefull, but I have to flip it around over itself a lot and damage it as little as possible.

 

[ladysown]

i suppose all you can do is try eh?

 

[Zass]

The sale value of soft sculpture rabbits is very high (about $200, each, I think?) With production nowhere near matching demand.

That said, the face looks very good. The ears are tough to shape, and there is room for improvement there. Still they are MUCH better looking than a lot of first attempts I've seen.
Keep trying on the toes, you can pretty easily remove all but the last digit with practice. The nails are attached to the last digit though, and I never did find a way to remove them without losing the nail.


What tan are you using?

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

The sale value of soft sculpture rabbits is very high (about $200, each, I think?) With production nowhere near matching demand.

That said, the face looks very good. The ears are tough to shape, and there is room for improvement there. Still they are MUCH better looking than a lot of first attempts I've seen.
Keep trying on the toes, you can pretty easily remove all but the last digit with practice. The nails are attached to the last digit though, and I never did find a way to remove them without losing the nail.


What tan are you using?

Oh boy good to know, I was thinking of just doing a 50$ start bid and see what happens XD
I've been removing as much of the toes as possible but havent quite liked the result when removing it all, but I'll get better. I have like 20+ skins in the freezer I've yet to tan. These were the... ummm... lacking skins. Failures on my part or sick buns that had affected the pelt quality.
As for tanning I do salt, aluminum sulfate. For the last step, I did an attempt without oil and one with and I prefered without. So I probly wont use any oil in the future. Besides it's unavailable in any stores here and ordering it online gets expensive. And next to each other the skin without is more flexible and has a better feel to the touch.

Btw, when I showed that first pic I hadn't closed the mouth yet. Here is the completed head now. Today I'm working on the front legs.

 

[2CrazyFools]

To be honest I think this is really neat! I also like to honor animals once they have passed by using all of it and leaving as little waste as possible. I have thought about tanning my husky's hide when she passes (in like, 6-8 years) to keep honoring her memory instead of letting it go to the ground and rot. She's got a gorgeous coat and I love that dog so dang much... but I doubt I'll actually be able to skin her. It's a nice thought though, so I completely understand the way you think in terms of these rabbits, and I really like the plushie idea! Especially once I have kids, how cool would that be? Well, now I'm thinking about fur all over the place because my daughter left her favorite plushie out and the dogs went to town... maybe not such a great idea.

Disclaimer, I have not yet even attempted to tan a hide, they are simply taking up room in our small freezer. :lol:

What are you using to keep the shape of the head? Or is it all stuffing? How'd you attach the eyes? Looks great Kimitsu! Keep us updated with your work on the plushies.

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

Before I lost my job in january I was a seamstress for a furniture restoration company. I grabbed the pieces of foam they put in the garbage. They were brand new, just too small for a sofa, but plenty big for a bunny. So I just cut up the foam into the shape then added the wire squeletton and I use silicone to "glue" things together from there. I even shaped the foam so it feels like it has a spine when petting it.
I was letting the wire for the front paws dry in place for the last couple days. Today I screwed the end of the wire to the paw and then sew the leg close and then I filled it with silicone to finish the legs. Now I have to wait 2 days before I can continue again lol.
The belly isnt quite "full" enough atm, but the foam is nice firmness for muscle areas but not for the belly. So I'll stuff the belly with leftover shavings of the foam from when I was shaping it. Should have a better texture that way.
As for the eyes, they are doll satefy eyes I bought on Ebay and I pinned them through the foam and then I used silicone to fix em to the eyelid.

Let me know when you want to tan your hides, I'll try and give you pointers from my experience so far. As for your dog, I was thinking of doing the same thing when my cats die, but my dad disaproves. So if I did I'd have to sell their plushies. I know I'm weird but for me skinning the hide is part of my mourning ritual. I take my time and it gives me closure.

Btw tomorrow I got a try-out for a new job ^^ they make curtains and cushions there.

 

[That Bunny Girl]

He is so beautiful! I have been looking for a rabbit plushy to add to my collection(by that I mean my hugh 100+ piece rabbit doll/stuff animal shelf lol). For some reason I haven't been able to find one!! I've been meaning to do one of my own bunnies but none of them have passed other then my sister's Rex. She didn't let me 'stuff' her because she wanted to donate her to our vet's teaching class. Oh well, I guess all I can do now is Crochet little rabbits! Haha

Great job skinning him! I perfectly skinned a Mouse about a month ago but then my Sister's cat ate it !

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

He is so beautiful! I have been looking for a rabbit plushy to add to my collection(by that I mean my hugh 100+ piece rabbit doll/stuff animal shelf lol). For some reason I haven't been able to find one!!

Well I'll be selling him when he's done. Will take a few weeks at least, but I'll probly sell him on ebay?


BTW I got the job!!!! inkbunny:

 

[That Bunny Girl]

He is so beautiful! I have been looking for a rabbit plushy to add to my collection(by that I mean my huge 100+ piece rabbit doll/stuff animal shelf lol). For some reason I haven't been able to find one!!

Well I'll be selling him when he's done. Will take a few weeks at least, but I'll probly sell him on ebay?


BTW I got the job!!!! inkbunny:

OMG Congrats on the new job!!
:congratulations:

How much are you going to put him up for? I may be able to buy him .

I think you'd have better luck selling the Plushies on Etsy. But hey, that's just me .

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

OMG Congrats on the new job!!
:congratulations:

How much are you going to put him up for? I may be able to buy him .

I think you'd have better luck selling the Plushies on Etsy. But hey, that's just me .

Thanks ^^ I'm very happy, they were nice and it was fun. I hope I can stay there a while.

I've never used Etsy before, so I'd have to look at it.

I'm not sure what he's worth. Zass said they are normally 200ish, but this is my first attempt and there are flaws. Not sure if those are common flaws or just my perfectionnistic persona taking over though :/
I was thinking to do a bid starting at 50$ and see what happens. Though I feel like I should ask for minimum 100$? I dunno I'm not sure.

 

[Sagebrush]

Congrats on the new job!!! I would start with $100. Due to the time and effort you are having to put into it as well as the materials you have used.

 

[AmberRae]

I agree, minimum $100.

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

Alright, thanks for the advice, minimum 100$ it will be. I think I'll still make it a bid but that'll be the base price.

Today.... err I mean yesterday, I did a bad movement and my neck hurts like hell ever since. I couldn't sleep, so I worked some more on the plush. Now it's 4am x.x gonna hate myself tomorrow.
He's got back legs now.... well sorta. I'm sure the shape wont work once I try to sew the skin around em, but the wires are in and they move pretty well to my liking. Whatever modifs I have to make from here I'll see later.

and yes that table is starting to be a huge mess x.x

 

[ArkhamQueen]

Also - create an account on DeviantArt.com ; a lot of realistic plushie love and cosplay crafters that might be interested!

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

I'm finally taking him out again for the first time since I broke my wrist.

I painted the inside of the ears white with some fabric paint. I'm not sure if that was a good idea, but I feel it looks better then the dark brown/orange of the dried ear. I tried doing the same with the back of the ears since it lost a lot of fur, but in that area it didnt look right at all so I cleaned it off.

Something isnt right about the face shape I feel. I know how I'll try to fix it though.

And then I had some imature fun at Nikita's expense XD
Honestly she didn't care about him at all, just ignored him even when he was on top of her.

You can rly tell there's something off about the face though.
and blurry pics are blurry, couldnt be bothered to retake em.

 

[TeaTimeBunnies]

Over all he looks pretty good. You could try a tanish pink paint on the inside of the ears to try and make them look better

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

Over all he looks pretty good. You could try a tanish pink paint on the inside of the ears to try and make them look better

Yes I plan on doing that on some futur plushies, but I dont have that color paint atm. Regardless the white on him looks ok enough so I think it's fine, better then it was anyways. I just have to redry them since they soaked in the water of the paint causing them to become soft again.

 

[GBov]

I LOVED the pictures! :lol: