Fozzie fur

[londonguy]

Hi - I'm making a replica of Fozzie Bear and am having major trouble finding the right coloured/length/density fur. Anyone have any idea where I can get it? I want "proper" muppet style fur, not your standard craft store stuff. I'm based in London, but am willing to purchase from the US if necessary. Can anyone help out?

 

[ravagefrackle]

your best option is to improvize, you may have to custom dye something, i dont know anything about fur avalibility in london, but the fur used on fozzie, as with most old scholl muppets is most likley no longer on the market, u have to keep inmind that fur like most fabrics is created mainly for use in the toy and garment industries, and as styles and technologies change so do the furs, the stuff used on fozzie was made in the seventies, and the fur was bought in bulk so that more than one could be built, what ever is left at the workshop, is most likley all that is left of it in the world, so i suggest you try to find a fur with a inch and a 1/2 pile , or maybe even longer then you could trim it to fit your puppet, u will also have to try and dy eit to match , but thier is no guarentee what you find will end up looking exactly like the original fur used,
sorry to be a buzz kill but such is life in the worl of puppet building materials change and as a puppet designer you have to change to work with the times.

 

[robinthecrow]

I back what James as said - since he told me pretty much the same thing when I wanted something along the lines of Fozzie's fur!

From experience, I dyed some long pile fur and it got the same texture or at least, very similar, texture to Fozzie and the such. But the fur pile is alitle too long... maybe it would be worth trying shorter pile and you get a good result.

This was done in the bath tub with Dylon multipurpose dye products. It didn't take the colour at all but it sure did clamp those hairs together - then again it was nylon!

I'm also based in the UK mate, up north, near Cambridgeshire, maybe we can share some puppet antidotes!

David.

 

[standay]

...the stuff used on fozzie was made in the seventies, and the fur was bought in bulk so that more than one could be built, what ever is left at the workshop, is most likley all that is left of it in the world...

Yes, it's hard to match something from that long ago. I recently made a new puppet and when I was in the cloth stores again for the first time in decades, I noticed that the fake fur they have now isn't nearly the quality of what they used to carry in the early to mid 70s. For my new puppet I wanted some long orange fur for hair and wound up getting some from Mendels. Good stuff but still not as long as what I had access to years ago. Even back then, when you saw something you liked you had to grab it right then or you almost never saw it again. And if you think you'll want to make more than one puppet out of it be sure to get extra material at that time!

Stan

 

[londonguy]

Thanks for the info guys. David - where do you get your supplies? Am new to London and have very few idea as to where I can pick (quality) stuff up!