What character am I?

Well, obviously, a winged white tiger. But why? I have always loved tigers, and thought it would be a very cool suit to make. But I wanted to be different from the other white tigers out there in the Furry Group: Teddy Tiger, Kiko, Snap E Tiger, and TygerCowboy just to name a few.

So, what did I do? I made a totally mythological creature: a winged white tiger! I knew there was at least one more out there, Johnny Blanco, but he had bat-type wings (Plus, I heard that he hadn't finished his suit by this time). I wanted feathered wings. I was totally at a loss on how to do this, until I went to BayCon 98, when I saw Legend The Griffin Bard, and his wing pack! I was amazed. I knew I had to own a set for myself. It took until 1999 to finally find how to get a hold of him. We made a deal on the wings, and voila, I had them for FC2k1, my very first Furry Con!

Anyway, so, with the wings under construction, I had to start on the body. I contacted my older sister who used to make her own Ren Faire gear, and asked for her help. She liked the idea, so I went up to San Francisco several weekends and worked on the suit. I found some CHEAP ($1/yard) material to make the original body design out of, just to make sure it fit OK (because the fur was 5 times more expensive, and I didn't want to mess that up!) and we created a slightly customized version of the McCalls Pattern #8953 (you can find this at any fabric store!) With the bodysuit almost completely done, I brought it home, and worked on the paw-feet.. they were a little big, but no biggie. (I found out later, it was realllly silly to attach the feet and paws to the suit, its REALLY hard to cool down)

I had a friend come over to airbrush me in the suit. It came out really nice, I was very surprised. That only took about an hour! Though I had to stand while he took my hairdryer and dried all the stripes on me so they wouldn't smear.

On another weekend, and several after that was for working on the head. There was a quarter-done tiger head at Legend's place, that just HAPPENED to be Johnny Blanco's. I asked JB if I could buy it from him, which I did, and then tore it all apart and basically started fresh. I made new ears, we made new eyes, I glued fresh fur onto her, and striped her with an airbrush myself (which I am very happy with the way she came out). Then for the finishing touches, I added six sets of earrings on her. She is looking quite fem now.

The wings were done a few weeks after that (the weekend right before Further Confusion in January actually!) And I FINALLY got to try her on!! It was awesome! I was totally thrilled. I was my favorite animal, yet a little mysterious at the same time with the wings.

I am very happy to have her totally done. Now is the time for new paws... UNATTACHED to the suit. I could not have done it without Legend, Xodiac, and Jace. Thanks guys!

-J