What makes a good prop?

To first start off the discussion ask yourself, “What makes a good prop?” There are actually several things that must to be considered when you choose your props:

• Is it safe to have around others (especially others with limited vision in bulky costumes) or can it unquestionably be made to be safe?

• Will it damage other people or other’s costumes?

• Is it too small or will it get easily lost or covered up?

• Is it too huge? Will it take up hallways and become a hindrance or inconvenience to others?

• Will it be used on stage (seen from a distance) or in the halls (seen up close)? This sometimes makes a difference!

• Is it fragile? How well can it be transported?

Good props are props that work; they have a purpose. That purpose can be something as simple as “to be silly” or “to have fun,” but they can also have other purposes like being interactive, being good for photo-ops or matching the theme of the event, perhaps even matching a different theme. Themes are very fun to use as a source of inspiration, and just because a convention has a theme, does not mean you can’t create your own theme for your character.

 Working with Size

Your costume is a larger-than-life representation of the animal it is. Of course this depends on your costume, but most human-sized items are far too small for big paws. Need your character to have a pencil and a sketchbook? Give them an oversized pencil or crayon, size up the sketchbook to match!

 Does your character wear clothes? Do the clothes fit you or do they fit your character? Look closely at how sleeves fit and the fabric drapes – it needs to accommodate all that extra fur (whether you really have the costume’s fur under the clothes or not)! Even if your character is a partial costume, you still must imagine that your clothing would be accommodating fur! Choose larger sizes and find items that would suitably fit your character. Clothes that are skin-tight to a human form should be avoided, even if you are going for a “sexy” appearance. Clothes must physically fit the fursuit to make sense, not necessarily the performer underneath the fur. When in doubt, get a bigger size.

Play off the size of your original species your character is based from. For example if your character is a housecat, think of how big a real housecat is in comparison to the object that they will be carrying. Size it up! Want to give your character a cookie? A teeny 2-inch Oreo might be bigger than a real housecat’s paw, but will disappear in giant fursuit-sized paws. Instead, a biiig 1 foot wide Oreo with lots of filling is going to be what you’ll need to fit your fursuit’s paw and fill them up!

Clothing and Dress

It’s not always as simple as throwing on a cute dress or even wearing clothes you would usually wear for fashion. The best clothing props are ones big enough, that fit the character physically, and accommodates the most prominent of furry features: Tail, Ears and Fur. How can you change your clothing to accommodate furry features such as your tail or your fur?

Part of working with clothing on fursuits is finding the appropriate size for your clothing piece that suitably fits your costume without restriction. Maybe your clothes are tighter, but that’s because your character was transformed into the animal it is now and so your clothes are a little ragged and ripped. To reiterate from before, clothes that are skin-tight to a human form should be avoided, even if you are going for a “sexy” appearance. Clothes must physically fit the fursuit to make sense, not necessarily the performer underneath the fur. When in doubt, get a bigger size (It might also be a good idea to make sure the store has a return or exchange policy). If your character wears a hat, it can be hard to find them in larger sizes, so consider changing the hat so it can accommodate ears, or pin the hat down so it covers one ear but stays in place.

The beauty of furry costumes is that most of them are already fully covering, so it’s possible that your character can go with just an unbuttoned shirt, or perhaps only a few pieces of armor on their chest and shoulders. Maybe your character is from a tribe who wear loincloth and grass skirts and go bare-chested. In other words, you don’t have to fully dress your character to get the essence of the profession you are going after. The clothing possibilities can be endless if you look towards accommodating your furry features (fur, tail & ears) and how you can work it in with your theme.

Working with Themes

Themes can be an endless source of prop ideas! Themes can be as basic as what your character’s species would eat; are they a carnivore or a vegetarian? Example props can be bones and meat for carnivores, or bamboo, berries, or an acorn for vegetarians. Maybe your character likes junk food… how about a pizza slice or a big lollypop?! Themes can also be very simple or very complex; perhaps your character is from another time period, with a specific job and tools from that time.  

It’s best to work with obvious themes for the best effect. A simple theme will be able to target the broadest audience, who will understand it more easily and will often know how to participate if the theme is obvious. Complex themes can be pulled off, but choosing the right props is vital to the success of the complex endeavor.

Playing off the convention or event’s theme is often the most obvious goal for many furries. Look to the convention or event’s website as a resource for ideas, and then further research the theme online. It’s best to choose one aspect of the theme for your costume, and try not to focus on too many separate themes on one character during any specific outing.

Rainfurrest 2010’s theme was “Furst on the Moon,” which encompasses the space race between America and the Soviet Union and the era of time that leads up to the moon landing. To involve yourself in this type of theme, you can choose from many different things to be able to participate. You can focus on the time period (what type of clothes would a citizen from that era wear? What kind of object would have existed within that era?), a specific side (American or Soviet), or on a more specific job (astronaut, mechanic, scientist, alien) within that time period and side you’ve chosen. 

Holidays

Holidays are very fun times of the year where you can take advantage of the theme, spirit, and availability of different props to go with your costume. Many holidays are obvious in their sources of props (depending on how commercialized they are), but other holidays don’t have much as much merchandise available, but can at least be a excellent source for theme ideas. Halloween is the biggest source of all kinds of props, but don’t rule out Christmas, Saint Patrick’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Independence Day, and other holidays, even minor holidays like “Talk Like a Pirate Day” (Sept 19^th). 

If you can, be sure to take advantage of the colors on your character to go with a particular holiday theme, especially if your character is brightly colored. My friend Klickitat has a fursuit character named Mome Rath who is shades of pink and purple. she fits in perfectly with Valentine’s Day colors. If your fursuit isn’t as colorful as she is, use colors in your props that will go with the holiday to accent your character. A festive bandanna works great to accent your character and doesn’t involve a big investment in time or money.

 Holidays are also great times for small giveaways; the only thing more fun than a big furry fursuit character is a big furry fursuit character handing out stickers, cute Valentines/cards or wrapped candy to some of the people they meet! It helps leave an impression on your audience by giving them a memorable experience, as well as giving you, the performer, a sense of joy and accomplishment to give something back to your audience. To not waste your giveaway items, since they do cost money, only give them to people who are interested and give them as a surprise. Never feel like you need to give everyone something, and try not to freely or openly hand anything out since you may attract beggars and moochers who aren’t as appreciative. Aprons, baskets, pockets, pouches and purses can all make great props to hold surprise giveaway items.

Objects as Props

The most obvious and simple props are simply objects: a ball, a bone, a brain, a cookie, a stuffed animal and so on. A LOT of everyday objects can become great props as well. Keep the aspects of what makes a good prop in mind, as well as size-ratio to your character. Finding objects that are big enough is the main challenge of using objects as props.  

How do you get the objects? Well, it can be done one of two ways: Found objects, or Made objects. A found object is an item that can be used readily as a prop, purchased from a store as-is, or perhaps a commercially made prop. A made object might be made from scratch or may have originally been a purchased item that has been changed somehow; modified or recreated to become the prop. A great example of a Found object would be a stuffed animal, dog toy, or an item purchased at a party store. An example of a Made object is the oversized stuffed steak that Matrices’ fursuit character Beef Jerky often carries around, or the stuffed husky she created to look just like Beef Jerky.

Found objects can be sourced from numerous locations.  Thrift and second-hand stores can be some of the best sources for found objects; don’t pass them up!  Many thrift stores often have a good selection of all kinds of items and it often changes every week. Some thrift stores, such as Value Village and Savers create a giant Halloween department each September-October -- don’t miss this section! Also, during September-October, seasonal party/Halloween stores often pop up in larger towns, and don’t miss stopping at year-round party stores like Party City for commercially-made props. Another reasonable source for props can be dollar stores; the things you find at dollar stores may be a little cheap or cheesy, but it is often worth looking if you just need a little something. Regular stores have all kinds of objects that can be re-purposed for props as well.

Props that interact, involve and invite your audience are always fun. One awesome character that we met at Further Confusion 2010 had a “Bop-It” game. We remember it so well because it was so silly and fun to interact with. It was a good prop because it was easy to carry, safe, and made for fun interaction with others. Another aspect of making your props is changing them so they can be more interactive. With many of the stuffed props that Matrices makes, she inserts dog toy parts inside of them to make them squeak, jingle, crinkle or grunt. Keep in mind—Squeakers can be (and typically are) annoying to others when over-used. When performing, use noise-making features of your props sparingly so you can keep them a surprise for your audience.

Made objects do not have to be complicated to work well. You’ll probably need some craft skills to create made objects, and some cleverness is required. We’re not going to cover actually creating a prop craft project step-by-step, but hopefully give you some ideas that you may be able to incorporate into your own prop.

When thinking of good things to recreate in a made object prop, find an object that is already the size and shape you want and consider repainting it or adding to it in some way. Maybe your character has a unique staff they hold. You could find a nice hiking stick and change it many different ways. Make it something that would fit the character’s theme, by perhaps adding to it some leather, feathers, beadwork or paint, or instead maybe a skull, some raffia, with some carvings in the wood.  

If you want to make a prop from scratch and are just starting out, choose simple shapes and easy-to-work-with materials like fleece fabric or cardboard and paper maché. Do not underestimate what you can accomplish with just cardboard and paper maché, it’s so widely available and often free to acquire. Many fantastic Anime Cosplay props are made from cardboard and paper maché sanded smooth. When researching ideas on creating your own made object for a prop, don’t stop at looking within the furry fandom for ideas, expand to cosplay and other costume-based fandoms as well as Halloween-style costume accessories or items that you can sew or recreate from a pattern.

Another prop idea is choosing an item and recreating it into bigger object. By going back to the topic of playing with the size ratio: You want a bigger object for your character to carry, perhaps you want the object to be much bigger for a comedic effect, sizing up can be a difficult task however. Consider making your larger-sized objects sewn out of fabric and stuffed, or if it needs to be hard recreate them in cardboard and paper maché. The stuffed props that Matrices has made have all been sized up; she has made many props this way including a ham, a crowbar, steak, bacon, and a headless fish, all to go with different fursuit characters.

Use Common Sense

Finally, although props can be very fun and you will have a wide variety of options to make, recreate, re-purpose, have, and carry them. Be sure to use common sense with your prop choices and where you use them. Will it be used on stage (seen from a distance from others) or in the halls (seen up close)? This makes a difference and because it’s possible that some things are possibly not common sense, we’re going to devote a small section to it.

Appropriate interactions with your props and audience are vital, basically don’t use your props to inconvenience, bother, poke, prod, jab, block, trap, interrupt or annoy others; that is not the way to get people to interact with you or your props. Avoid very noisy objects or objects with annoying sounds that cause an already loud environment to be louder. Although sizing up your items is fun, don’t overdo it with items that will take up entire hallways if your event is indoors. If you do have a huge cumbersome object, consider just using it for the stage or outdoors-only where there is a lot of room. Choose items that are sturdy and won’t fracture, splinter or break when you or others handle them. Also pick items that will not damage other’s costumes or snag on or hurt people you interact with.

Choose your items so that they will be safe or can unquestionably be made safe for others, especially if they are weapons. Although you may really like your fancy katana that you paid a lot of money for and want lots of people to see, it is just not a good hall prop. A real bladed item is not safe, smart or practical for you to use as a prop with your hall costume (you certainly won’t be able to show it off when it is peace bound by event requirements), reserve it for controlled stage performances only with advance permission from the event and only then everyone can see it in a controlled way. You can otherwise stick to a re-created, safer, remade safe-for-everyone version for your hall costume.

If you are not sure if something is acceptable, check the event’s policies, or ask a higher-up staff member in advance before risking your event admission and inconveniencing others.

Enjoy Your Props!

        Hopefully I have supplied you with lots of ideas on where to get started and what to think about when choosing props for your costume! Props are fun, interesting and make an otherwise really cool costume even better. Props are all about enhancing your character and having fun interactions to invite your audience to take photos, participate, and have fun with you.