Bronley's Second Custom: Coo Nim the Fluffy Pony

[Bronley]

My 2nd custom is completed:
Cumulonimbus "Coo Nim" the Fluffy Pony.

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Images in an album.
First custom: Fluffle Puff the pink fluffy pony
Bronley's Third Custom: Pearl the Fluffy Pony
Project planning and links to other projects

Crafting steps:
1. Prep a pony base. For Fluffle Puff I de-haired a 3" Playful Ponies Pinkie Pie, for Coo Nim I de-tailed and carved the mane off of a 2012 McDonald's Rainbow Dash.

2. Fill bottom of pan with one layer of jumbo cotton balls. Then unroll the cotton balls and lay aside. Here's how much they fill the pan after being unrolled:
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My first batch I unrolled after dying the balls and it was quite difficult to unroll the wet balls (I didn't think the balls would dry well rolled). This 2nd batch I unrolled first while the balls were dry. I think it was much easier over-all.

3. Using liquid Rit Dye, dye the cotton strips. The normal Rit Dye recipe calls for 1/2 cup of dye (half of the 8 oz bottle) to 3 gallons of water, plus 1/2 cup salt for cotton cloth. We scale that down proportionally to 1.5 tsp of dye, 1.5 tsp salt, and 3 cups of water. Bring the dye solution to a boil, then add the cotton strips. The recipes instructs you to wet the cloth with water first, and then stir constantly for 30 minutes while simmering/boiling. I wet the cotton on my first pink batch (with cotton balls that weren't unrolled) and not on this blue batch (since the unrolled cotton strips can't be strirred well like the balls); seemed fine either way.

I didn't stir the cotton strips much, since I didn't want to mat them together any worse. Worked fine to just push them down a few times. I only boiled for ~15min and it worked fine.
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4. After boiling, remove from heat and rinse until the water is not colored. Then drain.
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5. I also tried to dye some craft puffs to make foals out of, but it didn't take the dye:
I'll try again with just the puffs in their own batch and use vinegar instead of salt, since these seem to be synthetics not cotton.
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6. Peal the cotton strips apart and lay them out near a fan over night to dry;
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(blue bacon strips?!)
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7. Make tufts to glue to the pony base by folding a cotton strip so it is even narrower and twisting the end to a point, then grasp the first half-inch and pull off of the strip. Starting from the ancles, hot-glue the tufts to the pony base.

I didn't tuft the wings (since those should get feathers, not fluff). When you get to the head, start tufting from the forehead as well and meet at the back of the head with a couple tufts glued straight down into the meeting spot to merge the 2 directions of tuft lay.

Hard to tell, but there is one tuft in the inside of each ear and one on the outside, both with their pointy ends downward.

After you have it all tufted, poke around it to get the shape how you want, and pull out any stray glue strands or lint. The Tufts are only held together lightly, so don't get the pony wet and don't pull on the tufts.

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8. Finished:
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[nuttertasha]

fluffy i love the blue its so cool these ponys are fab

[CrystalCrown]

she's really cool!

[lizstaley]

Thanks for the tutorial! I'm a little confused what you mean about pulling the cotton apart before you glue it on the pony, and the gluing process. Do you have any pics of those steps?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Loving these fluffy things. 

[Maniah]

For the craft puffs, you might try powdered rit dye instead of liquid. Ponies dake powdered rit dye better than they do liquid, so maybe there is something to it.

At the end there, it looks like the cotton balls dried sort of grey, then miraculously brighten up.. Did you airbrush them or something?

[kittybethy]

Wild pony!!

[Bronley]

Thanks for the tutorial! I'm a little confused what you mean about pulling the cotton apart before you glue it on the pony, and the gluing process. Do you have any pics of those steps?

Made a Rarity-based white fluffy pony tonight and took better pics of those steps. Will post them tomorrow.

For the craft puffs, you might try powdered rit dye instead of liquid. Ponies dake powdered rit dye better than they do liquid, so maybe there is something to it.

At the end there, it looks like the cotton balls dried sort of grey, then miraculously brighten up.. Did you airbrush them or something?

Will check into the powdered Rit. Liquid was all my Walmart had I think, but I'll look around.

The dried strips do look kinda grey: it is the fine frizz on them I think that gives that effect. Pulling them apart to make the tufts removed that effect.

[deeleelambbaa]

omgomgomgomgomgomg I.love.these.ponies. they are so fabulously fluffy, it's like you went into the deepest crevices of my mind and pulled this pony out... genius. pure genius.
and the name is adorable as well, great job on all of it! 

[Bronley]

Steps for making the tufts:

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For gluing them down, start about 1cm up the ankle:
1. Apply a small dot of hot glue.
2. Stick the twisted end of the tuft in the glue dot and press it in place. Maybe stick another tuft to the same dot right now, if the dot is big enough.
3. Hold the tuft(s) in place for a few seconds while the glue cools.
4. Place next dot of glue to the right of the first one.
5. Overlap each tuft over the previous ones so there are no gaps. Imagine overlapping scales.

Can see some examples of that in the Work In Progress pics here, on Fluffle Puff, and especially on my new Pearl: Bronley's Third Custom: Pearl the Fluffy Pony

[Ambar]

owww i love these

[Ellis1342]

Why not save yourself some steps and hassle and just use dyed roving O.o

[lilacamy931]

more fluffiness! Like the in progress shots too!

[Bronley]

Why not save yourself some steps and hassle and just use dyed roving O.o

Because I'm a clueless noob and had to google what roving is? Walmart had all the stuff for this project, never seen roving. Will look around for it.