Index

Payment Methods

• Paypal (preferred) @ paypal.me/AtomicFursuits

  • If you select goods and services paypal will surcharge both you and me. Simply pay the amount requested and your surcharge, I will pay for my surcharge

• Zelle quick pay (use selzerian@yahoo.com as the email, should link with my name Ian Selzer

  • Works with Chase and other banks. No surcharge.

• Venmo @Chuzzlepuff

  • Less secure than other methods. Recommend for smaller transactions

• Cash (also preferred) Cons/in person (do not mail)

  • You can arrange cash payments with me so we both avoid surcharges. You can pay downpayments in cash when you come to get sized/duct tape dummies, and pay for finished suits when picking them up or at cons.

Additionally, in the furry fandom trading/bartering is common. When planning your commission, I'm willing to arrange trades in part or full for art, supplies, fursuits, or other services. I can also discount suits for free lodging/tickets/transportation at conventions, including rooming with your group. Contact me at my Telegram or Twitter for this or any other commission related questions.

You can also purchase fur and other supplies on your own and give them to me to use. I will discount the commission price according to my appraisal of the supplies.

Installment options

My preferred business model is half up front, half on completion. This applies mostly to commissions below $2000. This is the method I have used for the last 2 years and its worked flawlessly. Half up front gives me enough funds to purchase all the necessary supplies, and gives me something to live off while I finish.

• If your commission exceeds $2000 I will be more lenient about the half/half rule, and may accept a downpayment as low as $1000.

• If your commission is below $2000 but you will still have trouble handling the downpayment I may consider breaking my half/half rule depending on circumstances, but paying half up front will ensure the smoothest progress for your commission.

I always send plenty of progress pics. Once your commission is complete I send final pictures and wrap it all up in industrial cling wrap. Most clients have the other half ready to pay by this point, but if you dont, its ok. You know the suit is done and its safe in my possession. I will retain your suit, sealed and safe for as long as is needed for you to finish payments. I will happily accept installments for the second half of payment. When you've finished paying in full you can either come pick it up, have me mail it, or bring it to a con for you.

Refund/termination Policies

From the moment you send me your downpayment, you should assume that money is gone permanently. I am not a bank, but I do keep sharp tabs on how much my clients owe, and what I owe them. In the event that some extraneous circumstance occurs and you need your downpayment back, here is what I can do for you:

• If you sent the downpayment and I haven't bought any supplies yet: I can refund you in full.

• If I purchased supplies not including fur: I can *probably* refund you in full, as the supplies will be used on other suits. If we've allready finished your Duct tape dummy I will deduct $50 from your return for my labor, but discount the suit by $50 if you ever decide to commission again with the stored DTD.

• If I purchased supplies including fur: I can refund you the full amount that wasn't spent on fur, plus *HALF* of what was spent on fur

• If I started your commission but haven't begun furring it yet: This ones a little complicated. I would highly discourage this even in the worst case. In this circumstance I *might* be able to use the bases I made to fur another, similar suit. In this event you would receive *half* of the fur price, plus the full amount that wasn't spent on fur, minus half of my estimated labor charge for the suit to that point. So if you gave me a $1000 downpayment and I spent $400 on fur, and I had spent 40 hours building the bases to that point at $15/hr, your return would be [$1000-$200(half of the fur)-$300(half the labor)] =$500.

• If I've started furring your commission/ almost done with it/ done with it: You're locked in... sorry but at this point I cant offer any refunds. Its your suit, its your sona. Come get it when you have the rest of the money. If its been a long time and you dont think you'll ever be able to pay the rest we can negotiate trades or services to get the price down so you can finally have it.

Remember, the above bullets are just guidelines on what I can try to do in different circumstances. This is also actually very dependent on if I myself have the money to refund you. I'm a starving artist still going to college and usually the second you send me a downpayment its allready spent on supplies and bills. But, sometimes I get several downpayments at once and have extra cash in my account, and in such instances I will help however I can. (I've yet to actually need to refund/terminate a commission prematurely, but i'll try to handle it as professionally as possible if it happens)

Customer Satisfaction

Usually I'm pretty good about making your suit the way you want. The best way to ensure this is to provide a good ref sheet. With a ref sheet I can work to make your suit a real life version if what I see in the reference. I may go as far as to request that you first commission a ref sheet before commissioning a suit from me. If you want you can even commission your ref sheet from me, though my digital art is passable at best.

However, I do make mistakes sometimes, but nobody other than my clients ever gets to see it. This is because I always stay in touch with clients and update them with progress pics. If there is any issue, you will see it in the progress pictures. Always tell me if something looks wrong to you. Dont ever be shy about it, I wont get offended I promise. The time to ask for something changed is when i'm still working on the suit. I wont ever charge extra for changes during the build process unless its a big addition or requires me to undo a ton of progress.

Repairs

Fursuits are pretty complicated. There's a lot of parts and they take a beating. Your fursuit will inevitably wear out over time. This is exacerbated by obviously, wearing it more. In particular this tends to wear out the feet. Bleaching from the sun will also cause your fur to fade over time. Similarly, dirt and debris can accumulate on your feet and tail over time, even if you are wearing sandals. There are some simple methods to improve these issues in my Cleaning and Maintenance page. Its also recommended that every fursuiter have a small sewing kit with needles and thread. its only a few bucks but you can save yourself a lot of time by spending 5 minutes to sew together a small hole instead of mailing the whole suit to me.

I've gotten really good at making durable suits since I started. Infact, its one of the things I pride myself most on, is the extreme durability of my suits. My heads tend to be dense, and my fursuits fit on you like leather jumpsuits. They feel tough, and they are. Sometimes seams still pop though. Usually this happens shortly after wearing a new suit, so dont be alarmed.

• If you dont want to handle a stitching repair yourself you can mail me the suit or bring me the suit to get it repaired, free of charge

• If you need small modifications made like shaving areas more you can mail me the suit or bring me the suit to get it repaired, free of charge

• If your suit doesn't fit right after receiving it in the mail: you can mail me the suit or bring me the suit to get it repaired, free of charge. I'll make you some small accessory as a consolation for the additional shipping fees. If you are coming to pick up the suit in person I will always have you try it on before leaving. Any small fitment issues I can handle on the spot. Anything worse will require you to come back. You can take all the parts but the ones destined for repair.

• If you want larger alterations made after receiving your suit: you'll need to mail me the suit or bring me the suit and I will charge you a fee for the alterations (eg. new eyes)

2 Year Warranty for large fursuit repairs: If within 2 years of getting your suit you experience some critical failure like a large part of a bodysuit ripping apart, or an eye screen falling out/eye falling out, I will repair it free of charge. You will still have to pay postage to and from me, or drive to me. I encourage you to attempt small repairs on your own, particularly stitching seams, in order to save yourself shipping fees.

If you need repairs done, a great way to have me do them while still saving on shipping fees is to meet me at cons for the repairs. I allready meet for many business transactions at conventions. We can arrange to meet early on the first day of a convention, or the night before at the hotel.

Shipping

I will always recommend that clients come to my workshop in person or meet me at cons, but if its too far/not feasible for you we can arrange shipping. You need to pay shipping fees to and from me in most circumstances.

• Fursuit Shipping: I can ship completed fursuits to you. Completed fursuits are heavy and bulky. Expect shipping in excess of $100 for the eastern U.S. and ~$200 for the western U.S., Even more for international shipping.

• Fursuit Repair Shipping: It is recommended you only ship the parts that need fixed to reduce shipping costs. In most circumstances you need to pay me for the return shipping as well. I will send an invoice of the tracking number and shipping total after its sent, afterwards you can reimburse me for the fees. If the repair was for a critical error that was my fault I may waive the return fees

• Duct tape dummy Shipping: If you completed your DTD according to my guide you should be able to smoosh it down and fit it in a small flat box. Shipping a DTD to me will be around $20

• Fur sample shipping: Sometimes you may need to send me fur to match to existing parts. Usually you can fit small pieces and send them in a USPS envelope with a couple "Forever Stamps" totaling $2-3

International Shipping: I am willing to ship international, but the fees will be exorbitant and the risk of serious damage / theft of your suit is very real. It may also take an excessive amount of time to reach you. Choose this at your own risk. A better option for you, if possible, is to use your commission as an excuse to make a trip to the U.S. for a con. I am in Ohio and I drive to all the largest furry conventions. You can meet me at one of these cons and I will assist you in vacuum packing your new suit before your flight back to your country. If you have any friends in your country that are planning to attend Anthrocon or MFF you could also ask them to pick up your suit pre-vacuum packed at the con.

Shipping Providers: (you pick)

• United Postal Service (UPS): I have the most experience shipping with UPS. They seem to be the cheapest (still not cheap though).

• Fedex: about the same as UPS

• USPS: Regular united states mailing. Better for smaller parcels like fur samples.

How I package Fursuits:

Fursuits are pretty squishy, damage is usually not an issue except for water. When suit parts are complete I hermetically seal them in multiple layers of industrial cling-wrap. all the suit parts are then stowed in a trash bag and tied off as extra moisture protection. Smaller goodies usually get put inside the head so you cant miss them. The bag is put in then put in a suitable shipping box. I'll probably write something furry related on the box too. For hard parts like protogens I will excessively pad the box with foam and bubble wrap. I need to declare the presence of batteries for protogen suits so this will increase the shipping fees.

Should you get shipping insurance?

This is kind of a catch 22. If you want to pay extra for shipping insurance thats fine. If something happened to your suit you could use the insurance payout towards getting a new discounted suit made from me.

Personally, I think that declaring a very large value on a package **significantly** increases the likleyhood of it to get stolen by workers. We suspect exactly that happened to a friends just finished protogen suit that went missing in the post. I have never declared large values on my suit packages, and i've never had any shipping complications. Personally, I am not a suitmaker for the money, I do it because I love making fursuits. Having one just *disappear* in post like that... no amount of reparations would make me feel better about that, especially if I just got done making it.

My address: I handle shipping and business out of my home address. For this reason I wont provide my shipping details on my website. I'll send you shipping details once we've established the commission details. Contact me through my Telegram or Twitter.

Sizing and Duct tape Dummies

If you are getting a bodysuit made by me you need to have a Duct Tape Dummy (DTD) made. If you are within driving distance of me I can do it for you when you bring me the downpayment. Its a pretty uncomfortable process but most clients say I make it bearable.

Watch Skye High Studios video on making a DTD to learn about the process. There are a couple things I do differently. Firstly, Instead of using tyvek/painter suits, I will wrap you completely in suran wrap first. This permanently sticks to the duct tape so I dont have to worry about the tyvek peeling off and folds sticking to eachother during shipping. Secondly, I use a razor blade to cut people out. If this makes you uncomfortable I can use a pair of bandage scissors, but all of my clients agree that the razor is actually less pinchey, and i've never cut anyone.

If you can't make a trip to my workshop to get your DTD done you will have to do it yourself with a friend and mail it to me. If you opt for this method I highly recommend you skip the tyvek suit and instead use suran wrap. I would not recommend anyone attempt the razor method like me though.

For sizing other body parts a ruler or measuring tape will suffice. I may ask you to send me pictures of your head in 2 directions. When doing this, wrap the measuring tape all the way around your head to get the total circumference along that direction. I may also ask for foot size, height(for digi feet), waist size (for kidney belt tails), Bicep and wrist circumference(for sleeves), and hand size. For hand size I will usually ask you to place a ruler in your hand so that I can measure from your wrist to the tip of your middle finger.

Glasses and Fursuits

Sorry, but we have to talk about this before we get to the fun stuff. If you wear glasses I highly **HIGHLY** recommend learning to use contact lenses before you get a fursuit head. You dont have to wear contacts all the time, in-fact, I wear glasses most of the time. Just talk to your doctor and learn how to put them in. You may think its an impossible task and your eyeball just keeps rejecting them, give it just 2 or 3 days of practice and it'll be easy as yellowcake!

Tricks for wearing Contacts:

Your eyeball is getting puffy and pissed at the doctors office because you are poking it for an hour straight while trying to learn. Once your eye is trained you'll be able to just pop it on no problem. Always focus on your eye *in the mirror* when putting them in. When removing, I prefer to "roll" them off. I just touch the edge with my index finger and pull the contact to the side of my eye till it bunches up against my eyelid and comes off. Ez-Pz!

Contacts for Suiting:

I think its nice being able to bounce between contacts and glasses 50% of the time, but if you just need them for suiting you dont need to spend hundreds of dollars on stock. I get my contacts from 1800 contacts, and I use the Daily Total 1 brand, they are super comfy! Realistically you can get away with using them for a couple days in a row...just keep them clean!

Do you need them:

If your eyesight isn't *that* bad you might be able to get by without glasses or contacts. Remember, being in a fursuit can be disorienting especially for new suiters, especially especially if you are in a new con space. You are allready looking through buckram screen. While "follow me"-type eyes offer a surprising amount of peripheral vision, if everything's also blurry its gonna be a mess. As a comparison, I am nearsighted and have -2.50 SPH in both eyes, and I would never suit without contacts in. If you are nearsighted and anywhere close to this you need contacts. Lets say its essential if you are any worse than -1.0 to -1.5 SPH.

Glasses and Fursuits dont mix:

There's a few reasons for this, firstly, when you are wearing your fursuit head the weight is mostly handled by the top of your head, but the bridge of your nose will also be snug inside the muzzle cavity. This is to direct your warm breath outside of the mouth and to stabilize the head on your face. I can build a fursuit base to accommodate glasses inside, but it will always sacrifice a significant amount of stability and comfort. The area resting on your nose bridge will also be pressing against your glasses the whole time. The Buckram also cant be right against your eyes because of the space needed for the glasses, so your peripheral vision will also get significantly reduced. Finally, the humidity in the suit is going to make your glasses fog up, almost all the time.

Alternatives to contacts:

If contacts lenses are still 100% out of the question Your next best option is to get some prescription goggles to use inside the suit. These can be made with anti-fog coatings. Alternatively you can pick up some Cat Crap anti-fog gel and periodically coat the inside and outside of the lenses with it.

Lens-FollowMe Eye Integration Add~$100

For an additional fee I can work on making you a set of fursuit eyes with prescription lenses built-in. To do this, I'd recommend you get your prescription info from your doctor so you can buy a cheap pair of glasses from Zenni Optical For $10-$15. Send me the glasses and I will 3D-model a pair of Follow-me eyes (this will only work with follow-me eyes) That have lens inserts behind the buckram. The lenses should be an adequate distance from your eyes for you to see. This will not negate the fogging issue however, but it should relegate fog to only the interior side of the lenses. Apply a bit of Cat Crap antifog to the inside of the lenses periodically to negate this.

Deadlines

Tentative estimates for completion times are as follows:

• 6 months for Protogen armor

• 4 months for Protogen or Synth heads

• 5 months for full digitigrade suits

• 4 months for full plantigrade suits

• 3 months for partial suits

• 1-2 months for individual parts or accessories

If you need a commission done by a certain convention or event let me know and I will try to accommodate you. As a general rule, the clock starts ticking as soon as you send me a downpayment. Thats when I can get all the supplies ordered and get working.

It takes about 1 week to receive fur from my usual vendor BigZ. Howl Fabrics is my second choice and they usually take 2 weeks. Foam Factory is my urethane foam source and usually takes 2 weeks.

Fur Matching

As stated above, BigZ is my primary fursuit supplier. I have sample swatches of all their long pile fur for matching. The images online can be deceiving, thus, trust my judgement when matching fur in most circumstances. I also use bigZ primarily for my minky and fleece for lining, as well as fake leather for pawpads and noses, linen for base reinforcement layers, and spandex/neoprene. I tend to buy fur for multiple commissions in bulk to save on shipping costs.

The other popular supplier is Howl Fabrics. They cost more, and in my opinion the fur quality is exactly the same, but under certain circumstances I need to use them to get the right colors. If you have pre-existing suit parts from another maker, ask them where they sourced their fur, it will likely be from either of these vendors and I can match directly.

Fur supply and demand is volatile, and certain colors can be completely out of stock for extended periods of time, for both BigZ and Howl. I usually place restock reminders on needed colors. Matching colors can be frustrating in these circumstances.

If the fur you need is not available we can try to match something close. Sometimes these colors get very close and are almost imperceptible, but I need them both in person to know.

In these instances you can send me a small sample of your fur in the mail. find a corner of some part on the suit to cut off, or ask for a sample from your original maker. I'll look at your fur and my sample swatches under the same light and determine what is best.

I can also apply airbrushing to tweak the colors of a fur. This will work for a time but does eventually fade and require touchups. This also only works on places with short fur.

The largest selections of fur are sold as "Luxury shag" or "long pile". This is what most furries use. I shave down the fur as needed. On the face for instance, I shave the fur down very far so it feels like "beaver" shag. Vendors sell pre-shaved furs, but the color selection is always limited. Long Pile/Luxury shag is pretty much the only fur you will need.