The Quest for the Perfect Cat Ears

July 13, 2021

The Quest for the Perfect Cat Ears

Updated methods and tips here!

While building a Catra (She-Ra) cosplay, I faced a dilemma: the ears. Pre-made ears you could buy off

Amazon didn’t look very nice... and I didn’t want to drop $100+ on a pair of handmade, custom ones.

So as per usual, I decided to make my own.

This was my initial attempt:

They did the job, but I wasn't the happiest with them.

They were no where near as pretty as the ones I had gone all sparkly eyed for on Instagram.

Ears by @kittykitsune

Catra cosplay by @nonbinate

Problem: I couldn't find much information on SPECIFICALLY how those really nice ones are made. The most I could find were common elements of fur, foam, and wire.

Thus began try after try of making ears.... T_T

As a result, I’ve compiled what I’ve learned into a comprehensive guide for those who want to make their own ears!

BIG tip: Getting quality hair clippers has made all the difference. You can attempt to trim the fur with scissors, but it’s very difficult to get it uniformly even. A good shaver should cut through the fur like BUTTER😤👌
(The terms hair trimmers/clippers and shavers are all used interchangeably here)

How to Choose Hair Clippers

You don’t need an expensive pair of clippers, just make sure to get pet trimmers, not ones for human hair. Trimmers for human hair can’t handle the thickness of faux fur.
Fursuit builders are a great resource for learning about shaving, furs, and clippers.
Make sure to read up on the proper care and maintenance. Like oiling your blades…

General Tips

Pre-shave the fur! It’s a lot easier to shave the fur evenly if you cut your piece out and shave it flat on a table. Get it mostly trimmed before gluing onto the foam base. (EDIT: I now shave the fur once they are glued and assembled. Prevents me from shaving too closely and/or misaligning tufts)
When shaving, place the metal base flat to the fur and push across, following the direction of the fur. If you want to go short as possible, shave against the grain after getting it short as you can going with the grain.
For a more detailed description on pre-shaving fur, check out this Pre-shaving fur tutorial by Matrices.
It really helps to section off what parts you want to trim off and what parts you want to leave long.
The shorter the fur is shaved, the easier color can be applied. It'll also make the finished product look neater!

For coloring, I've found eyeshadows work great! I just apply it directly to the fur using normal makeup brushes.
Edit: Airbrushing is my go to now to for gradients and vivid color.

Some test eyeshadow color swatches on shaved fur

I also experimented with watered down acrylic paint and made a really vivid blue!

Construction Guide

Cut your ear pattern out of 2mm foam.

Attach wiring with hot glue. I use 18 gauge copper wire (I find aluminum wire too prone to breaking…)

I attach wire along the bottom of the ear, so it can curve-Alternatively, you can glue wire around the entire

perimeter of the ear to make them fully posable.

Additionally, I glue a long loop sticking out from the bottom so I can insert the wire into the

netting of a wig. (no headband!)

wire frame

Cut out fur pieces- 1 for the back, 1 for the front.

Cut from the non-furry side using an exacto knife (instead of scissors). Don’t cut all the way through,

cut just the fabric, otherwise the fur gets cut bluntly and doesn’t look very nice.

Lay the fur pieces flat on a table to shave. I shave most of the black piece evenly and the inner ear

like in the picture below. Most faux fur animal ears I've come across have that little vertical tuft.

I always keep a reference close by, either a real animal picture or an ear someone has created.

Inner ear that's mostly done being shaved

Shade and add color.

Eyeshadow color

The eyeshadow palette I used for shading Catra's ears-

I used orange & brown colors from the top 2 rows.

Hot glue the fur pieces flat onto the foam.

Make sure to glue down the WHOLE piece (not just around the edges), otherwise if the wire comes

loose it can migrate to the upper part of the ear (then you have to rip apart the bottom of the ear to

re-glue the wire in place like I did T_T).

Clean up the edges if needed. Try not to cut too much, or the foam will show.

If you prefer hair clips or headbands instead, you can hot glue them to the bottom of the ears.

Finished Catra ear

Charlie was very bamboozled.

New ears for my Catra cosplay!
Enjoy your ears!