ClaireSanders.com
Portfolio About FAQ store blog

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

SuiFrens Plush Shark, Capybara and Narwhal

Last year, I was contacted by Sui Foundation to turn their SuiFrens digital token characters into real life plush toys. They already had the three characters: Narwhal, Capybara and Bull Shark, so I took their illustrations and built out the plush patterns.

 

The ultimate goal was large versions of each character, about 30 inches tall, to take to a conference in France. To build out the pattern, I first needed to make the small versions of each character then scale them up.




 

I turned in the sketches and worked with a US representative of Sui, so I was able to ship the samples as I made them and get feedback. A lot can be done digitally, but feeling fabrics and holding the samples in hand is very important.

Capybara

With the Capybara, we ended up changing both the head shape and the nose details from the character illustrations because in plush it wasn't reading as cute or correct.

Narwhal

There was back and forth with the Narhwal design to get the roundness of the head just right.

Bull Shark

Once the small versions were approved, I enlarged the pattern. The dimension of 30 inches tall would have made their head circumference 57 inches! That was getting into the territory of needing an interior support instead of just stuffing. I went with about 22 inches tall because all three of the character were longer and wider. They are all still very big!

Narwhal large version with small version

 

 

I also made four pieces of each character so they could give a couple away at the event.

 

I have made a couple XL versions of plush characters before but that is usually long after I've made the small version so it's just enlarging the pattern and adjusting those details. This was the first time making a small version with the final product being the large version. Scaling up in this case isn't just increasing the height you have to think about all the proportions so that it looks good. Plus the knit minky fabric has some stretch so that changes with different sizes. Sui was flexible with the end dimensions, so we came to good size together.

No comments:

Post a Comment