Here’s the tutorial vid / post on how I “dye” furby fur with acrylic paint similar to how I did with Snowcone, ft. a scrap of fabric that’s a similar texture to furby fur!
This kind of tutorial works for nearly all dye pattern types, whether you want a full block of color, a gradient, spots, stripes, etc. in your furby’s fur! Plus the same method of application works for furby manes / feet / ears / tails, so get creative with it and have fun coloring your furbs! :D
Water (room temp., hot water can be bad for furby fur as described in step 6!)
Paper towels OR a fabric cloth you don’t mind getting paint on
Dry (CLEAN and UNUSED / CRAFTING ONLY) toothbrush
A wire-bristle pet-comb brush
Below are the steps I use as shown in the video + some extras before and after.
1. ***SKIN YOUR FURBY!*** This means carefully removing the outer fabric layer of the body + ears from the robotic shell that holds all the furby’s circuits and such inside, which is SUPER important because any water / paint that leaks or soaks into the shell + electronics can be very bad for your furb!
Example video / tutorial for this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=386&v=N9kzEVvW-Rc
2. Put a tiny bit of acrylic paint into your container of choice and add enough water for the mixture to be a watery dye instead of actual thick paint, making sure to mix it well enough that little to no excess clumps of paint are floating in the water / stuck on the bottom of the container / etc.
3. Use a paint brush to gently pat / ‘paint’ the dye into the furby’s fur as you desire **making sure to account for any paint bleeding along the way!** You may want to use less paint in a spot than you plan to just to see how much the paint mixture will bleed / cause the color to grow beyond your control and/or learn how to use that bleeding to your advantage to make gradients / blend colors / etc.!
(If you want to add ‘tie dye’ / gradient effects, now would be the time to add your other colors too while the paint mixture is still wet to help them blend better! You can do all your colors at once, do some in batches after drying sessions, etc., it’s all up to you + the look you’re going for! :) )
4. Let the mixture soak into the fur a bit before gently patting the access paint mixture away with a paper towel / cloth, and decide what to do with your color from here.
If you feel the color is too light, you can add more layers by doing the same steps over the same spot OR adjust your mixture (as I did in the video) with a bit more paint to help make the color a bit more vibrant.
If you feel the color is too dark, you can add just straight water (no paint or anything in it) to the area with a clean brush and press the paper towel / cloth into the area to help soak up the extra color and lighten it up as needed OR paint over it with a lighter color of paint mixture (white / yellow / etc) to adjust the color from there. (Like when I was adding the other colors after the pink to achieve a tie-dye look, I added too much blue / purple at first and made it look darker than I intended, but then painted more pinks + yellows + oranges over it to help balance it out as shown in the final pic at the bottom of this post!)
If you feel the color is just right, then you can stop and move on to the next step! :)
5. Once you’re happy with the color(s) you’ve added, brush the fur out with a dry toothbrush to help get rid of clumping / excess paint while the fur is still a little wet, but **be careful of smearing the colors!!** Use a very light and gentle hand to brush it out and/or wait for the paint to dry about half-way before trying to brush the fur in order to prevent smearing!
(UNLESS of course you want your colors to be smeared / help blend them together better by hand, at which point feel free to use this step and the toothbrush to do exactly that!)
6. Let the fur completely dry! You can leave it to dry naturally and/or use a fan to help speed up the drying process. ***DO NOT USE HAIR DRYERS / ANYTHING ELSE HEAT-BASED!*** Anything with heat could actually melt your furby’s fur fibers a little bit and make it a bit clumpy / chunky (and not in a good way) !
7. Once the paint mix is funny dried into the fur, brush the fur out with the (now dry if it got a little wet before) toothbrush again to help gently work out any clumps / paint chips in the furby’s fur. If the fur still doesn’t feel as soft as you want, use a pet brush to help separate the fur fibers more and return the fur to it’s soft and fluffy glory! **Just be very light / careful when using a pet brush, ‘cause if you pull too hard / use it too roughly it might actually pull little chunks of fur out, which doesn’t grow back on a furby!**
8. Repeat steps 2-7 as needed with any other colors / dye patterns you wish to add to the furby’s fur, and once those have all dried / been styled to your liking via. toothbrushes and pet combs, you’re done! :)
Have fun dyin’ your furbs! :D
(If you have any questions, feel free to reply to this post or message me directly and I’ll try to help ya out asap! <3 )
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