Dens Story
The Full Story
When I was 19, I started my career as a conductor with a freight rail company. At the time, I thought it was my dream job. It paid well and let me live, for the most part, a comfortable and "normal" life. As time progressed, I grew tired of the same routine, day in and day out. It became crushingly monotonous and felt controlling, always on call and never knowing if/when I was going to have a day off. Not to mention, I had ZERO sense of accomplishment at the end of my shift.
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Starting around mid 2018, I began to feel like there was no sense of ambition and life felt stale. I felt depressed, stopped going outside or talking to friends and family. I was always curious about "furry" but never comfortable enough to explore. Soon, I stumbled upon a Furry book series, "Dangerous Spirits", by Kyell Gold. Something in those books lit a fire under my ass and I felt inspired to make a change. When I told my best friend about the books, that's when he mentioned Anthrocon. I didn't even know what a furry convention was, but I was curious enough to agree to go. That's when I decided to make my "costume".
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In fall of 2019, I decided to make my first fursona and quickly got to work on my first suit. By early 2020, Denwolf was born. Covid hit and wiped out any chance of attending Anthrocon, as it was cancelled, but I did manage to attend Denfur in 2021. I was both surprised and humbled by the compliments on my suit. A few people even asked if I took commissions, but making another fursuit was too much to take on while trying to balance a full time job.
During Covid, I needed a creative outlet and rediscovered my love of woodworking and “creating”. I started taking commissions on wooden signs for friends in the fandom. That's when bigger names started to take notice. I had an amazing opportunity to work for Nomad Complex, and again for MadeFurYou! I was still getting inquiries about suits, but it still felt like too big a commitment while working full time.
I grew to hate my job and the erratic, all consuming schedule. With so many people asking for fursuits, I finally decided to take a couple commissions. My excitement grew as people started noticing my work and I took on a couple more. My husband, Jakeshep, even jokingly made a new twitter, named "DensCreations" so I could interact with clients on a more professional level.​
With tension building with the railroad and the side work growing, I decided to take the biggest risk of my life. I made the business official and quit my day job. I finally had a creative outlet and I felt like my hard work was being rewarded. Most importantly, though... I was happy. This business is my passion and I'm humbled for everyone thus far to trust me enough to bring their OC's to life. It drives me to constantly improve my skillset and advance my process.
Special thanks to Nomad Complex and MadeFurYou for putting me on the map, commissioning me early on and shouting out on Twitter! I'd like to mention The Karelia and Wild Dog Works for the inspiration with their amazing fursuits. I want to give Wild Acai with Waggery credit for giving the confidence boost I needed and guiding me on this journey. He has been a great mentor and even better friend! Lastly, I want to thank everyone who has entrusted me with bringing your fuzzybutts to life. If it weren’t for all of you, DensCreations wouldn’t exist.
