HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAVE A HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS!

SQUIRREL CLOSE UPS

STEP 2-9

I'm 99% done with the squirrel. His head just needs to be mounted to the plaque and hardware needs to be added.
It was hard for me to remember to continue taking photos throughout the whole process. I'd get so into working I'd forget. But I think I did pretty good.
STEP 2 COLOR COMP
I've already posted what is step 1. Which is just a sketch. Step 2 just consists of that sketch scanned into the computer to do a color comp. I think I've mentioned that before.

STEP 3 PATTERN
This step requires some engineering and is always the step I dread. However the squirrel template isn't much different from the deer so I was lucky. It also depends on how you stuff it.

STEP 4 SEW HEAD & STUFF
Pretty self explanatory. This is were you need to do a lot of manipulating to the fleece while stuffing to get the shape you want. I really pack it in there.

STEP 5-8 SEWING ON FACIAL FEATUTRES
I don't usually have any order I do this in. I chose the mouth first this time. It doesn't look like much untill it's sewn in place and stuffed. I'm always not quite sure how this is going to turn out . Sometimes I've cut my piece to small and have to start over. I stuff this like crazy too to get it to look like it's three dimensional. I have to go back with a needle and thread and stich some areas around the mouth and under the nose to pull it in really tight to get the effect.


Next I worked on the eyes. Simple ovals cut and sewn in place. I stuff as I sew. Then I go back and add detail. Let me just say that needle is the best purchase I ever made. As well as a curved needle. I finally realized this about 8 months ago. It's a lot easier when you have the right needles. You should have seen all my old needles. All had curves to them because I'd bend them so much when stitching .

Next came the ears. Not much to say about these.

STEP 9 DETAILING
Finally I get to the fun part of detailing. I decided at the last minute he needed hair.

Once I get him mounted I'll post a better pick that you can really see.
So there you have it. My process isn't really that exciting and there is no real secret of any kind.

SNOW,SNOW,SNOW...SNOW

Currently as I post it is still snowing. Nothing major just a couple of inches. But it's our first real snow this year. I don't count ice. I always love it when the yard has no footprints in it. That'll change after the kids come out tomorrow. So I snapped a quick pick. Plus it looks nice with all the christmas lights. Happy sledding!!

FUN WITH iPHOTO

We had some fun at work last week playing with iPhoto. I thought this was appropriate. A nice tribute to Maisy & Daisy.

STEP ONE: SKETCHES

Quick sketch of the squirrel and bird.

SMOKIN' DEER

Here's some pics of the deer. This piece is pretty large. It measures 21 x 12.5. I thought this plaque was just screaming for a deer with antlers. It fills up the space nicely.
So now I'm working on sketches of my squirrel head and bird head and I promise to show my progress as I go along. These will be considerably smaller and much faster to make. The plaques for these are only 5 x 7. I wanted all three to be some what proportional in size.

THANK YOU VANNA

I finally finished the scarf I started back in August. I blocked it last week and I'm happy with the results. I saw this yarn on an end cap at Michaels when I went in to get embroidery thread. It's Vanna White yarn. Yes the Wheel of Fortune Vanna has her own line of yarn. Who knew? It was an impulse purchase for me. I thought the colors looked good together. So thanks Vanna!!

I'm so close to being done with the deer. It took a little longer to paint the plaque because I decided to paint all three to save time and make sure they were all the same color. I still hope to have a pic taken this week. I keep meaning to show a piece in progress from beginning to end. I will try really hard to do that with my next two, the bird and squirrel. I get so in the zone that I end up going to far to even beginning documenting. I'll write myself a note :)

PLUSHED ::ART GONE SOFT::

I've been working on three new plushies this week for this show. The show is called PLUSHED::art gone soft::. It is being held at Purdue University from Jan.21 - Feb. 1. I'm working on a deer head, a small bird head and a small squirrel head. They'll all be proportional to each other so the deer head is quite big. The plaque for the deer itself measures about 12"w x 20"h. The bird and squirrel are about 5"x7". I hope to have the head of the deer done by the weekend and I can share it with you. Because of its size it is defnitely taking a while.

I just thought it would be fun to do some ubber cute forest animals and give them some sort of twist. I was watching the show MGM on Boomerang last week and got the idea. The MGM show is just a collection of old cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Tex Avery, Tom & Jerry...that kind of stuff. You kind of get the idea from my sketches. When I post more pics you'll understand the inspiration.

WORK PROCESS

I'm currently working on 3 new pieces for a show in January. I don't have a whole lot to blog about so I thought I'd share my process with you.
I always start out with a sketch. It's not much more than a doodle really.


Then I do a quick color comp on the computer. This one is especially rough. But I just do this to get an idea of what colors I want to use and if I need to go purchase a color I don't have.


Then comes the technical part, the pattern. This usually takes a good part of an afternoon. I easilly do 3 or 4 versions before I get it right. I also sew up a quick dummy thats about 1/4 the size of my actual piece. Time consuming yes, but in the end there's no guessing or ripping out seams when something doesn't look right.



After I feel my dummy looks pretty good I blow up my pattern, print it out and begin. Then the fun begins.
As you can tell I'm currently working on another head on a plaque. I'm really enjoying these. I love the idea of plush hanging on the wall and not stuck on my shelf. I don't have more photos to share right now because my deer is in the process of being stuffed. I'll share more and explain more about it later.

HOLLY & JINGLES

Holly and Jingles have shown up on Plush Yous blog. It looks like they all arrived safely. I'm always so nervous when I mail work out. I go crazy at the post office paying extra for insurance and confirmation of delivery. I worry till they get to their destination. Better safe than sorry I guess.
Again these are for sale at Schmancy in Seattle.

PLUSH FOR SALE

I finally got a store up and running on Etsy. It only took me 9 months since I signed up for it. I've had a few people inquire about work for sale. I don't have a lot of work laying around and I don't specifically make plush to sell online. I'm super with work for shows I just can't find time to make more. Though I'd love to, I wish there were two of me. I just happened to have a few older pieces(1.5 yrs old) in my studio that I'm willing to part with. My shelves are getting crowded and I think these guys need a new home. I'll try and upload new work to Etsy whenever I can. I'll definitely sell any work that doesn't sell at gallery shows when I get them back. When I have new work to sell I'll make a post here to let people know. I created a link to the right on my blog for easy access.

GOBBLE GOBBLE!!

Mmmmmm......gelatinous canned cranberry sauce!!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

DECEASED ELVES

I've been working on these elf heads on plaques for about 2 weeks now. These guys will be available at Schmancy in Seattle. They will be in the mail this afternoon. I was working like crazy this last weekend to get them done so I wouldn't have to worry about anything over the Thanksgiving weekend. It will be nice to take a little break. Which is good and bad. Good because it forces me to take a break from my sewing machine, bad because I'll be thinking about everything I could be working on. However I might get to finish the scarf I started about 3 months ago.
So each elf has a little story about their demise. Here's Holy Jolly's story (red headed elf) and Cinnamon's story (blue elf)

Holly Jolly

Holly Jolly loved the donuts,
Powdered, glazed and fried.
She loved to eat them up until
She choked on one and died.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon had the most red head of hair,
And his cheeks, pink and rosy it’s true.
On the ice he would play
‘Till the day it gave way,
And now he’s a pale shade of blue.



Check them out if you're in the area : )

JACKS A WINNER!!!!

Yeah! Thanks to everyone who voted for Jack in the Nightmare catagory for the Holiday Softies Award over at Softies Central. There was a lot of great work and I feel honored.

I've been very busy working on four pieces right now and that is why I haven't posted much in the last week. I want to finish them all before I show you what I've been working on. That way I can explain it all at once. So hopefully by the weekend I can get some good pics and make a post.

I've also been cleaning up my studio and have a few older plush pieces laying around that never sold and need a home. I think I'm going to open up an etsy account and try and sell them. I've had a few emails from people asking if I sold any of my work. Look for this in the next week or two. I'll make a post about it when I have it all set up.

FACE LIFT

I tend to get bored with my website about once a year and decide to change the look of it. Yesterday was that day. It's not drastically different but I did add a column to the right that will post any upcoming events and what not. I decided to change my header and colors here as well so that everything is cohesive in look. So same content, new look. Enjoy!

JACKS CAMPAIGN

So the fun thing people like to do is to send out their plushies on an ad campaign. It's a lot of fun seeing what people will post. You can check mine and everyone elses at the Softies Flickr group. You can check mine out at my Flickr account. More to come.

JACK NOMINATED!!!

Awesome!! Jack is nominated for the Holiday Softie Awards
in the Nightmare Before Christmas Catagory. For those who don't know that catagory means creepy/cute for the holidays – Halloween and Christmas. Please vote for Jack here. You can vote through noon on Tuesday Nov. 13th. He would greatly appreciate it!!!

BOO!

I thought I'd share some pics of our Halloween decorations. This is our favorite holiday and we do a lot of decorating. Every year we add a little more. We hope to one day have the whole front yard filled with tombstones. They are super simple to make. I just used blue insullation board and glued three pieces together to get the thickness I wanted. To cut them and make all the detail I used a heated exacto knife. An awesome tool. Wear a mask when you do this. The fumes from cutting the foam is a little nasty. Can't be good. I also used caulk to fill in seams and add texture then I just painted them with acrylic paint. Due to being pregnant I was unable to make any tombstones this year. I hope to be able to do 2 or 3 next year. I also plan on making a headless horseman out of my dress form for next year. The kids love it and this is the first year we ha d a few cars driving by. It will only get begger from here!!

The pumpkins are the styrafoam kind attatched to pvc pipe painted black. I just tied gauze and rope around them to make them a little creepier. The fencing is just the cheap stuff you can get at the hardware store.
Time to start planning for next year. Only 364 days left!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

JACK ON CUSTOM TOY LAB

Jack was featured over at Custom Toy Lab
Custom Toy Lab is a great website that features designer custom vinyl toys, plush and paper toys. Check them out!!

INTERVIEWED BY PLUSH YOU!

I was super excited when Kristen Rask from Schmancy (Plush You!) contacted me to do an interview. It's quite a long interview with a bunch of photos. I think it turned out great! So if you ever wanted to know more about me just hop on over and read!

PIRATE MONKEY!

So I found a little extra time this week and made another entry for the Holiday Softie Awards. I made one of those cymble playing monkeys but made him a pirate too. Rrrr!

PLUSH YOU! PICS

So I've been searching Flickr and looking at some of the awesome pics from the show and have come across quite a few pics of my stuff. Miss Sockmonkey over at Flickr was nice enough to let me post these pics she took at the show. Also Cutesypoo on Flickr has some great shots. You should totally check them out! It makes me wish I could have gone and met everyone. Maybe next year!

JACK COMPLETE

Jack is done and i'm super happy with him!!!! The box tooka while but it was totally worth it. He stand about 20" high and the box is 6 1/2" square. I have yet to post the pics to the Softies pool but will probably do that tonight or tomorrow.

PLUSH YOU! OPENING TONIGHT!!!

Tonight is the Plush You opening, 5 PM to 9 PM at Schmancy 1932 Second Ave. Seattle, WA 98101. It will be up for one month. You should check it out if you're in the area. It is actually being held at three locations, Schmancy, Fancy & Nancy. All my work is featured at Schmancy. If you do make it to the show I'd love to hear from you. Unfortunately I am unable to attend. So if you happen to take pics I'd love to see them or if you just wanna say hey feel free. ENJOY THE SHOW!!

JACKS BOX

I am still working on my Jack in the Box for the Holiday Softie Awards. I am still working on the box and hope to be done by the end of the weekend. It's taking me a little longer than I anticipated. I made it a little bit more detailed by painting a Halloween scene all the way around the box. I couldn't just make a plain box. The illustrator in me had to paint the blank box. I hope to post it by Sunday.

PUNKIN' JUNKIN

Holli Conger has created a pumpkin decorating contest over at Punkin' Junkin and asked me if I'd like to be a judge the contest. I said yes of course. The idea is to decorate a pumpkin with bits of this and that without carving into it. She asked if I'd like to create one too so I did. What junk I have laying around consists of bits of fabric, buttons, felt, etc. So I bought a tiny pumpkin and came up with this spider. What a great alternative to deorating a pumpkin without spending hours digging out the guts. Plus it lasts longer. This would be a great project for kids who are anxious to decorate pumpkins and they can spend a lot more time working on them. So if you're interested check out Punkin' Junkin.