BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

I'm working on a Bride of Frankenstein commission piece right now.



Doodle.



I started with the head first. It's the most detailed and will take the longest.



Crazy eyes!!



Here's the head attached to the armless body. I made the body out of fleece then wrapped strips of ripped cotton fabric around it.

I hope to have the arms, dress and base for her done in the next few days.

NO STUFFING NEEDED

I FINALLY started working on my mosters. I need to get movin'. This is the time of year I start thinking about the end of year shows, Art Unleashed, Halloween and before I know it it will be Christmas. From July till the first part of January things get pretty busy.

So I decided not to stuff these plush. I really wanted them to be square and have straight edges. Stuffing them would not have worked. So I made some boxes out of foam core and wrapped them.

Above pic of box cut out of foam core but not assembled.



All folded up. I didn't even bother glueing it together. I just taped it shut. Not gonna see the tape so it doesn't matter what it looks like.



Outside skin.



Here's a glimpse of what his face will  look like in the end. Everything is just pinned in place.

So far he is super light weight. This will make for cheap mailing, which is GREAT! My stuff tends to be heavy which makes shipping expensive. So once I spend money on shipping and split the sales with the gallery I typically make very little or just break even. So I think I'm onto something with the foam core structure!!

GRETEL HAS A BODY

Well I finished Gretel and I can't wait to start Hansel and see them standing side by side. I just noticed that you can't see her bloomers in this picture. But they are there. The next picture I take I'll make sure to get them in there. This isn't the greatest photo. The shadows are a bit harsh. Hopefully it will warm up a bit amd I can get a good picture outside in natural light. I prefer doing that but when it's 27 outside that's not gonna happen for a while.
I have a slight detour before I can start Hansel. I'm working on a quick piece for a magazine submission for possible publication. I may actually have that done tonight or tomorrow, that's my goal anyway.

BODYLESS HEADS

Well here's the pic of Hansel and Gretels heads. I think they are about 9" wide and they are quite heavy. They are stuffed pretty tight. I have paper templates made of the bodies but haven't yet started those. I got side tracked this weekend and decided I needed to start some sketches of pieces I need to have done this summer and fall. I've been procrastinating doing these. I feel better now that I have something scribbled down. I hate thinking that far out but if I don't anxiety will set in. I've got a total of ten pieces I need to have finished by the end of September plus the new baby. I know I'm crazy.

HANSEL & GRETEL

I feel like I haven't posted in forever and it's only been a week. I've been working on sketches for a couple of plushies I want to start or have worked out before baby arrives. I don't mention that to much on this blog but I've got a little over 3 weeks to go. So I'm rushing to finish up other projects and think about upcoming shows for this summer and fall. I know that seems really far out but I have to think about them now if I want to have work done.
So I've been working on sketches for Hansel and Gretel as well as the witch. I don't have anything finalized for her yet. I loved the sketches so much I took ithem finish and did a tight illustration. I hope to stay as close as possible to the color pallette.
So I started working on her head Tuesday night and I'll probably have that done tonight or tomorrow. My dilema is wether to go further with her or start his head. It might make things more consistant if I just start his head next. I'll try and post a pic of how far I am this weekend. So far it's pretty large. Larger than I planned. I fear that the witch will end up being 3 ft tall if I want them all proportional to each other. If what I invision in my head turns out, I think they'll be pretty cool.

BIRD PICS

I finally finished my bird. With the holidays and not feeling good I barely got it done. But I can relax now. The deer, squirrel and bird will get shipped off this week to the Plushed::art gone soft:: show in Indiana.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

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.