I mentioned Australian toy artist Florence Forrest before. But I couldn’t help needing to mention her fabulous folk art toys. The beautiful Pimmie Parrots, inspired by mexican folk art and coastal birds which is a project uniting our imaginative lives to our environment.
More of Florences work can be found at the umbrella collective, the lil and tom project, and work in progress images can be seen at her flickr stream.
Gorgeous distinguished elegant egg, at while she naps.
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall :
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall :
All the kings horses and all the kings men :
couldn’t put Humpty together again.
[Humpty Dumpty was the name of a canon in the 1640's in England, that fell when the brick wall it was on collapsed and it could not be resurrected by the army. Read all about it at wikipedia.]
One of my favorite crafts topics are the toys and paper things. For that reason, i love this papertoy from Eloisa López. Download here(the face) and here(the body).
De toda la temática “craft”, lo que más me gusta son los muñecos y las cosas de papel. Por esta razón me gustó tanto descubrir esta muñeca de papel de Eloisa López. Además, puedes bajarla y formarla si pinchas aquí (cara) y aquí (el cuerpo).
make this fabulous funny hat for yourself or a friend
Advice from Cassi of Bella dia.
“One thing that I’ve learned with sewing is that an iron is your best friend. If something needs hemming or blind stitching I always iron the seam first so I have a nice straight fold to work with. Also when I’m making bags, I just press the heck out of them - it really helps to give it a professional look. Another huge helper is interfacing; I wasn’t familiar with using it when I first started sewing but as I got more experience I could really see what a huge difference it made in my finished pieces. Experiment with a variety of weights and you’ll see how much interfacing can change the appearance of your project and it will also give fragile and thin fabrics the support they need.”
read the rest of this interview with Cassi by Natalie Zee over at Make.
Camilla wrote in with a how-to make one of her quirky, gorgeous original characters. Thank you Camilla.
I will try to guide you in how to do one of my crochet characters without making a pattern. I hope it will work. Once you’ve understood the basic they are so easy to make. I will have to start with admitting I’m not a very good crocheter, I’m good at undo, redo, undo and redo. And maybe I have a good eye for what’s cute.
The best part is to choose some wonderful yarn. A smooth ordinary knitting yarn for the face, a thicker and maybe furry yarn for the rest of the head and the body, and last a thick but not furry yarn for some trousers.
Often I crochet the whole creature in Slip Stiches, but if your “body yarn” is very thick or very furry you can change it to ordinary Single crochet. I used the hooks I had at home, a 3,5 mm for the thinner yarn (face) and 6 mm for the thicker yarn (body, head). It’s important that it gets “tight”, that you can’t see the filling in the end.
Undo, redo, undo, redo.
I always start with the head. The part of the head you are crocheting first is the nose. Start with 3 Chain Stiches, join in the first chain with a Slip Stich. Crochet 2 Slip Stiches in each chain in about 2 rounds (increase). You don’t have to think about the rounds so much. Then you start to increase, or not, to shape the nose. Undo, redo :)
You’ll soon get the hang of it.
After some crocheting the nose turns into the face. If you’ll like a flat face you’ll have to increase a lot from the start. If you’ll like the face to be more pointy, you’ll have to increase slowly. When the face is finished you’ll make one last round without increasing.
When you increase (or decrease) try to make it evenly spaced.
Change yarn to the thicker yarn, but use the same hook the first round. You’ll have to decrease a lot (make it evenly spread) this first yarn with thicker yarn, to keep the shape. Change to the bigger hook. Probably you’ll have to do some decreasing this round to, but not to
much. Now you’ll just have to crochet along for a while.
Now you start to decrease, slowly the first rounds, more after some rounds. Before you’ve crochet it all you’ll have to attache the eyes and fill the head. Fasten off.
Then I usually contiues with the body. It’s just to crochet in the same way as the head but you use the thicker yarn and the bigger hook from the beginning. Now you’ll just have to find the shape.
Leave it open and save a sewing length.
The proportion between the head and the body is important.
Fill the body and sew the head on.
Now we will make the ears. Experiment with different shapes. The round “bear” ear is crocheted as the beginning of the face, with a lot of
increasing to make it flat. The “bunny” ears is made like this - you increase the first rounds then you crochet along to as long ears as you wish. Fasten off and save a sewing length. Sew the ears on to the head. Try different placement to get the look you want. I tend to place mine almost on the behind of the head.
Arms and legs - Crochet like the round ears. Like medallions. Using the thinner yarn and the smaller hook. When you’ve done a medallion, change to the thicker yarn, still using the smaller hook. Crochet one Slip Stich in every chain, first round. Second round, change to the bigger hook. Decrease every two stiches all way round. After that just crochet along until you have a arm or a leg as long or short as you wish. Fasten off and save a sewing length.
Attach them to the body. The legs so that your creature can sit up straight.
Make your nose, maybe a mouth and why not some eyebrows. TA DA!
Good luck!
Camilla
Recently i have descovered this great work in felt. Paula Mantelli(Mondopanno) explains:”The little baskets come out of the board, like little pockets, to fit the creatures in there.When the toys “are not”, it’s just a balloon board. After playing with them, it’s where they’re keeped.Each toy has a different little rattle inside.”
More details here.
Recientemente he descubierto esta estupendo trabajo en fieltro. Paola Mantelli(Mondopanno) nos explica :”As cestinhas “saem” do quadro, formando uns bolsos, pra encaixar as criaturas aí.
Quando os bonequinhos “não estão”, ele é só um quadro de balões. Depois de brincar, é onde eles são guardados.Cada boneco tem um chocalhinho diferente dentro.”
Más detalles aquí.
Dunno about you guys but I’m looking forward to the first issue of Craft due out in Fall 2006. I LOVE that they have various subscription choices and that for us Int’l peeps you can buy a pdf download subscription. EXCELLENT, my birthday’s soon, friends, you hearing this! ;)
Craft have teamed up with Craftster for a rockin’ competition.
In honor of the new magazine CRAFT, the theme for this challenge is Zombies & Robots & Bears…Oh My! CRAFT hits the newsstands early in October 2006. In the first issue of the magazine is a beautiful article called Zombies & Robots & Bears…Oh My! Your challenge is to craft up a butt-kickin’ zombie, robot or bear themed craft in any medium you want. Paper? Fiber-based? Beaded? With or without the aid of a real zombie, robot or bear? The details are totally up to you!
Full details over here at Craftster. Quick, you’ve got until 1-5 October to post your entry.
Via Craft blog.
Up for another challenge? September’s Month of Softies theme is “Same Body, Different Twist”. I like this idea and it will be interesting to see everyone’s interpretation.
So here’s the deal: everyone will use the same doll body pattern and from there make the doll completely their own. Make it humanoid. Make it a monster. Make it an animal. Paint it, stitch it, embellish it however you see fit. Go crazy! Or not.
Link to pattern.
Little red riding hood - the latest creation by Mimi - finished and in progress, check it out…
mimi kirchner is truly a genius with cloth and stuffing and applique - and she has a new applique method which she overheard in a shop.
You have your chosen fabric and then something like a very light not iron-on interfacing for backing. I had some used dryer sheets and thats what I used- they worked perfectly. You put your fabric face down on the backing. You sew the outline of your shape. Clip the curves and trim the seam. Cut a slit in the backing. Turn the little shape right-side out. Now, all your edges are turned in for you- iron it flat. Sew the shape in place.
The great annual Plush You show at Fancy, Schmancy and Pants in Seattle isn’t until October 6th, but there are lots of goings on over at the Plush You blog to tide us over. First of all, there’s a great, huge Flickr group where you can preview the submissions. Lots of cool creatures there!
Also on the Plush You blog you can preview artists’ work, and also check out some free tutorials that have been posted, like these for a spider or some steiner dolls.
Hi! My name is Anabel Gª-Plata, and i´m from Seville, south of Spain. At university I specialized in different topics: history of art, documentation and librarianship. At this moment, I work as a teacher. My great passion, together with literature, is art in general: classic painting, architecture, ceramics… But specially textile art and everything handcrafted.
In whip up i´m going to be a bridge between the English-speaking craft culture and the Spanish/Portuguese-speaking community. Topics as traditional craft, artists and designers and blogs… will be my weekly posts.
For my first post i want to write about handmade/artistic dolls.There are a grand variety of them, from the most classical to the most contemporary.But one of my favorite are the Lolitas. With fabric, needle and thread the ingenious fashion designer surprise us with her infinitive ideas.
Mª del Mar, spanish designer, is the creator of Lolitas. It began with a gift for the designer´s nephew, and this project has been growing and the Lolitas products (brooches, bags, T-shirts) become more and more original every time: you can make a Lolita like you!
Other interesting links
On the other hand, I´m sure you kow the wonderful dolls of Rosa or Hilda, but there are a big world of handmade bonecas (dolls) on the portuguese-blogs and other sites: Madame trapo, Matilde Beldroega, Retrosaria dos Sonhos, Mundo imaginário, Lizette Greco, Chiscol, sebastiãopretocarvão, Cor de Mar, Made with love…
“When I found myself on my feet, I looked about me, and must confess I never beheld a more entertaining prospect. The country around appeared like a continued garden, and the enclosed fields, which were generally forty feet square, resembled so many beds of flowers.” - when Gulliver looked over the tiny land around him. Gulliver’s Travels
why are miniature things so appealing?
i love miniatures, maybe too much. they make me feel greedy, and covetous. i want to have them and keep them. my precious… there is something about tiny things which invokes voyeurism, secrecy, nostalgia- some little interiors you can peek your eye into, imagining yourself there. i spent ages when i was little dreaming in miniature spaces.
nowadays, i’m such a weirdo, i buy re-ment miniatures in the combini (convenience store) in japan, and i bring them home and greedily open the package, then hide the fact that i bought them because i feel guilty i spent money on something so useless.
miniatures have always been fascinating, but hard-to-get. as small as they are, they are always expensive because of the time and effort that goes into them. just think of the damage one artist did to her eyes making miniature crocheted items- check out these pics of sage trytle’s miniature crocheted afghans which were featured here on whip-up.
the club little house is for people who make scale miniatures. it was invented by amy powers at inspire co. and there’s only 12 people allowed in each swap… so that makes me feel even more covetous. i first heard about it from posie gets cosy, who recently finished her cute miniature cabinets complete with plates.
i love to look at the pretty doll houses, like this one from all sorts renovated in march, and the one at turkey feather’s site. the blog at About.com also has consistently good posts on miniatures. however, i’ve got something too intensely practical that would probably not allow me to actually own and decorate a dollhouse, without at least having a daughter to ‘cover’ for me.
fake it!
if you can’t make miniatures, you can always fake it! on flickr, there is a trend of making and faking miniature scenes. with the judicious use of the blur tools in photoshop, they are acheiving some fascinating images. in this tutorial, a photographer shows how to make your own photos looks like minis: miniature toy effect.
the flickr community may be weary of this trend, but i haven’t even started yet. i want everything in miniature!
over at bobolina are wonderful.
Mimi makes the most adorable dolls, I have showcased them here before, but her latest batch of fat cats and robots are too good to pass up.
Ihanna’s ironed on face doll
planeta hilda’s doll lineup
treefall design’s patchwork lamp cover
I love to sift through my bloglines checking out crafty goodness in blogland. Do you have a cool link to send in, an idea, a tutorial or just something fantastic that you have made or have seen somewhere? please email me.
Lovely pillow dolls cropping up all over lately, in embroidery, silkscreen, and other media.
crafty mcgee: embroidered April showers and deer
orangeyouglad on Craftster: screen-printed cat pillows with tutorial
Jess Hutch (from whom I stole this post’s title): embroidered Alice, dolly, kitten in mittens, and chihuahua
Tania: screen-printed birds and dolls
Loosetooth: painted and printed pillow dolls, cowgirl, and hedgehogs+squirrels (scroll down)
Wee Wonderfuls: embroidered brunette and redhead
Artist and maker Wendy Crabb from green girl art makes soft robots amongst other things.
She says of her work “Inspiration came from necessity“. She signed up for plush rush with no idea of what she was going to make or how to make it. Without a sewing machine she needed to use materials that would not fray. So she used some wool felt quarters that she found at weeks dye works.
“I kept circling around what I was going to do and then I drew a really tiny sketch – a funny robot. … From there it just clicked. I had the beginnings of an idea. I drew these wonky patterns on some brown paper and I just started cutting fabric and sewing the pieces together. My first guy was really big about 20 inches tall sitting – but I never actually measured him. … I actually found this little scrap of paper the other day I had written about two years ago “I want to create soft toys”. My brain works in a round about way.”
Lately Wendy has been making soft sea creatures from recycled painted fabric, which has been washed and washed until soft and colour fast. This fabric comes from cut down backdrops which sometimes leaves some amazing scraps. “I’ll make as many creatures as possible and then once the fabric is gone…well then I’ll try and scavange more from the next beautiful backdrop we make.”
hop skip jump is an Adelaide mother and artist and toy maker and general amazingly talented person with excellent sewing and crafty skills.
What I love most is the adorable clothes, the fabric choices, the sense of style, the facial expression - oh everything…
See for yourself.
Green girl art makes delightfully fun soft robot creations. I particularly love the robot in leiderhosen.
most people will be familiar with Jesses knitted robots.
cakeyvoice and her dawn of the knitted dead are just hilarious.
bloody bunnys drillobots are pretty damn cool
wee wonderfuls makes some great softies - these fembots are amongst my faves.
monster crochet makes crazy creatures - one of my faves is the scorpian queen - definitie sci-fi feel to this one.
Jäke Henzler (blog boy knits world) and his knitted yoda - love the simplicity of these
