More Plushcatures

I had a commission from my excellent friend and fellow artist Danamarie of greenstar studio to create custom plush of herself, her husband AJ, and their most adorable dog, Mason. I took me quite awhile and lots of sketches (just some of them posted here) before I was confident enough to go ahead and make them into plush.




There was a little added pressure (in a good way) for them to be successful, since Dana had asked me to make them for their 1st wedding anniversary. GULP! It took me down to the wire (and a little bit over) to get them done and sent off to them, but they made it. Hooray! Since both Dana and her husband are keen recyclers of anything and everything that can be recycled, I used repurposed jeans and t-shirts as well as scraps of leftover fleece to make their plushcatures as authentically them as possible. To see Dana's family's reaction to the plush, head on over to her blog, where she has photos of the plush with the real thing. :)
To see more photos of the finished plush, check out my flickr page.

If you are interested in having me make plush of yourself or someone you love, send me a request through my etsy store.

Meet the Snow Angels

These are my plush for the Luv-able and Hug-able show that starts December 3rd at gallery hanahou in NYC.
The Snow Angels are responsible for getting everyone excited for winter and winter activities. They fly around invisibly and whisper suggestions for winter fun in our ears. The large plush are around 8-10 inches high, while the little ones are around 5-7 inches high. I had a ton of fun making these guys and incorporating my love of winter into them. I had never made anything this small before, so that was a good creative challenge. I also used minky fabric for the first time and I LOVE how soft and cuddly it is.
Camille and Josie Snow Angel are the ones who inspire us to drink hot chocolate on a cold day, or go ice skating with friends.
Paulie, Charlie, and Freddie get us to go and build huge snowmen, or go tobogganing, or start epic snow ball fights. :D
I think I made these out of wishful thinking about winter. We definitely won't be having any snowball fights here in California this Christmas! Although we do have ice skating, and hot chocolate. :)
For more pictures, head on over to my flickr page.

These guys are on a trip to NYC today.

Lucky plush! I'd love to be in New York again. What an amazing and inspiring city to visit. I sent the plush that goes with these tags off to gallery hanahou, for the 3rd annual Luv-able Hug-able Show at the gallery in December. One more deadline crossed off the list. :) I will post more pictures of the actual plush once I have a few moments to spare. I am in the middle of major crunch time, so this post is necessarily brief. If you are in the New York City area this December or January, go and check out the show, the artist list is awesome- and the plush is guaranteed to make you smile. Have a great weekend everyone!! :D



Luv-able and Hug-able
New 2009 theme: medium and mini!

December 3 - January 9
Opening party: Dec 3, 6-9 pm RSVP info@galleryhanahou.com

gallery hanahou / 611 Broadway, Suite 730, NYC / galleryhanahou.com
extended holiday hours Mon-Sat: 12 - 6 pm

A proper workspace at last. YAY!

I've been meaning to take these pictures for awhile. I thought I'd better take some while it is still somewhat tidy and organized! I am so excited to actually have a real sewing table at last!! Thanks to my generous mother-in-law I am now the proud owner of her old table, which my father-in-law built for her 30 years ago. (She upgraded to the amazing Pfaff creative vision 4.0 mammoth embroidery machine, and it wouldn't fit in her old table.) Lucky for me! :) I had so much fun filling up the cubbies and compartments with all my sewing paraphernalia and reorganizing all my sewing mess, which was desperately needed- and just in time for all the holiday madness. I also haven't had time to use my new pfaff embellishing machine- I'm waiting for some "down time" to play around with it and all my felt, but that could be awhile. ;)
I still get giddy whenever I look at my "new" table, and so far it has made my sewing life a lot easier, which is awesome. Happy sewing is good sewing. :)

Got wings?

Not "Wings" as in the band, or "wings" as in buffalo, but wings as in flying. :D
More WIP pictures. I'm working on my pieces for the Luv-able Hug-able Show at Gallery Hanahou in December, and these little pieces go with that. They are a time consuming but integral part of my plush designs for the show, so what can I do? I love the feel of minky- it's SOOO soft and cuddly, but it creates an ungodly amount of fluff that gets everywhere- including your nose, lungs and eyes. It's just one of the occupational hazards of being addicted to plush making. The end result is worth all the irritation though... I hope. ;)

hello again! :D

Well, look who's finally updating her blog! :) I've been super busy since I got back from Seattle last week, and I haven't had the time to post anything. I decided to finally make time today to give you a sneak peek of the projects I'm working on for upcoming shows. These are just a few of the plush that I'm currently working on. Hmmmm... now what could they be, I wonder? ;)
I have deadlines rapidly approaching, so it's back to the sewing machine for me. Have a great weekend everyone.

Plush You! weekend in Seattle

Wow, what a weekend of amazing plush art!! I am blown away by all the work at Plush You! It was so wonderful to see it all in person, and as usual I did end up buying a few pieces. Not as many as I wanted, or else I would have come home with the whole show! That's just not happening, to my great disappointment. :) I will post photos of my purchases as soon as they arrive home from Seattle. Can't wait!! Hooray for plush collecting, it just makes me happy. And inspired. And wanting more. ;)
I had a blast meeting some great plush people, and fun hanging out with the members of the Plush Team who made the trip out. These are just a few of the MANY, MANY photos that I took at Schmancy, the Anne Bonney, and Bluebottle Gallery. I wish that I had space to feature everything that I saw here, but that would be the mother of all blog posts. :D
To see more photos, head on over to my flickr page, where I have the pictures of the Anne Bonney and Bluebottle venues up. Schmancy photos will hopefully be up by tomorrow afternoon. Happy looking!

Off to Plush You!

Meet "Pike Place Pete" MacDougall and Mr. Tully Buckstar, both of whom will be showing at this year's Plush You! show. The show opens at Schmancy Toys in Seattle this friday at 5pm. If you want to know more about the show, head on over to the amazing Kristen's plush show blog.

"Pike Place Pete" works at Seattle's famous Fish Market, home of the flying fish. His buddy Tully loves to grab his morning coffee and drink it with Pete at the market, before heading on his way to work. Tully is obsessed with coffee, and considers the day wasted if he hasn't had at least 6 cups. He's happy to live in a city like Seattle that has so many great coffee shops. To see more pics of Tully and Pete, head on over to my flickr page.

I am lucky enough to be able to attend the show this year, and I am really looking forward to seeing and meeting tons of fantastic plush artists in person. This coming weekend is like a plush nirvana- there will be plush of all sorts in 5 different shops in Seattle on both friday and saturday nights, so if you are in the area, please come and check it out!! I can't NOT shop for new plush for my collection- so I hope I don't totally blow my budget, this is going to be dangerously fun. ;)
Enjoy your week everybody.