Come and see me this weekend at Urban Craft Uprising!

I've been a busy bee for the past month, sewing away on a bunch of new and holiday designs for the winter Urban Craft Uprising craft show at the Seattle Exhibition Hall near the Space Needle.

Here are just a few of the in-progress shots of the new work I'm creating, so if you are in the Seattle area and looking for unique holiday gifts, come and check out the show- it's got an amazing lineup of artisans with a diverse range of products for sale. Come and support your local makers and small businesses, we'd love to see you there! For a list of vendors, click here.

If you'd like to see the finished product, I'll have pics up on my blog and instagram account next week, or you can come and see me in person at the show! I'm at booth #141, in the row under the stars on the right side as you come in the doors; and next to the wonderful food vendors. Yum! Lucky me! :D Okay, that's all for now- back to sewing!

Oh, and if you are curious about seeing all of the art for the FOE Gallery's Common Threads show, head on over to their website, the work created for the show is terrific!

I'm baaaaaaaack- with news of an upcoming art show. :D

Told you I was trying to be better at this! :D This week's post is all about the upcoming "Common Threads" fiber art show at the FOE Gallery in Northampton, MA which opens this Friday, November 14th! I was really excited to get asked to participate in this show by the ever-amazing Lana Crooks, who curated the show along with the Gallery.

For this show I wanted to try something that I hadn't done too much before, which was create with a bunch of faux fur, layering the two colors of fur to create my own textile for the effect that I wanted. I braved the dreaded "fluff-lung" that comes with cutting/sewing faux fur to create this guy, my first Faun.

Friedrich Faun teaches math by day at the prestigious Woodland Academy; but by night he rocks out with his punk band, Verdant.

I used a variety of fabrics to create Friedrich, including faux-suede for his face, hands and ears, as well as faux-leathers for his horns and hooves. His facial features are made from wool felt, with a hand embroidered mouth.

 His tail coat is made from plaid flannel, with houndstooth flannel lapels and cuffs. His shirt is a funky patterned quilting cotton, and the patches on his jacket elbow are wool felt. 

 I felt that if I made Friedrich's hair out of the same color fur as his legs, that it would get overwhelming, so I chose to use the dark brown fur for his hair, but add in the caramel colored fur for his goatee and for a highlight in his bangs. (Thus the punk-rocking, maths teaching Faun was born. :D)
The reverse applied for the dark brown patches on his legs- I wanted to make sure that the fur on his head was integrated into the design and looked natural.

If you are in the Northampton area, check out all the amazing work that has been created for this terrific show- you won't be disappointed!

I've been a BAAAAAAAAD blogger!

Lately it seems like I can't find enough time to fit in all the things I have to and want to do, which includes spending the time to update my blog regularly. Life has gotten in the way for the past 6-7 months, and I am going to try and remedy that situation starting today! You might notice a change to the blog design- I decided to start fresh and update the look of things.

Since I last posted, I vended at my first Emerald Con, which was a blast and a feast for the eyes! Such people watching! Thanks to everyone who came out and stopped by the booth, we had a terrific time seeing you all.  Here's a quick look at our booth set-up:

It was great seeing our good friends Daniel and Dawna over at Steam Crow for the weekend, as well as meeting some new friends, like Rick and Jeff at the ZOMs booth across from us.

After Emerald Con, I was really excited to be accepted into the summer Urban Craft Uprising craft show at the Seattle Exhibition Hall in July, where I had my own booth for the very first time! It was a change from all the shared booth shows I've done in the past, and it was so much fun. A bit nerve-racking, but fun. I met some great people there, and saw some repeat customers from Emerald Con, which was awesome.

What have I been doing since July, you ask? Well, besides taking a few weeks off for family vacations, I created a piece for the 10th anniversary of Ice Bat for this year's UglyCon art show at Giant Robot in Los Angeles:

and have been doing a bunch of commissioned work, like creating mini hanging versions of my Franchesca and Franklin Frankenstein:

including creating plush for an online classroom video game learning tool (more to come on that later), as well as plush portraits of a San Francisco couple and their dogs:

As well as creating pieces for this year's 10th anniversary PlushYou! art show at Schmancy Toys in Seattle. Meet Peter and Piper Pumpkin:

I'm almost caught up on my plush-making exploits of the past few months, so I'll say good-bye for now, but I will be back next week with more updates and plush-making progress to share! In the meantime, you can always find me over on instagram, where I upload pics of my progress every day or so. See you next week!

Getting ready for Emerald Con!

Wondering where I've been for the past few weeks? Frantically sewing my butt off to prepare for my first ever experience at Emerald Con in Seattle next week! I'm sharing a booth with the awesome Schmancy Toys, so we should have a great time. I know we'll meet some awesome people and see some fantastic cosplay, so it will be a real treat for the people-watcher in me. Who knows, maybe I'll come back from it totally inspired by all the colorful and creative costumes I'll see there, no to mention the cool art that will be on display in Artist's Alley and beyond. :D

Here are just a few pics of some of the new pieces that I am working on for the booth, as well as my new corner display piece that I found at a vintage shop last weekend- I just have to re-paint it and it will be perfect.

Emerald Con runs from March 28th through the 30th, so if you are planning on going, come on over to booth number 2706 and say hello!

Cutest sushi EVER!

I can't say enough about the enormity of the talent of my good friend and fellow plush-maker, Becky of Scrumptious Delight. She is a wizard with fake fur, fleece, vinyl, food, appliances, bicycles- you name it and this lady can make it into plush form. That's why I was SO exited to see that the secret santa swap box that came in the mail for me last week was from her!

Every year the Plush Team does a swap after Christmas, and it's tons of fun seeing what everyone gets. Here's what came in my box:

AMAZING, right?! Sushi is my favorite food, and I was squealing with excitement as I unwrapped the package and saw what was in it. Just look at those faces- and the wasabi and ginger put it totally over the top. Not to mention the perfection of the wood grained fabric for the sushi board. I love it! Thanks a million Becky for an amazing plush piece of art. It's fantastic and will have a home with me forever. :D

Now I just have to figure out the perfect place to display it…

If you want your own piece of amazing Scrumptious Delight plush, or just want to take a look at other pieces that she makes, head on over to her etsy shop, or take a look at her flickr page.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope that Cupid pays you a visit!

I created my version of Cupid for the Plush Team's annual swap, which was Valentine's Day themed. I always wanted to create a Cupid plush, so this seemed like a great time to try. He's made from fleece, with various heart patterned cottons for his tunic, boots and in the inside of his ears. I created the bow and quiver from sparkly white felt, and made some teeny heart arrows as well. Instead of making a cherub-style Cupid, I thought it would be more fun to make him into a teddy bear.

This little guy winged his way off to Nini Cipollini, who is a newer member of the Plush Team. I'll be posting what I got for the swap soon- just as soon as I get some decent photos of the awesomeness that was sent to me from Scrumptious Delight- you're gonna love it- I know that I do! :D

A New Year begins...

A belated Happy New Year! It's been a good start to 2014 so far, with some actual personal time(!) to sit back and relax, read some books and watch some movies, and chart the year ahead for myself and my plush-making. January is always a weird month, as I find myself wanting to create new things, but also struggling with some burn-out and the need to re-charge the creative batteries. That's where the movies and books come in, as well as visiting museums, it gets my creative juices flowing again.

After all that re-charging I'm back at work making some new plush: for a commission, and for the Plush Team traditional January swap, as well as finishing up a late Christmas gift for one of my nieces. This is the Minecraft pillow that I created for my game-obsessed niece, and thankfully she loved it! You can see the process in a few photos:

The pillow is made from fleece, with wool felt accents. It took me while to get all those letters cut out and sewn on, but it was worth it. :)

Right now I'm in the process of creating my piece for the PT swap, which has a Valentine's Day motif; as well as sketching out the pattern for my latest commission- also due by Valentine's Day. More on those two projects later...

2014 is going to be a fun and busy year for me, and my first big event is sharing a booth at Emerald Con in Seattle at the end of March with the awesome Kristen of Schmancy Toys! It's going to be fun but a lot of work getting ready for this show, so I'm starting now. I hope to keep my blog updated more often this year, and that should be easy with the amount of stuff I am planning on creating in the next few months… fingers crossed! ;D

Have a great rest of January, and I'll be back with more updates soon!