Post-holiday shop update.

I've had some time to take photos and list a bunch of new items in my etsy shop this past weekend, and there will be more on the way as I get organized after my holiday break.

I've listed a trio of furry Fauns, a set of twins, a trio of hipster dudes, and one literary Princess from a land called Oz.  The Fauns were a lot of fun to make, as they were my first foray into using a lot of faux-fur for plush:

Friedrich Faun

Peneolpe and Maximillian Faun

The twins are sold separately, and are dressed in their favorite not-quite matching winter dresses made from snowflake printed cottons:

This trio of Hipster Dudes were a ton of fun to make, and have lovely soft patterned flannel sweaters, fun patterned cotton shirts, all kinds of facial hair, and the obligatory dark denim jeans.

Last but not least we have the lovely Princess Ozma of Oz, who was created for the Wizard of Oz art show at Schmancy Toys in Seattle. I had a great time creating her, and am thinking of doing a whole Oz series… what do you guys think?

Have a great week everyone, and more shop updates and works-progress photos will be on the way over the next little while as I start to gear up for Emerald Con! :D

Welcome 2015!

Phew! What a busy time the past few months have been. The holidays were exciting and busy, and I'm so thankful to all of you who came out to the Winter UCU show in December and said hello and/or bought some plush from me. It was a fantastic experience and I'm hoping to do it again this coming holiday season as well, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, it's only January. :D

Here are a few pics of my booth from the Winter Show, which was my best show of the year. Again, a HUGE thanks to everyone who bought some plush from me in 2014!

So what's new for me in 2015 you ask? Well, I have re-opened my etsy shop after my holiday hiatus, am starting to get myself organized to create a bunch of new work for this year's booth at Emerald City Comic Con; but before I do that, I will be finishing up a commission and then embarking on the very scary project of totally cleaning and re-organizing my studio space! YIKES! Wish me luck and fingers crossed that I don't wind up buried under an avalanche of fabric…

Stay tuned for more updates and project reveals as they come- IF I survive my studio cleaning project, that is. ;D

Happy New Year everyone and hello 2015!

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!