Kid Art Softie

Kid art is amazing. It's whimsical and colorful. It's scribbly and unrestrained. The characters and creatures kids often draw are otherworldly, impossible and beautiful. Kids' minds are bursting with imagination that hasn't yet become bogged down by "reality" and ordinariness. And hopefully they never will be. May we all see the world through the weirdo eyes of children!

I've seen a lot of companies and individuals on the internet that make custom softies based on children's art, and I always think, "Hey, I could do that." My boss showed me a picture that her six-year-old drew of a really cool-looking clown, so I decided to give it a shot. 

I spent a good amount of time giving this artwork some pretty serious analysis. From the dramatic outlining to the sumptuous layering of color, I love everything about it.

I love how it has kind of an "Ernie & Bert" quality to the facial features, but as I started felting the face together, I thought mine looked more Mr. Potato Head. 

Eventually, it came together though. I made it much in the same way I make my little softie dolls, including using pipe cleaners in the arms and legs, though I carefully folded and wrapped the pointed ends of the pipe cleaners so they wouldn't ever poke through the felt (though I'm certain this doll wouldn't pass any kind of toy safety regulation test so, "disclaimer!"). 

Here he is! His name is actually "Cupcake," I found out from the artist's mother. 

Here's the side by side comparison. I think I did a pretty good job capturing the essence of Cupcake, but I'm just the structural engineer who brought the artist and designer's work to soft sculpture life. 

Cupcake in his safe space.

His favorite book, obvi. 

This photo makes me want to cry. It's like, such childlike yearning!

Nap time! The most underrated part of childhood. 

Meta kid art! 

Your Mama the Llama

I'm going to Peru in a week so I've got mountains, Machu Picchu, delicious cuy and practicing mi Espanol on my mind. I wanted to try creating a softie that uses a blanket stitch all the way around it so I chose the llama as my design for its simple shape and Andean ancestry. Also as a child I read that book "Is Your Mama a Llama?" a lot and I feel a special connection with these graceful beasts as my mother is in fact a llama.

First I cut out two llama shapes, and then an underbody shape so that it would have four distinct legs. I have no pattern so I just folded a piece of felt between the legs and cut to make the underbody and it ended up seeming too fat.

I just folded it in half again and sewed a line down the middle to thin it down a bit. 

Next I stitched an eye and nostril on each side of the llama faces. I did a quick practice of my blanket stitch on a scrap piece of felt. For the ears I cut out two roundish diamond ear shapes, folded them in half, and put a small gray stitch to hold them in place. 

Next I started stitching around. I just cut that heart out initially to make the shapes photo cuter, but I ended up liking the way it looked with the gray so I stitched it on his sweet little haunch! 

I stitched and stuffed as I went because I wanted the legs to be nice and full to help him stand up. I'm calling him Blanket after the stitch used and the child of the late Michael Jackson. 

Once completed, my associate Tobi asked if it was a donkey. 

Or a Lochness Monster. You be the judge!

The above photo shows how the underbody piece fit in there. It gave Blanket a nice 3D-ness, but his legs splay out a little bit, which gives him that "Lochness Monster" effect we discussed earlier. 

Self awareness.

I will leave you with this thing I learned while researching this article: a llama mating call is called an "orgle," a buzzing gurgle that the male llama or alpaca makes when he becomes aroused until he finishes the act. Hot. 

Behind Schedule!

 I got behind on my Softie-a-Day November Challenge. In my defense, it's because I was busy preparing for and running a half marathon on Sunday! WOW. I am amazing! Then I had to recover from it by sleeping a whole bunch. Don't worry. I'm sort of back on track. Sort of.  

 Ugh, THIS owl! This owl is my punishment for having a life outside of crafting. I broke a sewing machine needle on it. I'm down to my last machine needle! Furthermore, I don't like the design. Why didn't I give it little felted rosy cheeks instead of that dumb heart belly? One of its little heartstrings came out! I can't even look at it. What a redheaded stepchild of a softie. I'm sorry, owl. It doesn't even have a name. 

Made another one of these and took a weird, blurry photo of it (thanks for nothing, moon mountain setting?). Love the colors, design. Hate my complicated camera. I'm sorry, continuing education digital photography class! 

 

Desperate to have at least two ornaments to show for last night's Goodie Club meeting, I churned out this little guy for Tobs, who very much enjoyed an onion ornament I made a few years ago, and wanted some accompanying produce.   

I hope to close the now three softie gap between my track to my goal and my current batch of softie ornaments. Also, working on an Etsy, and several specific requests. Will advise, followers! 

Sister!

A while ago I made a doll of myself (left). Then I made one of my sister Elise (right). I never photographed the latter...until now!

I needlefelted and embroidered the details, and I put pipe cleaners in the arms and legs because pose-ibility makes a softie 38 percent more fun.
Here is Doll Elise on a stack of books, though some might say this pose is misleading. While Real Elise does enjoy reading, at the moment she's more likely to be surrounded by scholarly articles or books pertaining to her thesis research than, say, anything by Nietzsche or Shakespeare.
This is Elise Doll and Me Doll playing in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, as represented by a Harry Potter pop-up book. You might be wondering why I own a Harry Potter pop-up book. If so, do you know me? Why are you even reading this? STUPEFY!

Handmade Holiday

It's been a while, followers. I've spent my blog hiatus thinking about how to take better pictures of my creations with my new camera (which is very mysterious to me), wondering whether to start completely over with my blog or get a URL, and moving. But the holidays have catapulted me into a crafty wonderland, so I could neglect my little blog no longer.

In the past, I’ve found the holidays abhorrent and completely full of shit. Red paired with green is a visual monstrosity, driving within a 30-mile radius of the mall becomes a rage-inducing disaster and don't even get me started on the music.

But since last year, I changed my mind. Not about red and green or my fourth quarter shopping center boycott, but about celebrating the Christmas season with unbridled zeal. See, the holidays cry out for crafting—be it in DIY décor, handmade gifts or creativity in the kitchen—and boy, do I love crafting.

Here are two cute owl ornaments I sewed and felted for our new tree, which we call Olivia.

This one is an onion ornament. The Onion show commercial kept coming on, and for some reason, that seemed like a good idea for an ornament. I'm not sure about this one. Maybe I'll make some other veggie ornaments to go with it.

Happy Holiday Crafting!

This dashing fellow is Kitty Puppet Prototype. He is pictured here with a banana to illustrate his range of motion and gripping/holding abilities. Most people assume he's a pirate because he has an eye patch. If you saw an old man on the street with an eye patch, would you assume he was a pirate? I think not. Kitty Puppet Prototype is no different. He just only has one eye.

A Melodramatic High School Freshman Learns the Blanket Stitch

The more softies I make, the more I find myself in need of organizational techniques to help with the explosion of tiny tools and instruments necessary for this craft. How better to keep my pins and needles at the ready than by using them to craft a custom pin cushion!

This design arose from my fascination with internal organs and probably the fact that I've been revisiting seasons one and two of Nip/Tuck while I craft. It is also my first attempt at the blanket stitch. I painstakingly needle-felted the design of the heart, but these pictures lose the delicate shading on the valves.

After putting the final stitch in this overstuffed cushion, I was sure of my roaring success. Then I happily stabbed all my pins in and noticed it's a little...emo. Consider this the cliche tortured poetry of the arts and crafts world.

Bet You Want The Goodies

Here in my underwear drawer are some of my as yet most adored creations. They're soft. They're supple. They come in all manner of shapes and colors. I never tire of creating more. Everyone loves them: tits. These goodies are filled with cotton and lentils, for a beanbaggy-type feel.

I don't mind wearing a brassiere sometimes, but I take issue with anyone having the idea that I must. These tits will never be shackled in satin and lace.

My First Softies

Way back in January I became interested in softie-making after finding a book about it at my boyfriend's house. I acquired some felt and went to work creating these fellows, Julio (left) and Jeffe (right).

Julio and Jeffe are characters from the future. They live in a post-nuclear-apocolypse world and they are scientists charged with seeking out the few survivors in the nearly barren wasteland Earth has become. They bring the survivors back to their salvaged research facility and perform tests on them to find out why these humans and other lifeforms have survived. They are the building blocks for the post-apocolyptic continuation of the human species. Julio is a hopeless romantic, an endlessly idealistic warrior for the power of humanity to prevail peacefully. Jeffe is Julio's chubby best friend, a bastion of logic in the face of the absurdity and chaos that surrounds them.

These jovial gentlemen were created from felt and stuffed with pearl barley before I'd developed much skill with a needle and thread or harnassed any concept of craftsmanly design. I love them all the same.