Pepe & Crochet Pepe

My latest custom critter creation meets his match. Photo courtesy of Pepe’s mom. Aren’t they adorable? Pepe’s mom tells me that she bought a collar for Crochet Pepe that matches real Pepe’s. How fun. I love creating custom critters.

Percy

Allow me to introduce you to the newest pup in my Etsy shop, Percy. Crocheted from jewel tone purple acrylic chenille and soft grey rayon chenille. He’s looking for a permanent home filled with hugs and squeezes. Interested? Click on his picture and be whisked away to Critter Central to find out more about Percy.

New Stuffed Drawings

I’ve recently added a couple of new images to my line of stuffed drawings. After having so much fun drawing my Woodstock tribute guitars for the Plush Team’s Plushstock, I drew a cat playing a guitar on a creamy tan cotton fabric.

I enjoyed that project so much that I kept drawing on the same fabric and finally released an image that had been rolling around in my brain for months. My dog Mickey has developed the habit of laying around the house with his paws crossed, as though he were posing for his graduation picture. But when I try to photograph him, he moves.
So I drew him.

I plan on adding different fabric versions of these drawings to my shop in the coming weeks. These two are currently available there. I hope you enjoy my little stuffed drawings.

Maid of Clay Revisited

You might remember last year when I posted about lusting over Maid of Clay’s fantastic cats. I said I would snag one of her cats and I finally did. Let me introduce you to the cutest grey striped cat rattle on earth.

My cat rattle now sits in a nook by my kitchen sink keeping me company while I clean and cook. And she entertains me as well, all I have to do is pick her up and shake. Felicia, the Maid of Clay herself, provided this photo.

Felicia doesn’t have any cat rattles in the shop right now, but she has lots of other cool kitty stuff. You have to keep an eye over there for rattles, they sell as fast as she makes them. Don’t miss out, be sure to watch her shop for updates

Meow.

Plushstock

August 15, 2009 is the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock festival and we members of the Etsy Plush Street Team are commemorating the event by creating special plush items.

This is my contribution, the peace guitars. I started to draw acoustic guitars, but then started thinking about all the peace and love and flowers of the time and it all merged together. I had two pieces of fabric I liked equally, so I made two guitars, drawing my design onto both pieces and altering a bit between them.

Keep an eye on the Plush Team blog, soon after August 15 you’ll be able to see all the commemorative creations. Enjoy.

Portraits in Yarn

A couple of crochet artists have caught my eye recently, and I know you want to see why. They both create portraits by crocheting. Fascinating.

Jo Hamilton’s portraits are more abstract in color and details, but recognizable as faces none the less. Quite striking, I think. A bit impressionistic as well.

Todd Paschall crochets portraits that are digitized, pixel looking, lots of detail and almost, from a distance, photographic. Based on a grey-scale conversion, the finished crochet portraits are like duo-tone photos, not full color portraiture.  A total different look and feel from Jo Hamilton’s work. Todd offers free patterns and will digitize your photo for you to crochet. What a concept.

While on the subject of crochet artistry,  Xenobia Bailey, artist extraordinaire, has an Etsy shop with fabulous crown-like hats and a blog. Be sure to visit both. Enjoy.

Critter Central

Update: They have decided not to give me a space at August’s market and I was told, all this by email, that  if I was interested, they’d place me on a list to be considered for future markets. I’m not happy, but what can I do? I was there for the first and second market, took a chance on an unknown venture, and now that the crowd has grown and the press has noticed, they don’t want me anymore. Sour grapes, I know. I’m just feeling sorry for myself.

If you have visited my shop on Etsy, you already know that I call it Critter Central. But did you know that Critter Central can be found off line, in person, at White Rock Local Market once a month in Dallas, TX?

Here’s some booth photos from last Saturday. If you are a Facebook member, you can click here and see a bunch of photos from the market on the White Rock Local Market group page.

We all had fun in spite of the 102° heat. The next market is Saturday, August 8. If you live in Dallas or will be here that weekend, try to come by. You’ll be glad you did.

Scribbled Crochet

I have been carrying around this idea in my head for months, I wanted to make crocheted critters that look like they had been scribbled upon. Random, meandering swirls and twists and spirals. Doodle type designs.

After thinking about it for way too long, I finally embarked on creating a dark blue textured yarn cat. I crocheted, stuffed and sewed her up to point where I usually add the facial features. Instead, I crocheted a couple of very long chains with a contrasting color, burnt orange, cotton yarn. I then straight pinned the chains in a scribbled design. When I was satisfied with my scribbling, I hand sewed the chain to the kitty.

Fans

I’ve been playing around on Facebook for several months now, finding old friends, keeping up with what everyone is doing and admit that I find it kind of fun. So I set up a fan page there. For my critter creations. If you’re a member of Facebook, come on by and become a fan if you’d like another way to keep up with my comings and goings. See you there.

Stuffed

Stuffed is a very cool magazine available at most booksellers. Imagine an entire high quality magazine with page after page of fabulous plush creations and you have imagined Stuffed. Volume 2, available now, has not only an article about the Etsy Plush Street Team, but there are also many photos and stories featuring Plush Team members. On page 59 of the article about the Plush Team, my photo of Pablo, my crocheted creation, is included. For that alone you should run out and pick up a copy. Pablo is famous in Italy, you know. Enjoy.