Skein and Bones

Yo Gabba Gabba Gang!

2011-05-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

These guys were made for a Yo Gabba Gabba art show at Meltdown Comics in L.A. June 3rd to the 17th. Individual pictures to follow.

j.

Krampusnacht!

2011-01-31T08:15:00.000-08:00

Time to update this here Craft Blog! I've been crocheting more than ever lately (and even doing a little bit of knitting). I'm the Artist of the Day on Teenage Satan's Twitter! Woot!

This is Krampus! He's a mythical demon who travels with good ol' St. Nick -- Krampus punishes all the bad kids by beating them with sticks. I decided he might take the REALLY bad ones away in a sack and eat them.

All these bad kids are gonna make for a delicious stew for Krampus. There probably won't even be leftovers.

j.

Trio Magnus!

2010-06-23T20:09:00.001-07:00

Here are a group of dolls I finished recently for an upcoming art show featuring the super talented artistic trifecta - Trio Magnus. I picked a bunch of characters from among the many canvases the guys created at live art shows. The tallest, the Basket-ball dude (naturally) is about 15inches high. The smallest is this little egg at about 4inches.

Shalla Bal! The little French Bulldog!

2009-12-17T21:49:00.000-08:00

This is my version of a friend's adorable little French Bulldog! I couldn't keep a dog in my current apartment but this little huggable companion doesn't need to be walked or fed. She sits nicely on my couch, doesn't snort too loudly or drop chew toys into my shoes.
I've been refining my "cute" pattern so that the body is much smaller than the head. I think I've got it figured now.

Oh, what's that behind Shalla? So she pooped! What the heck...even her poops are cute!

j.

The Wolverine!

2009-01-25T04:58:00.000-08:00

I made this guy, Wolverine from Marvel Comics X-Men, in record time (about two days). My superhero main body is completely figured out which made things easy. But with this guy I wanted to try a new cartoony body. I had a dream...this is true...I dreamed a whole toy store, filled with amazing new toys that when I awoke I was disappointed to realize were not real! I sketched as many of the toys as I could remember (notepad by the bed, kids, is essential!!)

The little drawing of Wolverine in costume is the sketch I made based on the dream Wolverine. He was in his Byrne era costume but with the stripes on his side from the blue and yellow costume. I don't know my Wolverine history but I don't think he ever mixed the two eras in costume form. Anyway, once I started sketching my plans I realized that what I really wanted to make was not the costumed Wolverine at all. What I wanted was a jeans and t-shirt Wolvie! Just the casual cool Logan character seen in more leisurely scenes.
So off came the gloves and boots. This made it a whole lot easier for color as well. I don't know that I've got the yarn for Wolverine's Brownish-red/tan-yellow costume. But I do have deep maroon and grey-blue yarn! I also sketched up a profile of Wolverine's head in order to figure out the parts I'd neet to make to get the right shape. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a motto I always try to follow in my work (drawing and crochet). Busying something up almost never turns out well. In my past crochet projects I've tried to make the head shape by increasing and decreasing as I go around the head. Bah! Too much trouble.

Wolverine before hair! You can sort of make out that I made a long tube for his head and neck. Just straight up stitching until it felt like the right length. Then I made a chin, again based on scale of everything and my profile sketch, until it looked right. Add ears and nose which are just flat stitched and curled or folded into the right shapes. Pop on some eyes and Bob's your uncle.

Here's the completed Wolverine by the light of day! The body is exactly the same as my generic Superhero body pattern, the arms are almost the same. I think I increased the diameter of all segments for cartooniness and Popeye style forearms. I returned to mitten hands for this guy because it just seemed to call for a simpler approach (K.I.S.S.)
You will notice two things are missing - arm hair and claws. Claws are coming. Arm hair I tried in several different ways but nothing looked right. Once I get it figured out I'll post new pictures with the arm hair added.

Here's Wolverine's butt! You can see that he's sturdy enough to actually stand on his own. Most of the male hero dolls are able to. The girls can't at all because I give them such tiny feet.
"You lookin' at me, bub?"

Yarn!
j.

Metamorpho! The Element Man!

2009-01-19T03:01:00.000-08:00

Pretty much my favouritest of all the superheroes is Metamorpho, due in large part to his artist Ramona Fradon. I love Ramona's art! I tried to capture the way she drew his face but it was difficult to recreate with yarn. For the most part I like how it all turned out...only his mouth still sticks in my craw as being "off". Ramona had a very distinct way of drawing Rex Mason's mouth and I didn't get it with yarn.

Ah well...at least I've now got my own Metamorpho doll to cuddle up with!

best,

Knitted Landscapes!

2009-01-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

Check out a few links that were pointed out to me by Mr. Thomas Foxley. The first is a blog post about Urban Knitting (when my Grandma knits is it Sub-urban knitting? Is it simply where the knitter lives that dictates urbanity or the placement of the knitting in a city street that makes it so?) Either way the knitted swatches make for some pretty graffiti.

Next is a site dedicated to submitted photos of Knitted Landscaping. I love the idea of "planting" a knitted flower, or mushroom randomly in a park. Imagine the confusion as someone sees it and then double-takes when they realize it's not actually a real flower. I want to join in!

best,

Christmas Presents!

2009-01-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

This year I made a few Amigurumis for some special people! Catwoman and her cats (Ebony and Ivory? Midnight and Snowy? Blacky and Whitey?) based on the Darwyn Cooke Catwoman was made for... Darwyn and his gal, Marsha. Catwoman's whip is her belt and it can be removed for capturing criminals.

Spidey was made for the brilliant and wonderful Cal Johnston of Strange Adventures. If you're ever in Halifax with a hankerin' for some comic bookin' go to Strange Adventures. Cal and the kids who work there are incredibly friendly and they know their stuff.

p.s. I also made one for myself because I love Spidey.

Batman was made for Rachelle of Living Between Wednesdays. Check out Rachell's blog for her reaction to the doll. I'm not entirely happy with Batman's bat-symbol but it was the best I could do. I thought stitching the bat would be easier than it was.

Princess Christi of Princess Planet was made for my good friend Brian. He's also a fan of sock monkeys so I threw one in as a leg humper so Princess Christi wouldn't get lonely.

Mother Mary, Joseph and Baby were made for my Grandma. She's the only member of my family to get a crochet doll for Christmas. These were made small and stitched all-together because Grandma hasn't got much room in her apartment. I know it's not historically accurate for Baby Jesus to have a pacifier but, c'mon, it's adorable! Right?

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.

Doom Patrol! Robot Man and Elastigirl!

2008-12-01T03:59:00.000-08:00

Robot Man is one of my favourite comic book heroes. I don't remember when I first saw the old Bruno Premiani Doom Patrol but I know it was love at first sight. There's just something about the cast of characters that I love. So with Robot Man I finalized my Hero body. I kinda find it's best to create a new pattern with a character who has very little body detail...that way when you pull out stitches in an unsatisfactory shape it's all the same colour yarn.

Like Doop, I couldn't resist showing off Robot Man's brain. His is pink, though, because it's all that's left of race car driver, and human, Cliff Steele.

Cliff welcomes Rita Farr to the fold. Welcome, sister Rita. Elastigirl is my Female Hero body test subject. There are still some kinks to work out with her. For one thing the arms are too long...not a failing on a character called Elastigirl, but something I'll want to fix in later Yarn Sculptures.

The only thing I'd like to redo with Rita is her face. She's a little too harsh looking. Like the headmistress of a school. She looks like Eve Arden or Agnes Moorehead. Classic beauties in their own way but not the bright eyed beauty I think Rita should be.

"Hello, sailor", says Rita as she reclines in her boudoir.

Oh yeah, check out the newest issue of Wizard Magazine issue #207 for an article on yours truly. It's all about my little hobby and showcases my early superhero Yarn Sculptures (which is my new name for these things...it's so much more "arty" than calling them "dolls"!

best,

I don't own these...

2008-11-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

My attempt at a Godzilla doll. Something is lost, to me, when you don't show Godzilla's teeth. If I were to make another I would try to create an open mouth with rows of fangs and a cute little pink tongue. As it is I wanted a cute Godzilla...and added teeth only made him look like a doofus.

I love/hate Elmo. He's really just too adorable to truly dislike. On the other hand the media saturation coupled with the ENDLESS attempts to re-create the Tickle-Me-Elmo phenomenon make me cringe at the sight of him. On the other Other hand, my mom loves Elmo. So for Mother's day I made her my very own Cuddle-Me-Elmo. He doesn't talk or dance or sing or poop...he just sits and smiles.

And occassionally drinks. Can you blame him? He's probably sick of himself, too!

Doop!

2008-11-09T10:20:00.000-08:00

All right, this guy is probably one of my favourites ever! Somewhere online I saw someone's Frankenstein creation with an exposable brain. I'd started sketching a Doop doll and just knew that he'd have to have a full on removable blue brain. I don't know why his brain is blue. I don't think his brain is blue in any of the comic books. But MY Doop's brain is blue :)

I made the initial Doop for myself, he being one of my favourite of the newest characters to come along in the past few years. The second Doop was made for the Doc Allred because he wouldn't exist without the brilliance of Mike (and, I'm sure, Peter Milligan too). And the third went to Darwyn Cooke because he and I worked together on the Wolverine/Doop mini-series. I absolutely love the way Darwyn drew Doop.

Construction-wise this was the first character to get fingers. Until now everyone had mitten hands.

Amazing Sea Monkeys! Watch them Grow!

2008-11-09T10:10:00.001-08:00

Once I'd made the Cute pattern I got a jones on to make an adorable Sea Monkey! Based on the characters you'd see in comic book ads, I wanted a fleshy pink skin, with the weird tentacles and cute little tail. I also looked up brine shrimp (which is what sea monkeys are) and learned that they actually have three eyes. The first eye ceases to function when the other eyes fully develop. To make my Sea Monkey different from the comic book ad, and because I love multiple eyes on things, I added the third eye. This is my initial sketch for the Sea Monkey. I wanted a real Harvey comics (Hot Stuff, Casper and Richie Rich) shape to him.

I love how this guy turned out. His eyes felt a little bulgey so I made a second one with less bulging eyes. Also it was a good excuse to have another little Sea Monkey in my collection. I call them Sherman and Shelby.

Little Froggies and a Wolf!

2008-11-09T10:01:00.000-08:00

I made these little guys for friends who were expecting twins. Their Baby Shower list include a few things with a frog theme so I made up this little pattern. Pretty simple. What I like most about these guys is the webbed feet gave me a new way to make shaped appendages. Nothing ground breaking but new methods are always helpful for future characters.

I made this little guy for my dad who likes Wolves. In the end he didn't look much like a wolf cub, really. He at least looks like he belongs in the dog family, I think. It'd make a great fox if he were made out of red-brown yarn.

Villainous Heroes!

2008-11-09T09:54:00.000-08:00

Doom based on my "cute" pattern where cute = big head and stubby limbs. Second to Kalibak in detail. The eyes had to be made of felt because crocheted parts get too thick when layered. The hood and cape are knitted. I'm not all that quick with my knitting so it took a while to make even this small cloak.

My second attempt at creating a Hero body...this time larger than Orion. Namor stands a little under 18 inches. I like how he turned out but in the end decided that the body was just too big. More detailed heroes would take too long to make...this is supposed to be a hobby, after all, not a full time job :)

Early Cute Animals!

2008-11-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

Basic character with simple ball head and tube legs. He's pretty clumsily made but he was one of the first.

The Lion is based on a pattern found in the Amigurumi book from which I learned how to make these critters. The black cat is a modified version of the lion.

j.

Kirby's New Gods!

2008-11-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Kalibak was made shortly after Orion. He has so far been the most detailed character and therefore took the longest to make. I aimed for the Kirby Kalibak as seen in the early issues of the New Gods...before he started carrying around his power staff. The sash and gun belt are knitted with crochet elements.

He kind of looks a little like a Klingon.

One of my first Hero characters was Kirby's Orion. Kirby's characters fit perfectly in the world of rounded Amigurumi. However, you do lose the agressive toughness of a Kirby hero when you make him out of yarn.

This is the early Hero body. The later guys are sturdier and thicker around the waist and ankles. Early Hero also has "mitten" hands.

Sock Monkeys!

2008-11-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

He loves to sit in your hand! He fits in a teacup! His favourite food is lollipops!

Adopt them all!

Barbapapas!

2008-11-09T09:15:00.000-08:00

Two new members of the Barbapapa family...Barbalbino and Barbaboney. I added arms to Barbaboney but I don't actually like them. Eventually I plan on stitching them behind his back and put a flower arrangement or skull in his hands.

Cro-chet-Magnon Man and Woman!

2008-11-09T09:11:00.000-08:00

One of my first non-pattern projects. Sorta made 'em up as I went along.