craft

Mimi Kirchner’s Robots

Posted by hil

RobotsYou know, if I was a scriptwriter, or puppetry director or TV producer, I would seriously be thinking about a production based around Mimi Kirchner‘s wool dolls. Mimi’s latest are these fabulous robots. Can’t you imagine them as the main characters in a show? Could they be some strange new manifestation of the couple in American Gothic? ;-)

Alternatively, put them together with Mimi’s big men, grandmas, fat fairies and others, and I can see them all becoming part of a whole imaginary world that has its own original style and aesthetic.

Deep sea lobster soft toy

Posted by hil

Tastydorsal

I’m impressed with mediatinker‘s kiwa hirsuta lobster soft toy, made very soon after the discovery of the deep sea species. The detailed pattern and instructions are released on a creative commons license.

(via whip up)

Moose on the Loose: Flip top thumbs and other goodies!

Posted by hil

 

fliptop

Of ‘full, woolly, activity-unfriendly thumbs’ in knitted mittens, Tanya Ewing at Moose on the Loose says ‘Quite frankly I won’t use them.’ Quite right! Tanya has the all-important recipe for how to put a flip top in your thumb on her page of knitting patterns, Homegrown recipes for woolly items, which also includes a simple earflap hat, a less pointy hat, and earflaps in stocking stitch. I love the little ears on this hat!

Tanya’s site also has a Kiwi-Aussie dictionary, some great scenic photos (she likes clouds) and a cool collection of sign photos, and, my favourite amalgam of both: Tim almost taken by a glacial surge wave at Fox Glacier. She is also the coolest ironing extremist I’ve ever seen.

Updated links 2015

Oona Tikkaoja’s sculptures

Posted by hil

oona

I love the look of the sculptures that the Finnish visual artist Oona Tikkaoja makes, in particular her wolf creature (fourth pic along) and lizard robot killer. They are soft sculpture.

I also think her wooden horses are spectacular. They are beautifully jointed, and immediately conjure up thoughts of the mythical Trojan Horse. Take a look at the photo showing the construction, with all the clamps!

(via Extreme Craft)

Updated links 2015

Month of Softies: Halloween Goblin

Posted by hil

This scrawny but fierce little goblin is my submission for Loobylu’s October Month of Softies theme, “All Hallow’s Hysteria”. He’s only about 5 inches tall, and made on the run.

Goblin

Letting it rip!

Posted by hil

BookRebound Designs takes old books and turns them into bags. I’m not a handbag user, so in a practical sense they are lost on me, but they are really cool. I took a spin past a couple of the op shops the other day, and came home with a few books to experiment with. Maybe I can make a few Christmas presents this year?

Strange how it feels naughty to rip the pages out, even for books I don’t feel any relationship with. I found four Reader’s Digest condensed book volumes with pretty covers that I don’t feel too bad about remixing. I think they must be in the same series as this one.

I doubt I could have done it to this one. I did get a Dean & Son abridged Pride and Prejudice, with an amusing gaudy cover, but I escape any dilemma because its spine is too thin.

Did you ever do that thing of cutting a secret compartment in the pages of a book? I remember it taking a lot of grunt to cut through all the pages!

Quilts: Alison Horridge

Posted by hil

Kath at red current has been blogging about the Craft & Quilt Fair held last weekend, and mentioned really liking a quilt made by Alison Horridge. Here are pictures of three more of Alison’s quilts.

Night/Baby

Posted by hil

This is beautiful.Thanks so much, Mimi. I also love this new one. What is it with me and insects at the moment?

July’s Month of Softies: Sock Monkey

Posted by hil

This is my submission for Loobylu’s July’s Month of Softies, a sock monkey. I’ve been curious about sock monkeys since first reading about the tradition a year or two ago, so I’m glad to have tried it out. This one started out plain and ugly, and I nearly abandoned him altogether, but I kept going back and reshaping bits. Now he is more refined, and I have grown quite fond of him.

Sock monkey-4

Here are a few more pictures of him: