Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Silence Plush and exciting news

Oh my, its been a long time since I've posted. I've been super busy with my job and haven't been crafting as much until just recently. This will change in the coming months. I'll explain why a bit further down.

Silence Plush
This year I was accepted into the Plush You 2012 Show. I decided to attempt to make my favorite monsters from the BBC show, Doctor Who. With being so busy, I only was able to complete one of these in time for the show, The Silence.  I'm glad though, as while searching the internet I saw that there have been very few attempts from crafters to capture The Silence in a plush form.

Here he is completed:

Silence Plush

I'll admit, this was a challenge for me. It involved learning some new skills to get him just right. Oh that head, that head I though would be the death of me. There may have been a tantrum or two trying to figure out how to get it to work. I've never used gussets or darts in my plush work before, and once I figured out that these would be the magic tricks to get him just right, it was smooth sailing.  Also, having learned these skills now, it opens up more ways to create future plushies, which I'm quite happy about.

He stands about 15 inches tall. I originally was going to make a full body in a sort of "chibi", short form, but during the sketching process I really liked how he looked with just a tapered half body and no arms. It made it look like he was looming over something. Also, this way, the the help of some poly beads, he is able to stand up by himself.  His face is a separate piece of fleece, hand sewn to the head and stuffed slightly to give it some depth. I enhanced the depth by shading some areas with some prisma color markers, which I had on hand. There are a few tweaks I'd make if I did him again, but overall I'm pretty pleased with how he came out. He's been shipped off to the show, and you can next see him at Schmancy in Seattle.

Exciting News!
Another reason I've been so busy, is I've been working out the details and preparing for a big transition.  Beginning in January of 2013, I'll be switching to working part-time at my job so that I can have more time to work on my art and crafts and to teach myself some new things with web design and animation. I'm super excited. I'm in the middle of redoing my entire craft room/office at home. Its been painted to something more my style, and has new workspace furniture. My husband bought me a new 27" iMac. I haven't had a new computer since 2001, and have been borrowing a laptop from my husband since we were first dating in 2005/2006. I still have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do, which is why I'll be opening up my Etsy shop on a limited basis beginning next week. That way I can still take a few orders while getting everything set up and ready. The amount of craft supplies and fabric that needs to be gone through and put into "keep" and "give away" piles is staggering. I may have a craft hoarding problem, but I'm working on it. I already have about a car trunk full of "give away" stuff. Yikes!

Shop Reopening
That's right, the shop reopens October 1, 2012 and will be open until December 7, 2012 when I close for the Xmas holiday.