For my recent batch of creatures I tried to “recreate” two previous creatures. I use this term loosely as I wasn’t attached to them looking like replicas.
One such creature is my adorable turtle-ish baby. I have used this face pattern only two other times (not counting Barbara Ann which was also the same face pattern but used differently) and I really wanted to recreate the mischievous baby look. I also made a discovery about my open mouth liners recently, so I worked this one differently and I like how it sits better. I absolutely love how Cyrus turned out. He was tickling the ivories in my recent creature music video on Instagram.
I also made another doll in the vein of Sad Mitchell and his predecessor who doesn’t have a name (but who is among my top favorite dolls). This new doll is called Cecil and has electric yellow skin with neon blue hair! You might recognize Cecil from his drum solo in the creature music video.
These and other friends will be available soon! Keep an eye on your email for details and sign up for the mailing list if you haven’t already!
Another wonderful doll friend is also done: Scooter.
Since Sleeping Beauty has been viewed in my home roughly 1,353 times in the last two months (no complaints here, that movie rocks) I have been scheming to make a creature head pattern loosely inspired by Malificent’s goons. They’re essentially pig/warthog heads on humanoid type bodies.
I love his wrinkly snout and smile. I would like to make this again with an open mouth, and another time with a frown. I can play with inserting teeth, etc. Too much fun!
I decided to give him these elvin ears because it felt right.
Like his friend Willard, Scooter may have an auction rather than my typical Etsy listing format to allow more folks to have a chance to buy. Mailing list subscribers will get all of the details tomorrow!
I had wanted to make a new face pattern inspired by manatees. As I neared completion of this doll, I shared him on a reel as an example of one of my many (most) creatures with eyelids rather than just eyeballs.
Much to my surprise, the reel got more than a million views in less than a week and garnered a lot of attention and comments. It seems the larger internet community is divided as to whether Willard is scary or cute, and whether giving him eyelids did in fact supply him with a soul and personality as I contended it would. Additionally, many commenters felt that Willard ran anywhere on the continuum from sleepy, to burnt out from a soul sucking retail job, to sedated (which I assure was not my intention when creating this doll!) On the whole, people were immediately obsessed and found him sad and adorable which—hello!—he is. And he’s not the first of my dolls to be these things.
Anyway, it was quite the kerfuffle and Willard and I are exhausted! However, being an unintentional joke turned out to be a great way to reach many people who love these creatures and that was a wonderful way to wrap up 2022.
Since my shop drops were already becoming a bit of a skirmish for hopeful buyers, and given the increased interest in purchasing Willard, I will be trying an auction format this time around. Mailing list subscribers will get all of the details tomorrow.
I have been experimenting with smaller, “hand-held” sized plush creatures to offer something a little more compact and less expensive than my larger babies. It isn’t as easy as it sounds, as sometimes the smaller ones can take just as long as the bigger ones (making it hard to charge less). However, I was able to adapt my patterns to make something that is truly a little simpler to make while still having some dimension and a great expression.
This doll sits at about 8″ high and is made of silky soft minky fabric. I weighted the doll with glass beads, which have a sandy, squishy texture compared to my usual poly pellets. Combined, those features make this plush extremely appealing to the senses. I love the tactile and sensory aspects of plush and I like to find ways to accomplish something that has high sensory value but still holds its own as a doll/plush character and not just a “two dimensional” plush.
I call this the Dusty Snowball because it reminds me of snow in February here in Vermont–the snow gets dirty and dusty from all of the mud spraying onto it. For some reason, that “vibe” seemed to perfectly encapsulate this creature–he seems pure, but a little bedraggled!
I have only used this beakish/bill-ish/slightly dinosaur like face/muzzle once before (see my green toothy guy from a few posts back) and I really love it, so I used it for this squat creature plush.
I didn’t give him a button nose (or any nose) this time and I love his little bill/lip.
He is sporting a signature creature cloak made of cotton plaid flannel and lined with black knit fabric. He can wear it with the hood up or down, or simply wear his birthday suit—after all, don’t we all need that option with these chilly fall mornings and warm afternoons?
This creature, named Marshall (because his shape and the color of this thick fleece remind me of marshmallows) will be available in my next drop.
One of the newest Way Home Creature Nursery babies, Gerrold, is chuckling and cackling his way through life, keeping everybody in a good mood. It’s hard not to feel at ease with his good natured grin. He does love to play pranks, much to Sad Harold’s chagrin.
Gerrold is wearing a comfortable jumpsuit that I made, but like all of my baby creatures, he fits in most newborn sized clothing!
Gerrold will be ready to adopt soon! Be sure to sign up for my mailing list to be notified of when and where you can adopt Gerrold and his friends.
This is Harold, a sad little monster is one of the newest Way Home Creature Nursery babies. He has the same pouty expression as some of my others–but Harold is a little extra melancholy. As I’ve said before, I try to embrace all emotions, so instead of trying to cheer him up, we just let him feel whatever he feels.
This monster doesn’t like to draw attention to himself so he’s most comfortable in these understated yet high quality pajama type pants and a simple white onesie (but, I saw him looking longingly over my shoulder at some loud and bright baby pajamas on my phone, so I’d bet that, once settled into his new home and away from the competition of the other creature babies, he might like some more colorful duds).
Harold will be available for adoption soon–be sure to sign up for my mailing list so that you can get all of the details about the release date!
This past winter, I decided to make my daughter a silly puppet. I had made my first fabric puppets using the Tuscon Puppet lady’s patterns a couple of years ago, so I had a general idea of how to do the mouth and was excited to try my own pattern. The result was a silly bird that we named Dody. My daughter seemed to enjoy talking to Dody and watching the her various hijinks. The puppet became like a member of the family. Although my daughter has also taken to other dolls and soft toys, the moving parts of a puppet and the tendency for the holder to want to animate them more, seems to create more of an impression than a regular soft toy.
I made several other puppets after that point. I spent a lot of time studying the commercially-made plush puppets my daughter had in order to determine how they were constructed. I figured out that there are two basic ways that the mouth liners can be made, and identified some basic construction choices that help make the open mouth functional yet compatible with the overall design.
Almost all of my recent creature dolls can be puppets with moveable mouths. I have made the mouth slightly open on some of my dolls, because it looks really cute, but I hadn’t made any with a full opening to use as a puppet.
For this puppet, I tried a new leg style on my baby creature pattern (normally I do a jointed leg) and I also set the arms in a little differently. I stabilized the mouth liners with foam interfacing and inserted a cotton liner so that the stuffing and insides are safe from your hand when its inserted. Although I am not sure I’d do this leg style for a regular doll since it’s not that flexible, it worked nicely for the puppet because the legs are stable but can also be forced down to sitting type position as you’re holding the puppet.
I also want to tinker with the mouth liner–the foam was a bit bulky. I may try something thinner, or perhaps line the inside of the mouth with the foam again but not have the foam also in the seam allowance.
I dressed this puppet in these adorable knitted overalls (adapted from pattern I purchased from Unique Knit by Caroline)–I had been saving this gorgeous Malabrigo yarn for YEARS and made a baby sweater and these pants, but never found the right doll for them. The pants fit this puppet perfectly and I made them into overalls to tie it all together.
My original vision for this puppet included a short, pageboy style wig but I think that both of these look adorable and hilarious. I love combining somewhat outdated/old looking wigs with these creatures.
I have always loved Folkmanis puppets, as well as my beloved Hosung monkey puppets, because they’re functional soft toys while also puppets. As much as I like more professional puppets, they’re made with a lot of glue and foam and really aren’t meant to double as a durable soft toy. I’m happy that I figured out how to make patterns that can be both. My experience with my daughter proved the amazing social-emotional and educational potential that puppets have–so this is a big incentive for me to make them.
I have continued to work on my creature plush dolls. I have so much fun playing with different mouth shapes and eye placement, and of course, outfits! This creature baby came out quite frog-like, although that wasn’t my intention.
These creatures represent for me a happy marriage of creepy and cute. In this case, I actually think the creepy aspect really hearkens back to the human aspects, whereas the “cute” comes from the monstrous and babyish features. That is not to say that I think humans are exclusively creepy or bad–rather, I’m really interested in human emotions such as surliness, misery, irritability, yearning–all emotions that are NOT happy, precious, cheerful–yet, I find they become endearing when paired with babyish features (this is probably why people love babies that look like grumpy old men).
As I said in my aliens post, I don’t like creepy or monstrous characters that are too one-dimensional. I have to inject some element of human vulnerability. I do enjoy making simple and cheerful dolls with Everybuddies but I also really like making these creatures that have an element of desperation and unease…while still being cute. This froggish baby creature will be available in my shop on Thursday, August 11 at 8:00 PM EST.
I have been riffing on various versions of what I call my “paunchy creature” pattern that I came up with last summer. Recently I began trying different versions of the head and muzzle to produce different creature faces. They are usually a bit of a surprise to me (I don’t sketch an idea, just slash and spread to make a new flat pattern–I know (because of my process) that it will fit together, but I don’t know quite how it will look once sewn and stuffed). With Terry, I knew I wanted a wide but flat/short mouth. After putting it all together, I decided that it needed “lips” and this was the result.
For some reason, out of the blue, it occurred to me that these creatures would look great with wrestling singlets. This started me down the road of wrestling research.
My brother and father loved wrestling when I was younger. In my ongoing effort to like all the things they liked, I tried to enjoy it too, but never did.
My husband also loved wrestling as a kid. As we clicked through different You Tube clips as part of my wrestling garb research, he helped me to appreciate how silly pro wrestling is, and the thrill that viewers got not knowing exactly what would happen (and the slight sense of fear and titillation, since some of those characters were legitimately scary!) My creatures aren’t that scary, but definitely silly AND there is a thrill in not knowing exactly how they will turn out. Terry looks like a gentle soul who isn’t interested in theatrics or body slams–which, as I understand, may have been the case for Andre the Giant as well.
No Holds Barred is an old wrestling phrase (and also the title of a wrestling movie that my brother owned as a kid) and I think it fits my new process with these creatures–try anything, set no limits!
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