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Anguished and Forlorn Owl and Bat

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Expression is everything for me when it comes to making plush (my child-friendly doll line is somewhat of an exception). Eyes are the windows to the soul, as they say. While I mostly focus on making cute and endearing plush faces, I also love drawing anguished and perturbed faces in my sketchbook. I even like making horrible faces in the mirror and have done for most of my life, just because it makes me laugh (my mother doesn’t find it that funny when I text my scary faces to her).

Anyway, I wanted to find a way to merge my love of the full spectrum of emotions into my plush. I also wanted to try something different in terms of making a simple construction but detailed applique face.

I also thought the simple construction would be a fun opportunity to make a plush that could be heavily weighted and have a different sensory appeal than my usual dolls.
I loved how these came out. I didn’t intend for them to have overt mental health benefits, but the more they evolved, the more I was reminded that it’s important to normalize feeling the way this bat and owl feel—forlorn, tired, forsaken, anguished—however you wish to interpret their weary grimaces.

Their construction enabled me to fill them heavily with pellets, making them squishy and giving them a pleasing “shaky” sound when moved. This, combined with their luxurious fur, makes them irresistible to hold and squeeze. It feels nice to have one resting in your lap while you work on the computer, and they look nice on a shelf as well.

Bat and Owl will be available in my Etsy shop soon–be sure to sign up for my mailing list to be notified when!

Monstrosities

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Once upon a time, when I was about six years old, I announced that I would be painting one monster per night. As with most of my schemes and plans, I got a few nights into it and then lost interest or gave up. But, I have always been interested in colorful, adorable monsters, and I remember wishing so badly that I had been the one to come up with Alf, or E.T. or Baby Sinclair. The monster illustration bug got me again when I was 31–I drew one creature and, again, lost interest, mostly because I realized that my illustration skills needed refining.

I also have always loved color–48+ color paint and marker sets are always enticing to me, and when I shop for fabric I’m always drawn to the loudest and boldest prints–but never get them. But, I’ve never felt skilled at putting colors together, and when I was doing plush based on real animals, I tended to work mostly in neutrals, looking back longingly at the rainbow fur. The only place I’ve really indulged in my love of color is with my addiction to rainbow sprinkles and frosted Lofthouse cookies.

Then, just over this past year, almost by accident, I began rendering my monster fantasies in plush form, and I am absolutely thrilled with the results. As I mentioned in other posts, I really relate to odd–yet cute–monstrosities, even more to some extent than the real-life animals that I love. It occurred to me with this most recent creature variation–which I call the Purple People Pleaser– that it would look amazing in different bold and playful colors–like a frosted sprinkle cookie in doll form! I love it in purple and look forward to trying more colors.

What is the point of all this? Two things:

1) I spent a lot of time improving my illustration and color theory skills by practicing, studying, looking things up and taking lots of Skillshare classes during my free trial LOL. I didn’t do all that with the goal of making these colorful monsters, but rather as parts of my other plush-making and illustration goals. That relentless study and practice gave me the dexterity to very organically make what I really wanted to make all along: adorable monstrosities. Kind of like when someone practices guitar a lot and can noodle without thinking about it.

2) Sometimes themes travel with you for a long time before they finally find a way to express themselves. All of my intensely hard work teaching myself flat pattern drafting for apparel, and all of that learning about design and color really coalesced into something that I loved all along, but which I didn’t really try that hard to do either when I was six nor when I was older.

So, I guess my message is to just keep plugging away and, if necessary, take the time to learn some new skills, and allow yourself to flop around in the process. It’ll all work out in the end.

This Purple People Pleaser Ogre will be available in my Etsy shop soon–be sure to sign up for my mailing list to be notified when!

Mended Hearts

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I was working on this monster mouth pattern (really, with the goal of it coming out looking differently, but decided to just move on and make something with it, in the spirit of not having rigid ideas about how things should look and not overworking my dolls). I decided to pair a more textural plush (this black sherpa) with minky and see how it turned out. I couldn’t have predicted at all how it would look, but I loved the result. The horns really tie it together.

I knew I wanted to give it some kind of applique in the upper torso as the piece de la resistance. On a whim, I took a red felt heart that I’d cut out at some point over the past three months and put it on the chest. I loved the way it looked but immediately thought, “No, only a few people would like that. No, people might find that weird.” But I didn’t give up on the idea. Even before my IG polls came back at 100% in support of putting the heart on, I’d decided it was the right choice.

I’ve always loved the idea of heavy-handed emotional symbols, like hearts, on plush. I’m an emotional person and my continuing emotional development and growth is something I take really seriously. I also take mental health of others seriously. I got the idea (not sure if it was before or after I thought of the Velvet Underground song, Sweet Jane, and it’s line, “anyone who ever had a heart/wouldn’t turn around and break it”) to break the heart and stitch it back together–like a friendship necklace.

Neuroplasticity and resilience aren’t necessarily terms you associate with monster plushies, but they’re related. By playing and cuddling with soft toys, we repair wounds. This monster shows us that our heartaches can be repaired, eventually. I call it the Mendy Monster–because his heart is mended–with the scars for all to see. Mendy Monster will be available in my Etsy shop soon–be sure to sign up for my mailing list to be notified when.

Griselda Peclet

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I go through animal obsession phases where I get really interested in a particular type of animal and have to draw it and/or make a stuffed animal of it. This winter I got particularly obsessed with peccaries. These look a lot like pigs or wild boars but are actually not in the same family!

Peccaries have wiry and coarse fur unlike pigs, which just have sparse strands. There are different types of peccaries with different colors. I modeled my baby peccary, also called a peclet!, after a hybrid of a Chacoan peccary and a collared peccary.

I studied a lot of photos of peccaries and made many sketches before developing my pattern. I made the doll with short pile faux fur but used needle felting to create the snout and eyelids. The doll is weighted and intentionally under-stuffed in the body. It’s so fun to hold and cuddle. I named this peccary Griselda and she is still available to adopt in my shop.

I Turned Into A Martian

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I never fancied myself much of an alien/UFO kind of gal. Looking back, I wonder why, since I sometimes felt a little bit like an alien (having a hearing impairment can do that).

I think part of it had to do with many depictions of aliens/fantasy/horror I saw not being cute or endearing enough for me. Many aliens and creatures seemed like humans but colder and more sinister–too one-dimensional. That’s no fun!

When I did come upon fantasy plots or characters that appealed to me I often couldn’t get into the plot because either I lost interest (The Hobbit) or couldn’t hear the movie (Never-Ending Story, Dark Crystal) enough to keep up.

Whatever the reason, I just never really ventured into the fantasy world. Looking back, I think my interests and sensibilities remained steadfastly in the concrete world of observable reality for a long time. In many ways I felt reassured by knowing what was “actually possible” even if it felt constricting or limiting at times.

At this point in my life I’m shifting toward embracing the other-worldly, and opening up space for the unknown. I’ve actually always been captivated by the supernatural, and now I’m giving it the acknowledgement it deserves in my life (learning about human design, making spell jars, ancestral work, etc.) This has trickled into my soft sculpture practice as well. Making creatures (versus realistic animals) has given me more discovery and possibility in my work. In my life I have tended to get caught up in what I think the “rules” are, and making creatures that are not based on or meant to replicate real-life animals has helped me break free from that.

These silly alien/creature guys are some of the latest products of my creature experiments. They are made of soft fleece, have rotund bellies, floppy arms and short, jointed legs. They fit in real baby clothes which is very *chef’s kiss* for me because I love merging baby-like qualities with mildly creepy and silly faces. I drew and carved a UFO block print and added it to the grey alien’s onesie. It was fun to do some block printing again. I love adding a hand-carved or hand-drawn element to my plush work.

Both of these babies have already been adopted and are on their way home as we speak, but I plan to make more.

No Holds Barred!

Creature Dolls, Uncategorized

Terry is a new plush creature.

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!

Terry is available in my Etsy shop.

Beach Boys and Snapping Turtles

Creature Dolls, Uncategorized

As a child growing up in VT, I was always outside during the summer playing in the river by my house. I never saw many turtles, but now I see them all the time! Last summer I was lucky enough to see a very tiny baby snapping turtle and this summer we’ve seen behemoth adult snappers that have to be at least decades old. All of 2022 I’ve been integrating snapping turtles into my drawings and some of my doll designs. I love the surly smirk that one gets from a turtle/dinosaur-like jaw.

I named this creature Barbara Ann, after the Beach Boys song, because I felt like it, and because this creature looks like a Barb. I guess I’m just thinking about the Beach Boys a lot, what with the summer weather and driving around with the windows down. I got particularly attached to the Beach Boys around age 7. I had most of their albums and even a sheet music booklet with Carl’s face (Carl was my favorite) prominently on the front.

While reading David Sedaris’ Calypso on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I came across a delightful sub-plot in which David becomes attached to a menacing snapping turtle on Emerald Isle, and plots to feed the turtle pieces of the fatty non-cancerous tumor that he was keeping in the freezer after having it removed.  I had worked out this turtle/dinosaur-inspired head pattern just before vacation, so snappers were on my mind, and reading Sedaris’ story felt like synchronicity (to take it a step further, my favorite character, Jerri Blank (played by Sedaris’ sister Amy) has a hilarious line in one episode of Strangers with Candy where she says, “watch out for those snapping turtles” while clapping one hand, then chatters her teeth; she hopes to convince Tammy to go skinny dipping in the rock quarry).

After playing around with my materials, I felt Barbara Ann looked best with a shorter wig and a lovely wool felt cape that has appliqued, block-printed linen patches featuring my own hand-carved vulture designs. It lends a witchy vibe that’s perfect for the next season.

Barbara Ann is available in my Etsy shop with her friend Terry.

Natural Fiber Mini Ape Doll

Apes and Animals, Uncategorized

I have two main styles of ape dolls that I’ve been focusing on: those made with faux fur and needle felted faces, and those made in the natural fiber art doll style like the picture. This style is adapted from the classic Waldorf-style dolls and I have used it to make ape babies. Typically, I add “fur” by way of brushable mohair (visit my gallery for examples).

The gorilla head being formed from wool before getting covered

I wanted to try a natural fiber ape baby that was tiny rather than life-sized. Because of the small size, I was able to give this baby string-jointed legs which makes him so fun and pose-able. His arms are flappy/floppy which just adds to the fun.

I haven’t added any fur to this gorilla baby yet because I haven’t found something that looks just right. Stay tuned!