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.
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!
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 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.
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!
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.
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