I had a nice surprise waiting for me when I got home today. And it was perfectly timed to cheer me up (my wrist is hurting again, thanks to some work-related strain on it yesterday):
Photo taken in dappled sunlight to prove that the sun really is out – yay!
It’s a package of cute and fruity treats from Heidi of My Paper Crane, who makes (amongst other wonderful things) the most adorable plush foods in existence. Thanks Heidi – it’s much appreciated 🙂
I made these polymer clay faux granite rocks last week. They were originally intended to be stones for the base of my artificial bonsai, but I decided they weren’t quite right for that project. I just sanded them quickly with my homemade detail sander to get my fingerprints off. (The size of each stone is about 1 or 2cm.)
Are they real, or are they FIMO? Click the pic to take a closer look…
Testing another pattern for Kristen, here’s my second (and last) little fairy – she’s a bit shy though:
Ahh, here she is!
I’m really pleased with her hair: I unravelled the plies of worsted weight yarn so it would be fine and fluffy and curly:
It was fun to try out someone else’s patterns for a change, but now I’m ready to return to my own creations. My next planned crocheted animal (by popular demand) will be Fuzzy Ferret… watch this space!
I tested this fairy pattern for Kristen. I followed the pattern exactly except for the colours and hairstyle. And I had far too much fun giving her the long thick tresses (chocolate brown with black streaks and honey highlights) that I will never have in real life! Isn’t she cute?
And now for something completely different…
Inspired by a segment on artificial bonsai on the TV show How It’s Made that I saw on Discovery channel last week, and Mumblepeg’s lovely crocheted sakura (the “Best Wildcard” winner in the Softie Awards), I was inspired to create my own bonsai sakura (that’s a cherry blossom tree, in case you were wondering).
Click picture for full-size version
I’m not going to show you a full tutorial, but here’s a brief rundown of my methods, in case you feel inspired to try something similar.
The moss and soil is made from foam, cut to shape and painted with green and brown acrylic paints. The branches are formed from 18 and 22 gauge wire, fleshed out with strips of paper towel and then wrapped in brown floral tape.
The flowers are hand-sculpted from FIMO Soft polymer clay. I poked a length of fine bead wire through the back of each flower before baking, and then used the ends of these wires to attach the flowers to the branches. I used more floral tape to cover the exposed wires.
I planted my sakura in the bonsai pot that had once housed my attempt at a real bonsai: I tended, wired and pruned the little sapling for a couple of years, but it eventually withered and went to bonsai heaven. I’ve kept the pot for five years, waiting for the courage to try growing another bonsai.
I’m hopeful that, with favourable lighting conditions, this sakura will be so happy and content that it will bloom year-round…
I really am back in action! Fuzzy Penguin needed a friend, so I’ve made a baby fuzzy seal:
They are fast friends already, as you can see:
Maui decided the photoshoot couldn’t proceed without at least one shot including his handsome face 🙂
This pattern is (I hope) going to be a true original – I’ve never seen anything even remotely like it before! The entire head and body is made in one piece.
The Fuzzy Seal pattern should be finished within a week. Sign up for the mailing list if you’d like to be notified when it’s available.
UPDATE: Looking for the patterns? You can find the Fuzzy Penguin crochet pattern and Fuzzy Seal crochet pattern in my shop.
Some of you already know that I have been really suffering with the carpal tunnel in my right wrist for the past 3 weeks. I haven’t been able to crochet or do any crafts and it’s been driving me mad. It got to the stage where I couldn’t type with my right hand, or even grip a piece of paper, without pain.
Last week, the doctor gave me some horribly strong anti-inflammatory medicine, and the good news is, it seems to be working! I’m trying to take it slowly and not do too much too soon, but I’ve been so desperate to get crafting again, it’s going to be difficult to restrain myself…
I’ve just started work on my next crochet pattern, so I hope to have a new fuzzy friend to show you in the next week or so, but it could take longer if my wrist doesn’t cooperate.
The server that hosts my blog, my pattern store, and some other parts of my website has been a bit flaky lately. I’ve noticed it playing up 4 times in the past week. So, if you get a WordPress error page when you try to access my blog, come back in an hour or two and *fingers crossed* it’ll be back up.
Obviously this is not a satisfactory solution, and unless my webhosts get their act together, I will be shopping around for an alternative host very very soon…
It seems to be a commonly held belief that it’s difficult/impossible to crochet with fuzzy/eyelash/fun fur yarn. As you may have noticed, I’ve been working with fuzzy yarns a lot recently, so I thought I should share some advice on how to crochet fuzzy amigurumi toys.
I’ve created a main page – Fuzzy Yarn Tips – which is linked in the sidebar on the right. I have 2 pages of info in there right now – General Tips, and Starting Amigurumi with Eyelash Yarn. I’m hoping to add more pages as I have time and think of more tips!
Please let me know if you find this useful, or if you have any questions or suggestions for tutorials 🙂
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Ravelry: June