Watch Out, It's Poisonous

As you may know, I have an affinity for plants. I mentioned previously that I have a small garden in the yard that I obsessively tend to. In it are tomatoes, string beans and other not so exciting (but none the less tasty) vegetables. Some more exotic plants look sexy and dangerous, that's what inspired this next piece. This figurine was once holding a very boring and awkwardly placed vase. I mean really, who just holds a vase. So, I've replaced it with something a little more little shop of horrors. 

What's wonderful about this fop is that he looks like he's holding the plant so naturally. He's a rather fancy character and so I hoped that the vines would look like more adornment to his already gauche outfit. The plant would most likely feed on evil human blood as large plants are wont to do and the vines, were they real, would most likely end up choking this dashing fellow. 

Treasure Hunting

A lot of the stuff I end up re-vamping or crafting with I find at my local Goodwill.  I live right around the corner from one so I spend a nice chunk of my time picking through other people's stuff/ treasure hunting. There's usually a lot of great stuff to be found as well as a lot of weird things. One summer when I was a cashier at Goodwill, someone donated a prosthetic leg. Raises a few questions doesn't it? 

Anyway, I've found a plethora of great materials in thrift stores including the figurine from my mutant army. Here's some other things I've made using second hand shop finds.

A wreath made from a plain straw circle wreath.

The base of this wreath I found at goodwill. I wrapped the wreath with ribbon, fired up the hot glue gun and stuck on a bunch of fake flowers on to make this. 

Another thing I made from a goodwill find is my earring holder: 

I also have some pretty sweet earring.

Screen staple gunned to a frame. 

For this all I needed to do was staple gun on a metal grate I got at the Home Depot to a nice frame I found. There are always old wreaths and frames at thrift stores just ripe for messin' with. Or Figurines of furniture that just needs a new coat of paint. Some see junk, I see potential. So yeah, maybe one day my house will be so stuffed with crafts and stuff that I can't get out of bed but until that day I'm going to be under the impression I'm being productive.

Snail Pig Update!

A while back I posted the picture of an amorphous blog that I said I would turn into a creature that would be part pig part snail. You can look at snail-pig's start here. Today I finally sewed on it's little button eyes bringing the project to an end. A freaking adorable end. I intend to sell my creations but I'm certainly going to have a hard time letting this one go (to some kid who will never love it like I do...) 

Hello cutie 

Snail pig is not only freaking cute but it's really soft making my attachement to it even more pronounced. I'd like to make more animal combinations, next on my agenda is a Puppy/Dinosaur. Puppysaur... dino puppy whichever you prefer really! 

Thread and Jellyfish

In my first post in this blog I talked about how I hoped that blogging about certain things I was making would   act as an incentive to finish old projects. One craft I had long abandoned after finishing a substantial piece was my embroidering of a jellyfish on a bread cloth. After finishing the first and largest jelly fish I didn't know where to take the piece. I tried adding seaweed but they looked more like undersea boogers. Well a week and a half ago I picked up the project again and am happy to say that now it feels finished.

I'm not the best at embroidery, things don't look as clean as they could but making a picture of of colorful thread was something I wanted to try. I love when I see masterful embroidery on vintage clothing and after doing this I have even more appreciation for it. 

So there you have it. My first embroidery project completed, though I'm not sure I'll do another one. Do you know how many times I pricked my fingers making this? Let's just say I wouldn't rule out there being any blood somewhere absorbed into the cloth. 

After our bathroom is being done redecorated I'll probably frame these guys and hang them out and look at them every time I take a bath or brush my teeth. 

Shapes and Mis-Shapes

Plushes are always a challenge. I love to make different creatures, most of which are inspired by illustrations by Anthony Briglia, but my hate for measuring and taking my time is directly in conflict with having them turn out "perfect." So through trial and error I'm able to find out how to make certain shapes by cutting out different shapes and sewing them together. The first creature I made is comprised of four main shapes and was a great learning experience. Meet the Ele-fly:

His little tongue and smile. 

I like fluffy butts and I cannot lie! 

Slightly risque pose. 

If look closely you can see all the seams on this one so it took a lot of shapes to make uh... more shapes. Now granted this is the first one I made with so many parts put together so it's head is a wee bit off center and maybe one foot is bigger than the other but all in all I'm proud of what I was able to make by just eyeballin' it like the professionals. Measure never and cut as many times as it takes you!

Mutant Porcelain!

Sometimes I'll see something so beautiful or interesting that I've just got to try to recreate it myself. This was the case when I saw the porcelain pieces that Jessica Harrison had done. They were both macabre and beautiful, meshing the delicacy of porcelain with the blood and gore of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Right up my weird and twisted alley! And so I began to be on the look out for figures that I could perhaps try to change with Scupley. Finally I found a ballerina that played swan lake and spun. The little old woman in me said "put her in a china cabinet and don't let little kids touch it" the 22 year old me said "put lobster claws on it."

Tell the truth, she still looks graceful.

Now I'm fully aware that this ballerina is no where near the quality of Jessica Harrison's amazing pieces but it's was extremely fun to do. And in the end she did end up in my china cabinet so it was a win win for me. After doing this one I really wanted to do another one. One mutant is never enough, you need at least a gruesome twosome, so that's where the tentacle maiden came in. 

Geese are never to be trusted

As you can see with this one she's got a octopus tentacle arm and is feeding her little companion tiny eyeballs. I'm not sure how many I'll do in this series. Perhaps it'll just continue as I find the best figures to mutate or at least until my family is sick of getting them as presents. Either way I'd have to say they turned out pretty cool and they make my mother laugh when I show them to her.