Grand Slam of Curling

For curling enthusiasts, elite curling is coming to Victoria: the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling will be in town from March 17th to 20th.  To celebrate I have made three new Wooly Critters, two Grumpy Cats and a Puppy named, what else but "Pinty".

All three will be at the Coast Collective in time for the special curling event.  I failed to mention that I made curling rocks for the Critters as well.

The critters are made from old sweaters that are felted and then cut, stuffed and decorated to bring out the personalities:

The start of the Grumpy feline.

Grumpy cat says, Yes my heart is Blue, get over it!

This is before I decided to design and make him a curling rock.

Grumpy girl Cat says, Ruffles and hot pink, who thought that was a good idea?

The two Grumpy cats have found each other, but being their grumpy selves they do not acknowledge that they like being together.

Now here is "Pinty" the puppy who is quite happy with the upcoming curling event:

His curling rock is made of felt and has a plastic disc on the bottom so that is can slide!

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my Wooly Critters.

The Bunnies are Coming for Easter

Last year at this time, I made four bunnies that were so much fun to make that I doubled the bunnies this year!

I redesigned my pattern to create an 8" bunny that has button jointed arms and legs.  I had so much fun adding embroidery and beading to their coats.  I just had to give the wee bunnies, bunny slippers too!

They are all made of premium wool felt with wool felt wool coats.  They all carry their fresh carrot. Now some of them have wee purses and one even sports a jaunty yellow sun hat!

I hope you enjoy my brood:

Here is Lady Bunny in a moss green coat with what else but ladybugs embroidered on!

 Of course I wanted her to be lovely from all sides, so the back of her coat is also decorated:

 Next comes Heather the bunny, named from the soft colour of her coat:

 This little gal is made from a vintage wool blanket!  Her name is Delphi.  I love her and thought she needed a wee purse to carry her carrot.

 This bunny is called Crocus as I tried to embroider crocus on her jacket.  I love the effect and found a wee Easter basket for her to carry her carrot and cabbages!

 Now this spry bunny is called Rosie and her coat is made from wool felt and a piece of checked felted wool.

She seems to be in a hurry.  She is going to find more carrots for her supper!

 This lovely lady in pale yellow coat is named Wisteria.  I love her soft look:

 Next is shy Blossom with her velour bunny slippers.  As you can see, she is sitting.  All the bunnies can either stand or sit due to the tight button joints that I added:

 I am very found of this next bunny as I got carried away with the embroidery.  She looks like she wears a coat of a wild English garden full of Cosmos, Forget-me-Nots and Snowdrops:

 Since her coat was over the top, I gave her a sun hat with a hand-dyed silk bow at the back.  If course she wanted a stylish purse to complete her look so I obliged:

I hope you enjoyed my bunny brood.  They are all for sale (ranging in price from $45. to $52 Canadian dollars) and will be at the Coast Collective Art Centre in Victoria in time for Easter.

Bunnies, Bears and Ducks, Oh My

The weather here on the West Coast is amazing.  Spring is in the air and with that in mind, I made a bunch of mohair/faux fur animals to celebrate the season.   They are all fully jointed and are about 10" tall.  They have glass eyes and hand-embroidered noses, what fun! Enjoy:

This Wannabe bunny has a removable hood and bunny slippers!

Based on a pattern by the Canadian bear designer Jean Pacagnan

This second Wannabee bunny is based on a pattern by Canadian designer Cathy Milliard

This wannabe ducky is from a pattern by the Australian designer Ilze.

Have a great month and I hope the weather is kind to all of you.

The White Rabbit

Lately, I have been making dolls based on Alice in Wonderland and this latest is no exception.  I made a companion piece to my Red Queen, the White Rabbit as Herald.

He is from a design by Karyn Ruby  (on "Etsy") from Lethbridge, Alberta.  I love her patterns.  The directions are good and the patterns are fun to make.  He stands about 12", just a perfect size.  His eyes are glass and the stand is made using a round piece of pine and and a round spool for him to lean against.  The stand was sanded, painted bright red and given a coat of sealer and then I added a wee ribbon that has white hearts around the base.  His horn was in my stash!

The rabbit is made from an off-white rayon type fur fabric.

I added eyelids using ultra suede and his nose is waxed.

The Queen of Hearts was very pleased with his performance.

Stay tuned for the next Alice in Wonderland instalment, the Mad Hatter!

Spiral Cafe Show

I love living in Vic West.  It is such a funky, fun place to live and so close to downtown Victoria that I can walk along the waterfront and be downtown in less than 35minutes.

Our local cafe, the "Spiral Cafe" is a vibrant coffee shop that becomes a local gathering place. The shop is open from early in the morning to late in the evening with live music on weekends. The Spiral Cafe is a great place to meet friends, have a cup of a hot liquid, a bite to eat, and read a good book, or just do some people watching while taking in the colourful wall art.

The Spiral Cafe always have art work up on the wall from local artists.  I was very excited when Pam, the owner,  asked if I would like to feature my art dolls up at the Spiral Cafe.  I said yes immediately and just finished hanging my dolls this past Sunday.  My dolls will be up for the entire month.

I am pleased to say that my art dolls are being well received and I was so thrilled to see that people are actually buying my art dolls.  So far (and they have only been up 3 days), I have sold five pieces!

I am not a very good photographer but I am including some photos.  I tried to display my dolls in groupings.  I put fairy dolls together, fantasy diva dolls together, Alice in Wonderland dolls together, cats together and my wooly critters throughout.

Part of the cat grouping

My Alice in Wonderland grouping

My Diva Fantasy ladies grouping

A section of my Fairyland dolls

I would invite anyone in the greater Victoria area to check out the Spiral Cafe (they serve fresh homebred goods, coffees, teas, fresh homemade soups and great breads).  If you visit before March you will see my dolls up on the wall!