Woolly Critters Again

Well, it is that time of the year again, time to make wooly critters using old sweaters that I felt and then turn into various animals.  Some of them will be at the Coast Collective Art Centre in Collwood, some are on my Etsy site,  and the bulk will be for sale during the craft show in Sidney, BC (First Chance Craft Show) in early November.

Enjoy:

Enrico and Lucy bid you farewell!

Broc and Cara's Picnic Party

I was at the Sidney First Chance craft show this October and I was approached by a local children's book author, Dave Wilson.  Dave loved my wooly critters and commissioned me to make characters from his children's book using my wool sweater technique.

Here is the cover of his book, "Broc and Cara's Picnic Party":

The book is to encourage children to eat healthy and include veggies in their diet by making the vegetables into characters that children can identify.

The first character I made was the beet:

He became my favourite character even though he only has a supporting role in the book.  I had just enough of both the baby blue sweater for his uniform as well as the lovely green shaded sweater for the beet leaves that form his hair.  How cool is he?

Next came cool Cuke, the cucumber with cool attitude:

 I made the shorts using teeshirt material and appliquéd teeshirt flowers to mimic the illustrations in the book.  I love his wee toes.

I found the perfect orange sweater and green sweater to tackle  the main characters, Cara, the Carrot and Broc the broccoli:

I used baby shoes to mimic the runners he wears in the book

When making Cara, I wanted to make her hair using wool as well as yarn.  I have a stash of yarn and I found three shades of green yarn for her hair that is stitched over her kelly green head.

Finally, I wanted to make the busy bee who is crucial in keeping those yummy vegetables coming.

 He is quite the jolly fellow with warm wool wings as well:

Yellow sweaters are hard to come by and I lucked out when I found this cashmere sweater that was riddled with moth holes and so very affordable.

All the characters were so much fun to make and I am happy to report that the author, Dave Wilson, was thrilled with the results.  He wants to use the characters as promotional material as well as giving his son tangible characters to play with this Christmas.

Do go and check out brocandcara's website. He is writing another book in this series about "inner health".

First Chance Craft Show

The First Chance Craft Show in Sidney (Mary Winspear Centre) was a great success.  A big thank y all that visited me at my Zia Joey booth!  A shout out to my sweet sister that flew in from Toronto to help me this weekend!  Here are some photos:

Wooly Critters galore

Angled view of my booth

Me and my booth

My sister Mirella

I hope you will come to visit me at the Coast Collective for the Gift and Wishes Show which starts on November 15 and runs through December 23rd (Wed through Sunday, 11 am to 5pm).  See you there and come early and often for the best selection.

My Etsy Shop

I have been thinking about opening an Etsy shop and this week was the week that I plunged ahead.

The link is as follows; https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Ziajoeysdesigns?ref=search_shop_redirect

I have nine items in my shop, all of them my Wooly Critters ranging in price from $45 to $52. 

For those of you that do not know, I have been making these little guys for two years now and they are a favourite at craft shows.  People would keep asking me where they can buy them and now I can point them to the shop.

Here they are:

Ellie, 16" tall

Sassafras, a spunky fellow

Copper, a spunky pup

A wee Canadian Kitty (10" tall)

A rascally bandit

A lovable, huggable monster pal

A sassy purr maid that has a removable tulle skirt

Another purr maid

The last panda cub from my visit last year to the Toronto zoo to see the wee panda cubs.

I just opened and my first sale was to a lovely lady in Alabama who purchased these two little bandits: she should receive them this coming week and I hope she loves them!

Critter Mania Continues

I am stocking up on making my wooly critters for a November artisan show at the Da Vinci Centre in Victoria, BC.

I up-cycle  wool sweaters that are past their useful life (from thrift stores) and then felt them using hot water and soap.  I then decide which critter the sweater wants to be and off I go.

It has been a blast as you will see from my new stash:

First some of my Foxes:

A daddy fox made from the same soft wool reddish sweater:

One of more super soft lambs from a cashmere sweater (I will be making another one in pink):

I managed to find another yellow cashier sweater that had a few holes in it but made a super sweet monster:

I also found a lovely lavender purple sweater that shouted out, make me a kitty!

A super soft pink puppy:

What else is there?  What about a kitty modelled after Rosie the Riveter and "hello kitty":

So you see, I have been very busy indeed.  Now I must make a dolly based on a poem, "My Cubby Hole".  Stay tuned.