cuttlefish puppet on the go ...

cuttlefish
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

Here is the cuttle fish shell, as interpreted by me. they are interesting creatures that change their colours and patterns to communicate, in what seams like zebra stripes and dots ... i used white flowery stiff fabric for the frill ... are these fins? and some of the flowers onthe shell itself to tie in the piece as a whole.

In 2 other colours of upholstery fabric i made some wavy stripes, and then machined over the whole lot in 2 colours of thread. im simply alluding to changing dots and stripes rather than trying to slavishly copy from one photo of a cuttlefish. it was not easy to find whole body patterns, nor, i found, a good one of its eyes !

Blenny finnished - and moving on to more fishies!

Ran outside in between rains the other day to get some photos taken

i shoved a window cleaning tool (used once to clean windows before the rubber fell off it) up into tompot blenny's head, so i could hold him up for picks. think he is a boy, anyway ... who knows? i havent modelled too closely.





NEXT! a puppet cuttle fish, so i stripped down the blenny wall and changed it for a fresh piece of paper and some useful googled images. i worked out how to do the cuttle fish ''frill'' on waking, which is nice, and involved drawing round a side plate and making something which looks like an awful shirt collar. Opened out and pinned the outer edge undulates beautifully a bit like a full skirt.




Finally, as if i dont need a change from making fish, a challenge from Tami and Wendy from Teddy Talk to make one of these ...




so i drew this ....

and then made this ... which happens to be a bag with a zip under its chin :-)

and heres the local paper - saturdays - with a double page spread detailing the sea fest but not my puppets and costume yet ...

Paying It Forward ....

and the winner is ...


(bits of paper fall off desk)


Caroline B :-)




send me your address quick before the cat plays with the mouse too much
and i know i owe you a reply to your lovely email Caroline, just popping off to shops now,
thanks everyone
cat xxxx

Quilt top

Quilt top
Originally uploaded by lippy292003

My sister is piecing an amazing quilt for her son Liam ... if he doesnt like it i can steal it heehee. Lisa makes very neat work.

Did you know it was dry for one day - Tuesday wasnt it?

i do get a bit stuck on titles for my blog entries ...

Tuesday seems so far away now but me and the girls had a bit of fresh air and the ants in the garden came out to play again ...

i had a small blenny break sketching some kittens - pity the photo shows that page in shadow! i used 2 colours of gel pens and the smudging was provided by daisy. Both babies likes meowing and signing 'cat'... i have just been toting silly ideas in my head, esp while driving, and thought i would commit some of them to journal/sktchebook ... Church mouse and rat to follow!

Here, for those that have been nagging and saying i havent uploaded any pics, is the top pot blenny as of this morning, his head attached to his body and some amazing lips too made from fleece and bath scrunchie. In the end i didnt make the topnot from feathers as i was hoping, as i thought one tug from a toddler and he wouldn't look like a topnot blenny at all. his frilly bits are made from off red felted woolly jumper and now he looks just like red fraggle ... enjoy :-)

ooh, i believe the big wigs to do with sea fest and marine week have been reading this ... and they have still sent me an invite to marine week opening ... i will take my camera.

Tompot Blenny Esquire ....

yesterday i got storming with mr blenny ....


i finnished those last layered fins - might they be pectoral fins? and in serted them into the wrists or whatever fish call those bits too!









the body - still with no head - has been shaped and partly stuffed with mesh - un-used shower scrunchie jobs, which are light weigh, and a piece of shaped sponge keeps his cross section the right shape. The doral fin and the last pair of fins were stiffened with an extra layer of net - orange shower scrunchie - and some red scoobies, which really seemed to work and the dorsal fin stands up well. I have my own packet of scoobie-doos, i didnt help myself to Louise's huge selection ...






sorry that some of thse pics are blurry, im not using flash and it was so dark and grey and rainy - again. The eyes look really blurry but would make great pincushions! i used scraps of different 'shot' fabrics ...





and finally - an upper jaw - and some mouth parts i didnt photograph yet - and the upper head i suppose i must say! starting to look like a fish head. played with wallpaper again to get the right shape ... there is no centre seam on the front of the face, just a gentle curve, and a small triangular gusset on top of his head, ready for those blenny trees, or top-not thingies !



yippeeeeee !!!!
no laughing at my html, and attempts to post multiple pics that looks easy to follow xxxx

All about saturday ...

see? up close i am very, very pretty ....
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

Another dark, wet, raining day to make photography difficult ... Cleo the cat was born on thursday evening but i have not been able to take her out for some fun shots. the poor cat has been stuck in for days!

Never mind, here she is, with more pics of her on flickr too.
I got a new bike on tuesday and today Lousie and i cycled into town. She thought the huge new bike was steves, Then later she said, no i didn't! Steve had the buggy and we all got really caught out, as it had looked like a super bright day... down came the rain on all of us and the buggy had its hoods removed, never mind the rain cover!

Steve ran home with the buggy while louise and i popped into Wilkos and i got a collar for Cleo, which was fun, a bit like having a real cat. Of course there's Louises cat too so we actually have 2.

Back home we all needed a towel down and some dry clothes and i shivvered for ages. Even after my hot tea.

In the afternoon i worked on the Blenny who got his top fin completed and sewn in and i got stabbed a few times. Louise made a card for Les and alison who are moving abroad to do methodist ministry elsewhere and i am sad to see Les leaving but so pleased he baptised our children. i have great photos and also a lovely one of him and alison. We popped into their afternoon tea type do between baby tea time and bed time and it was scarey just how many grey heads stared at us, just for having twins, and we got asked hundreds of questions. i think people suspect us of telling lies when they tell us the babies are identical and we say they are not! Poor louise always gets asked if she helps her mummy.

Les Baptising all our girls last november, Daisy, Matty and Louise ...

This evening i almost finnished a new lampshade for Louises room. About time too, this house is full of original or 1970's features. You will have enjoyed some of our wallpaper of course ...

Sunday school today... and a bit of sun!

Blenny WIP ... getting to grips with a huge fish ...

The Wall of Notes is changing, the old, old wall paper is disapearing ...



Making patterns out of old wallpaper to try and create blenny markings ...
i chose stretchy oatmeal fleece so i can allow for the lateral line seam on the puppet ... did i forget to say it is a puppet?



Poor headless fishy ... looks like a big fabric herring. i have added the first fins.



Fins taking shape, with layers of bias cut scottish woollens and net and organza ...flappy!

More on lobsters ....

Sent this sketch to a meeting today, i wish i could be a fly on the wall. Jo from IVY collected it yesterday and just after she left the fabric for the project arrived..

Cant wait to get started, might begin with sme big claws to get me going, all fleece and foam and what-not ... as you can see i dont usually make things this big, and i am no dressmaker ....

Now, does that help everyone who wondered what on earth i was going on about lobsters for?

i also have that Tompot blenny on the go too ....

Pay It Forward ..

A Wee while ago i put in a request on Teddy-talk.com for mohair scraps as it was my ambition to try this stuff, even just to handle it and see what it was like ... a dear member of teddy talk send me about 4 different colours and a couple of different textures and i was smitten ... i just bought a piece of english loom mohair on Ebay ... and apparently some more scraps are on their way to me soon ...

I send the person a handmade thank-you and after i finnished a couple of projects off i got, to playing with the mohair and this tiny brown mouse was the first thing to be born ... it was such a wee tiny scrap and i loved the challenge of seeing what i could do with it :-) All hand stitched ...

Now i am giving it away to someone else, and all you need to you is leave a comment below and i will do a little draw, at least by next week :-) If you want to trade blog links you can add your request in below too ... the white mouse is a mock-up for Wendy's special Commission.

Thank you ....

Clowning Baby Badger ...

Clowning Baby Badger ...
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

well here is wee baby badger ...,
i have had such fun messing about making his bits and bobs, also writing his listing at bid4bears.

heehee
his hat is on gold elastic if you can see, so he can be handled wearing it with out it falling, also he can be silly and put it on his big suede nose :-)
i decided big nose was comical, but it didnt have to be red !

That blankie is a special new fleece type fabric called flurr ... i edged a sample i was sent, as it is very flurr-fy and frays lots ... also very stretchy but so soft and cuddly ....

Raggy Rat Mice ....

Raggy Rat Mice ....
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

Just listed these guys on bid4bears ... later i can make that a hot link for you to click but try over onthe left if you can't wait ...

off to clean bathroom and toilet and then get some work done ....

Blennies and Badgers ....

My dining and work room is starting to look very untidy with fur, and material and stuff everywhere ... as well as pictures onthe wall and a shelf of animals looking to be adopted!

Here are some sketches and diagrams of tompot blennies, as i need to create the blenny before the lobster, hopefully to take along to wessex fm :-) big fish live on radio ...

Also, born last night was this little clown, a baby badger. I like badgers. i do not like seeing them squashed on dorset's country roads tho ....

say hello baby badger!

WIP - for wendy - and my first play with mohair ...

wip - for wendy - and my first play with mohair ...
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

Wow, i loved the fuzzy feel of this mohiar, although i dont think its suitable texture for this small scale ...

the brown mouse baby is created using what i could from a tiny scrap of mohiar kindly donated by Chloe (from teddy-talk.com) and i loved the think woven backing and sewing it by hand ...

my ambition of wanting to get my paws on some of this intruiging fabric has been fulfilled ...

the white mohair mouse-to-be is hopefully what wendy is looking for, size and shape wise!

this is an amazing website!

i have written and instructable of my own to try and win a new sewing machine ... at the title bit of the instructable - top right - theres a + - so you can vote for me to win ... i'd love it if you would :-)

http://www.instructables.com/id/EZI6OKCF2FRVDUL/

you never know - you might find out some thing at this site you always wanted to do i accidentally read about taxidermy mice and im so glad i didnt become a vet !

Six Colourful Raggy rats

Six Colourful Raggy rats
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

good evening...
i got the shoes today, but didnt get a plastic lobster in town, so i will have to use images to do the work ...

at the moment there is another fun summer and pirate themed campaign over at bid4bears at the moment so do pop by and get distracted browsing ... i always do... these colourful raggy rats were listed at the weekend.

as well as the lobster im also looking for TOMPOT BLENNIES ... and some kind of nudibranch local to the south cost !

we are walking ....

we are walking ....
Originally uploaded by RaggyRat

i would just like to point out as well, that if i dont get to blogging that much, i have 2 very good reasons :-)

today i must buy a pair of soft leather baby shoes to go with the ones i was given, and make it fair! just gobbling down some cerial before 2 lots of potties and loading up the twin buggy ...

hope to get my hands on some good materials this week, and get more information about lobsters... and i went mad on ebay yesterday getting joints and eyes for mice and bidding on nice bits of mohair.

my first blog entry - ever !

For weeks i have been thinking of things that would be good blogged ... these are very exciting times for me and my work. i dont really have enough time to blog. i type badly and hardly use spell checkers, so i shall become famous for mistakes ...

for starters im going to try and get flickr to talk to my blog. that way i can share more behind my pictures, which i am very proud of.

something small that happened over this weekend involved daisy, when she said poo and did the baby sign during a nappy filling moment, and then today when i apeared and she said poo, and so we went off to check nappies. poo was duly removed. yipppeeeee, not bad for 15 months. matty doesnt say or sign poo at all ....

The lobster? my new job .....