new barn owl in progress ....

my barn owl was admired way back when my artwey exhibition was on ... and i have agreed to make another for a Christmas present ...



i love doing the embroidery and using glittery thread for a bit of sparkle ...



but who is this new barn owl, that is appearing ?

More Umphy the Umgum ....

mink brown hair?



or a blue-grey, fluffy top-knot?



Umphy the Umgum needs some hair for set of his lovely green eyes...

Something cute!

when matty presented me with a drawing of a rat made in yellow felt pen on the back of some stickers paper, I just had to find a way to preserve it, with its fresh simple lines and very ratty nose ...



so I traced the image using the trusty window as a light box, onto some lovely vintage linen ... and carefully followed the design in back-stitch ...



I know I am not the first person to work with their children's drawings like this, but I had to have a go, as hubby was watching one of those Jimmy Stewart Movies!

tiger tiger ....WIP - furring the head ....

this photo shows tiger's upper head fur is in one piece, almost ready ... eye liner is needed here ...



I have made the best possible use of fur, without constructing a 'white' tiger head and doing air brushing ... which I have never actually done! Mary is playing with 'snakes' made from fur salvage edges...



and here the eye sockets have been lined, I carefully hand-sewed black fur around the sockets, leaving the tear ducts free. These are covered with chiffon, now.

3D modelling .... in real 3D!

I have been given the challenge of bringing Umphy the Umgum to life ... I made these sketches from some of the illustrations in the book.



now working on my third costume head, i devised a method of translating the shape to fur, using old curtains, pins pens and some colourful language ... so here, appearing in my hand, is Umphy!



the back of his head, Mohawk (red pencil line), and the size of his ear ...



shaping a tiny muzzle and seeing how his eye looks for size ...



and no one is going to put their head inside this little fellow!

Happy Halloween!

Its that spooky time of year again ...



Daisy chose the biggest pumpkin, and got so tired scraping it out that she said 'I never want to do THAT again', which reminded me of when I had just had my first baby daughter...



But Mary was very pleased with hers ... i did the shape knife face cutting, BTW, otherwise they would look much better than this !!!



we have recently moved away all our high-chairs and I now have a wonderful place to take photos of stuff!



Matilda and Daisy, my year-round grumpy pumpkins! HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEN!

tiger tiger ....WIP - furring!

tiger by numbers, Mary watches me at work ...
this is the third time I have used this method to make a pattern for furring, but the tiger head is the hardest one yet ...



so Mary knows its supposed to be a tiger head, but she doesn't think it's very tigery. So she pretends to be a frog ...
I must not loose any pieces ...



i carefully start to cut shapes from four different kinds of fur and begin to sew then together. Matty parks cars on her drawing of children playing in our street ...



Behind You! This is beginning to work, esp when the fur is pulled tight as it will be when all stitched down ... I like to do an much sewing as possible and avoid glueing which is not as strong in many ways ...



and here, using some very careful hand sewing on account of the curves, the muzzle and cheek fur is starting to take shape ...



this is hard work, and requires thought, but the result is making me happy ... i am not an airbrush artist, but this shows you how you can create a tiger head using only commercial printed furs ...