Co-Lab Dec. 13th

I'm vending at this year's Co-Lab at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California. Stop by and check out all the goodies to consider for "gifting" or keeping this holiday season. I'm working on several new items that'll make an appearance there. Click here for more info.

New! Exclusive and Limited Edition!

I was so honored when Kristen of Schmancy, of Plush You! glory, asked me to make a limited edition plush series. So I went to my sewing corner and a few weeks later...


Introducing twenty five (yep, you heard that right) new plush-monster-girlies by me. They'll be available from Schmancy (in store and online) Wednesday, Dec 2^nd.

doudoupop

Deck the halls with Mr. Toastee ^_^

Woohoo! It's the weekend after Thanksgiving! Do you know what that means? I can decorate the house for the holidays! I was in such a festive mood that I listed a whole bunch of holiday Toastees in my etsy shop, including some super cute ornaments! Fa la la la la la la la la!

bear giveaway, i said BEAR not BEER !

click over to my blog, link right, for more detail ... scroll down a bit to find the bear ...

go-ed asked alice .... cheesey cheshire cat ...

i waited untill my dormouse and cheshire cat arrived at 'go ask alice' before sharing the cats pictures ... i thought cimmi might enjoy the surprise !

Go Ask Alice and Luv-able Hu-able

Wow! What a great week for plush show openings! Here are my pieces for both shows.
For the Alice show, I just had to make my own version of the oyster loving Walrus and Carpenter, as well as the King and Queen of Hearts. I went with a wintery theme for my Luv-able Hug-able pieces- probably out of withdrawal from any actual wintery weather (no snow in my neighborhood in California, which is a bummer!!) and came up with the idea for a family of Snow Angels. Snow Angels fly around invisibly and inspire us to have all sorts of winter fun. To see more pics, head on over to my flickr page.

Go Ask Alice

I'm finally ready to reveal the pieces I made for the awesome Go Ask Alice show! I decided to make the Queen of Hearts, Alice, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. I envisioned the Queen of Hearts as a nasty sea monster who captured Alice:

The Queen herself is vaguely heart-shaped, and she has heart-shaped pupils and suckers, as well as heart-shaped jewels on her crown.

I based my Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum on the John Tenniel illustrations from the first edition of Alice in Wonderland.

I actually used my owl pattern, enlarged, for their general shape (Alice also uses my owl pattern, but much smaller), and then I just added arms and legs. I was really nervous about embroidering the faces since I've never made anything remotely human-looking before, but I am rather pleased with how they came out.

I decided to also make sailor hats for Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, to more closely tie them to the Queen of Hearts piece.

And here's the whole gang together:

I've long been a fan of Alice in Wonderland (I even wrote my undergrad thesis paper on the tale, because I'm that nerdy), so I'm more excited than usual to be participating in this show. Many, many thanks to Cimmi for curating! If you're in the Santa Barbara area, please go check it out (and take lots of pictures!). Visit the Paul Cumes Fine Art Gallery website for more info.

Chickenpants in Wonderland

I was invited to participate in the Go Ask Alice plush art show in Santa Barbara. I had really grand plans of making a whole cast of characters...but, um, life kind of got in the way.
Anyway, here's what I did make.
Of course, I had to make an Alice:


All that time spent making Blythe clothes has not been a waste! Turns out, it's very useful to know how to make tiny dresses after all.
In the Disney version, the Queen of Hearts always freaked me out. She was so angry! I was inspired by the John Tenniel illustrations of the Queen for my version.


I was a little nervous to make a Mad Hatter, namely because of the hat. How does one make a plush hat?

I'm glad I did it anyway, though. Turns out it is really not that difficult. Yay! Perhaps I'll be making more Chickenpants hats in the future...
(and yes, that is a Re-Ment cup in his hand. Turns out collecting Re-Ment is useful, too.)

So, that's that. If you're in the area, please stop by! I hear they're having a tea party to celebrate the show opening. It's on December 5th, and you can find all the details on their site.


-Claire ~ Absolutely Small

Happy Gobble Day!

With Thanksgiving this week I wanted to wish everyone much love for turkey! I made these turkeys out of upholstery fabric. Each turkey is unique! Ever go to a furniture store and see the swatches of fabric to choose from? That's what their 'feathers' are made of! Some of the bodies are also made from upholstery remnants. I sold three of them at Craft Fairs this season and decided to keep one for myself and give the last turkey to my host for dinner on Thursday!

Let it snow!

Like many folks here, I'm taking part in the Luv-able + Hug-able show in Gallery Hanahou opening on the 3rd of December.

Since the show is in the winter, I decided to make some cuddly snowflakes for it. Each snowflake is utterly unique; I drew each one completely freehand, so even an individual snowflake's bits don't match!

(More photos of the Snowflakes can be found in my Flickr.)

A lot of amazing and wonderful plush-artists will be exhibiting at this show, so it's very much worth visiting if you can!

Luv & Hug Show @ Gallery Hanahou

Just wanted to share my pieces for the luv&hug show at Gallery Hanahou opening on 3 Dec.

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