Thursday, September 4, 2008

Chimera

Amy and I decided that one of our Plush You 2008 pieces would be a collaboration. The first thing we thought of was a two-headed monster, as it would be easy for each of us to do whatever we wanted creatively, while still being able to join the two halves in the middle.

Amy sketched out her half, a goat-like creature, before I had even begun thinking of my half. So I started thinking about what I might like to make that would look cool attached to a goat. It didn't take long for me to think of a chimera, and thus our "simple" two-headed monster quickly grew more complicated.

The Greek chimera was a fire-breathing, three-headed monster. As with most Greek myths, specific details of the creature vary. Some authors portray a dragon rather than a snake, some put the goat's head in the middle of the creature's body rather than next to the lion's head.

Amy and I decided that our chimera would have a lion head on one shoulder and a goat on the other. The chimera's upper half would be lion while the hindquarters would be goat, and the creature's tail would be snake.

I am super pleased with how our chimera turned out; it was very hard to part with her (despite the mane, the Greek texts always referred to the chimera as female)!

Mythology has always fascinated me (my undergraduate work focused on mythology and folklore), so it was only a matter of time before I started exploring these old tales in plush form. I can't wait to bring more of my favorite tales to life!

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