Sunday, July 5, 2009

Patience


Patience
Originally uploaded by the loireag
This guy evolved out of a conversation about patience. A trait I do not happen to possess. So obviously I needed to make some. And Patience must be a rare and elusive creature and not an attitude. So I went in search of Patience. I found this fellow sitting on a monument, quite quietly it's no surprise most people overlook him. You'll notice that he has no arms. The reason is very simple. He doesn't need them, for all things come to those who wait.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Embroidery experiments


Embroidery
Originally uploaded by the loireag
Along with knitting and crochet I've been playing around with embroidery for a while. I've thought embroidery was pretty but uninteresting for years. For some reason it never occurred to me that it didn't require a pattern. Yes I am that dim. But in my defense most of the things I had seen were made from the old iron-on patterns. And following a design by someone else just wasn't very interesting so I never gave it any further thought. I finally caught up to reality about a year ago when I wandered into the Embroidery section on Craftster and saw all sorts of amazing original work posted there. I immediately had to give it a try. And I'm so glad I did. For something that might seem tedious from the outside it is a lot of fun.


Embroidery
Originally uploaded by the loireag
I've not produced very many things that could be considered "finished" at this point (I have a tendency to get distracted) but I am rather pleased with these two. Both based on sketches I'd done a while ago. Happy monster and his balloon have shown up in a few other things I've made but he is at his cutest here. As for vine mouth, honestly I'm not sure what he was meant to be, I think when I first drew him I had been watching Mirrormask. So probably nothing more than a random oddness. I do like how the vine came out though.

Cyclops Kitten


Kitten
Originally uploaded by the loireag
Her name is Una.
One of the more recent projects. I've been wanting to make this for ages but have been waiting on ordering the eyes I needed. I finally got my act together and made an order from Eyes and More for a bunch of sizes in bulk. Aside from some small black eyes they are all clear so I can paint them to match the project they will be used for. So much more versatile and fun. It adds a tremendous amount of character to design the eyes to fit the creature. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the eye for the cat is two shades of red (one translucent and one more opaque) for a bit of texture with a layer of gold painted over the back you can just see the shine of the gold through some of the red. Definitely more fun than a plain red eye.

And just in case it matters to any one who reads this I was very happy with my order from Eyes and More. Quick, great prices and very good service. I'll definitely order from them again.