Sam Conure

Sam was a green-cheeked conure that came to me 15 years ago when he was just a couple of months old. He was totally crazy- extremely fearful and would get easily overexcited- but he was also an amusing bird and a lot of company. If he were out on top of his cage (where his playpen was) and I came close to it he'd try to bite my face and hands, but he loved being petted on his forehead and cheeks. He'd give an alarm call whenever something was in the back yard, or there was something new in the studio, if the other birds were flying around, or if he were bored. This morning when I went into my studio to feed and water the birds, Sam was lying dead on the bottom of his cage. There was no warning; he didn't show any odd behavior or signs of discomfort yesterday. But now he's gone.

He was a true character and is sorely missed.

New Dolls!

I have four new dolls for sale in my Etsy shop ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarangus?ref=pr_shop_more)! All four are about 20 in. tall (not including ears).  When I drew the patterns for these, I wanted to make them kind of funky and different. It wasn't until after they were sewn that I knew just how sassy they turned out!

My mom pointed out that they looked like 1930's cartoon characters, so I decided to run with it and make clothes for them based on patterns from 1934. I also chose four names from the most popular ones of that year for the dolls.

The rabbits, Martha and Albert, are made out of 100% cotton flannel, so they're very soft.  I gave them both cotton embroidered mouths and noses, and really cool patterned buttons for eyes.

Albert is sporting a beige shirt (with a very subtle white botanical pattern), a huge bow tie in a floral pattern, a plaid double-pointed vest and plaid zoot suit pants. He has lop ears that flop around and are very soft.

The back of his vest is the same floral as his bow tie:

I had wanted to make Martha's dress out of the floral with the turquoise background,  but I didn't buy enough fabric. However I had plenty of the beige and white fabric left, so I made the dress out of that and saved the turquoise floral for her double collar, cuffs and belt. She has wired ears that are fully pose-able.

With another floral fabric that had some of the same colors as the turquoise floral, I made her a cute frilly apron to protect her dress.

Although I'm selling them separately, they make a very cute pair:

The fox pair is named Gordon and Ella. The red-orange of their bodies is made out of soft brushed wool fabric, and the black and white parts are cotton flannel.

They also have cool patterned buttons for their eyes and noses.

Ella is also wearing a dress; hers is made from a beautiful polka-dotted sage green fabric and has a light blue rounded collar and cuffs. She also has a frilly apron that's a slightly different pattern than Martha's.

I actually like Ella's apron so much that I'm going to adapt the pattern to make some person-sized aprons with it.

I think that this picture really highlights the fox's striking profile:

Gordon is sporting a light blue wide-collar shirt to go with his extra-wide sage green spotted tie (the same fabric as Ella's dress), with are covered with a double-pointed plaid vest and puffy short pants. Of course the back of his vest is made with the same sage green fabric as his tie.

Like Martha and Albert, Gordon and Ella are sold separately,  but are really wonderful as a pair.

All of their clothing is removable- the shirts, vests and dresses all have hook and eye closures and the aprons untie and slip off. I made them sturdy enough to be played with, but cool enough to be art pieces. If you'd like to see more, feel free to check out my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarangus?ref=pr_shop_more

Update for Stray

What a time I had last night! It all happened so fast, it's hard to believe it really happened! best to start at the beginning. I saw that the weather report is forecasting snow tomorrow and a very cold weekend (highs in the 20's are typical for winter here, but it's been unusually warm this year), so I was very worried about the poor orange cat. Deciding I couldn't wait any longer for someone to claim him, I called the no-kill cat rescue where I volunteer and asked them to take him in. They readily agreed, and so I crammed him into a cat carrier (he struggled, but purred the entire time and never tried to scratch me!) and drove him there. They immediately got to work on him; giving him all of his shots and inoculations, cutting his mats off and brushing the burrs off his fur, giving him flea treatment, trimming his claws, and cleaning the motor oil off of his coat with dry wipes.

What a trooper! Although he wasn't crazy about some of it, he never even protested. He even purred and fell asleep for a minute on the exam table when it was all over.

While this was all happening, a woman came in to "look" at the cats. She was a total cat lover and just wanted to be around cats, since her own had died over a year ago. She was amazed (as were all of us) at how well-behaved he was, and decided to hold him while they groomed him. Well that was it. In less than an hour the poor, dirty stray became a clean, healthier, handsome housecat with a new home and a new name!

The workers at the shelter had his adoption papers filled out, microchipped him, and set her up with all the necessary cat gear so they could go home together right away. He's technically being fostered until he's neutered in two weeks, but I'm confident that he has a terrific forever home!

My cats and I are delighted that he's safe, happy, and away from my front door!

Stray

So a new cat found our house and refuses to leave. Well, he comes and goes, but hangs outside our front door for hours at a time. He also comes in though my pet door and helps himself to my cats' food- something they're not happy about!

Since it's going to turn cold and ugly later this week, I'm hoping to find his owner, or barring that someone who'd be willing to foster him until his owner is found. He's SUPER-friendly and would rather be petted than eat when offered food. So if he's yours, you know his owner, or would just like to bring him inside your home, please let me know.

Snow

I was lucky enough to find an 100% cashmere sweater that some poor soul had felted in their washing machine and thought that it would be perfect for a snowman pillow! I've always had a weakness for vintage snowman images, and I wanted to do a modern take on one.

I made its face out of 100% wool felt pieces, giving it coal eyes and a tangerine nose.

Then I knitted a little fringed scarf for it- the yarn is a wool/mohair blend. I though that the muted turquoise color went very well with the orange nose.

Because the cashmere still had a lot of give to it even after it was felted, the pillow grew a bit as I stuffed it, but I'm very happy with the size. It's large enough to use as a real pillow (rather than some tiny decorative item), but still small enough not to take over your couch.

The whole thing is handmade (sewn and knitted by hand) and it's for sale in my Etsy shop if anyone's interested:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/92194472/snowman-felted-cashmere-pillow

Here There be Dragons

I've been making very small needle-felted and beaded dragons for a while now and have sold several on my Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarangus?ref=pr_shop_more). I always seem to make a bunch at a time when the mood strikes me, and the last week and a half the dragon mood struck again!
Here are the three that I finished recently:

The first one is called Ivy, it's one of the smallest I've made; but it has a very long tail, the end of which is in the shape of an English ivy leaf.
The second is named Lavender. This one is bigger overall and has larger wings.
The third is a sea dragon. It has a really cute face- a lot like a seahorse, if a seahorse had little ears.


Here are some that I made a while ago but are still available for sale:

 The one above is named Ember. As you can see it's a wee dragon that could easily fit into a pocket!

 This one is called Rain. I don't think that the pictures I took do if justice, so I'll be taking new ones soon.

And this one is Sky. It's made with roving that has swirls of lilac-purple wool mixed in with the light blue- I LOVE this roving!



And here are some that I've sold. Of course, I could make similar ones if anyone is interested (actually I can make a dragon in almost any color or combination of colors if anyone wanted...).

 This is Leaf. The first dragon that I ever made.

 This one is called sand. It's made with local, undyed alpaca wool so it's very soft.

 Snow was made from a mixture of rabbit angora and baby alpaca- oh so soft!

 

Stone was a special order for the same person who bought Snow. It has real (very small) quarts crystal fingers on its forehead and at the wing joints.                                                                                 

The rest of the Christmas Gifts

 One of my nephews is extremely hard to buy or make gifts for- he doesn't have a lot of wants and those things he does want he buys himself. Luckily he grew up a Harry Potter fan, and has a soft spot for owls. While shopping the after Halloween sales I came upon a little statue of an owl on an orb. It was painted black and covered with purple glitter, but the proportions were pretty good and I saw potential in it. Because it was an "eared" owl I decided to paint it as a Great Horned Owl.

I had considered painting the base to look like a globe, but instead I opted for faux bois; I achieved this look using layers of acrylic paint.

My niece, like many teenagers, is never without her cell phone, so I made a cross-stitch cell phone cover for her. I used a simplified portrait of Ted (the family dog) for the subject. I trimmed it in mini-ball fringe and used stretch velvet for the back, so if she switched to a slightly larger phone the cover will still fit.

One of my brothers is just as hard to buy for as my nephew. However, I remembered that he really liked a painting I had made last year. At first I was going to make a copy of the painting for him on a canvas, but there was the challenge of mailing it to him without it getting damaged (and without paying a mint in shipping costs). I thought about painting it onto an unstretched canvas, but then he'd have to find a frame for it and/or stretch it himself. Luckily I was struck by inspiration; I had a nice wooden cigar box laying around waiting to be painted and my brother appreciates a good cigar now and then, so I decided to copy the painting onto the outside of the cigar box. I used acrylic paints and gold leaf:

Of course it's a little more impressive in person, it's hard to see the crow because of the light reflecting off the poly, but you can get the general idea.