September, 2008

A few finished frogs:

Myra is a little mischievous, if you couldn't already tell by her lopsided grin.

Charlie is Myra's best friend, but he's more shy than mischievous.

Fernando rounds out the trio. A few years older than Myra and Charlie, he prefers reading pirate tales and dreams of life on the sea.

Even though our Plush You pieces are safely in Seattle, there's no time to rest! This year, in addition to vending at No Coast Craft-o-Rama, we will also be participating in the December Handmaidens show the day after No Coast. Whew! It will be a whirlwind, but we're very excited!

The Handmaidens show is organized by the swell gals behind I Like You. If you haven't visited their store yet, you should! Angela and Sarah stock a fantastic assortment of locally-made goods, including our plushies.

Some of the items in this post's pictures will be for sale at I Like You by the end of the month. The others are going to No Coast. (Not to worry; I promise I'll attach their heads by then!)

Here's the lowdown:

No Coast Craft-o-Rama
December 5, 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
December 6, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Midtown Global Market
Lake Street and Chicago Avenue, Minneapolis

The Handmaidens
December 7
Uptown VFW
2916 Lyndale Avenue S, Minneapolis

Mark you calendars, and stay tuned!

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!