Evolution of a T-Rex

Several months ago, I decided that it would be great to add dinosaurs to my line up of toys. While not strictly fantasy, they are not something you see every day since they are now extinct. My first attempt at making a dinosaur could be said to be the Nessie toy since I based it loosely on a Plesiosaur. The next one I worked on was the ever popular Tyrannosaurus Rex.

I spent some time looking at artist's renditions of the dinosaur. I looked at pictures of museum models and museum displays of skeletons. The T-Rex actually, according to the latest findings, keeps it's body balanced in an almost horizontal position rather than the almost upright position depicted in cartoons and even some plastic models.

With the position in mind and with the limitations of the felt, I attempted to create a simplistic T-Rex with a horizontal body. The first rendition was an epic fail. I didn't even finish stuffing it. Poor thing looks like road kill rather than a dinosaur at all. (bottom figure in the picture to the right)

Round two showed flaws in my ability to balance a toy on two legs as it promptly fell on its nose. (middle figure in the picture to the right) In the interest of keeping it balanced on the hind legs alone, I changed the body from horizontal to an even more upright, if not correct stance. This time, I filled the tail with salt. (top figure in the picture to the right) Now, I know that salt in the tail is not a good solution. I was looking for something to weight the tail. Even with the salt, it looks like it's about to fall over. These have been relegated to the reject box.




At this point, I came to the conclusion that a properly balanced T-Rex wasn't going to happen at only 4 or 5 inches tall and made out of felt. I took artistic license and redrew the pattern entirely, having the T-Rex in a seated position. And since T-Rex is all about the huge mouth full of teeth, I added them in felt. They are obviously too large. And seated, the tail is too long. (see picture to the left)




Back to the drawing board. This time, it was, I thought fairly easy to just shorten the tail. At this point I was out of the lovely green felt so switched to an orange one to continue the experiments. After I made this one up, I realized that when I shortened the tail I had the T-Rex balanced on it's heels and the tip of the tail. Not what I was looking for. And back to the pattern again to make adjustments to the T-Rex was actually seated, not hovering. (see picture to the right in orange)



I made one more version. The last 2 versions also ended up in the reject box. This time I got the version that I have made up for sale. (Soon to be in the Etsy shop) I got it seated and I got the teeth looking ok and not like having over-sized dentures. While I am disappointed I wasn't able to create a realistic pose. I am pleased with the final result.


Until next time...

Slow Toys

I know it's been a while. November and December were rather full for me as I recovered from the arm injury and had to catch up. I was making candy and toys for local craft shows and my Etsy shop. There was also, of course, getting gifts off to family.

I would like to thank all of  you who have stopped by my little corner of blog land and read my blog posts. I also want to thank everyone who stopped by my Etsy store to take a peek. I was very pleased with the number of views, favorites, and yes, purchases. :) I hope you will all stop by again to see what's new throughout 2014.

While at the Christmas Craft show in town the first Saturday in December, I noticed a marked aversion to my toys. My candy, herb mixes and smoked salts were selling just fine. But, while the toys made people smile, they also dragged the children away from the display. I started asking myself what was wrong.

I went to the customer's side of the table. My signs were intact and properly displayed. The toys were hanging out in the castle. Nope, nothing wrong there. Then I started listening, over the general noise, to what was being said as the children were dragged away, or a couple of ladies left the table. "Those are way too expensive!" was common. As was, "It would be too much at half that price." And often, specifically to the children who asked for one, "I can't afford that much for a toy for you, maybe Santa will bring you one." To which any child over the age of about 6 looked disappointed, knowing they would not be receiving that toy.

After I decompressed from the holidays, I thought about this. On the one hand, my toys were selling from my Etsy shop. On the other, at the local craft show, people saw the price as being too high. (I priced the toys identically.) Now, people would comment to my face, how adorable, precious, and cute the toys were. They admired the fine craftsmanship in the construction, and remarked how I must have good eyesight. These people could actually see, and hold the toys. Yet, my toys were too expensive for them to buy. Is the local economy that bad? Or perhaps this is also the common reaction from the people who do not purchase my toys online as well? In which case, I may have a problem. Or maybe not.

My little critters are made with care and attention to the tiny details that make them adorable and cute. I hand stitch each one individually. I am not a factory, nor do I run one. One might say that these toys are part of the Slow Movement. The books, blogs, and half hour TV shows claiming you can make this or that really quick and easy has impacted those of us who know better. Art and craft take time. Hand made takes time. My time counts for most of the cost of one of my toys. While the 100% wool felt and wool batting isn't something you can buy at the local hobby store, it's available. It also costs more than the craft felt and polyester type stuffing. On the other hand, the cotton embroidery floss with which I stitch each one is available many places. I guess what I'm trying to say is that a natural toy (made with natural fibers) made by hand is vastly different than a plastic toy made in a factory. Which would you rather give to a child? Or which would you like for yourself?

Should I be worried that my prices are too high? I don't think so. In fact, I am probably not charging enough for the time I put into each one. But, for now, I'm happy that I've set a good price for each critter. I think it would be marvelous if just like Slow Food, Slow Art, and Slow Fiber, we could have Slow Toys. I'd fit right in. :)

Until next time...

Something different - Books

As I stated in my last post (a month ago) I have been dealing with an injury that keeps me from sewing my little critters. I was thinking I shouldn't wait so long before posting again.

Besides sewing up dragons, and other fantasy critters or attempting to make dolls, I have a few other things I do. One of them is book making. I'm fairly new at this (a little over a year) and the pictures I'm showing are some of my practice books.

I keep a daily written journal. Being able to make the books I write in has been a thrilling experience. I am delighted to be able to write in books that I created. I would like to learn a lot more about book making.

Right now, I'm making books using things I have. For instance using a telephone book instead of a punching cradle. I sew the pages without a sewing frame. And instead of a book press, I use hubby's weight plates and/or heavy books. :) I have invested in a few supplies, 80lb drawing paper, book board, linen thread, decorative papers, and mull. I'd like to eventually get "proper" tools and equipment as well as learning more.

In the meantime, I'm still healing up. It's slow and even though I probably shouldn't be, I've been sewing critters for a little bit every day. So, soon, there will be another photo shoot and more listings will appear in my Etsy store.

Until next time...

Where are all the dragons?

I think there must be a dragon shortage in the world. The reason I say that is my little dragons are flying away to new homes all the time. It's great. I love that these little critters are finding new homes. It means I get to make more of them. :)

I will be uploading a crop of new dragons to the Etsy store later today, including Chocolate pictured here to the right. There are also a couple of unicorns.

Unfortunately, I have pulled a muscle in my left arm. It's been very painful for the last couple of weeks with no quick healing in sight. I got hubby to help me photograph the new critters I had sewn up previous to the injury. But no new critters have been made since then. I feel bad about that since it's obvious the world needs more dragons. I'm working on healing up and getting back to the studio as soon as I can.

Until next time...

Dragon experiment

After the forest colored dragon, I got some feedback. The consensus was that the contrasting belly gusset was very cool. But, the separate legs, while fine, did not reflect my style. Giving it some thought I came up with yet another design. This time keeping the look of my dragon, but adding the contrasting belly gusset. I worked it out in Halloween colors.

The feedback on this design is wonderful. I've succeeded in creating something different, but still done in my style. The negative comments one and all were that I should choose a better color combination. No one liked the black and orange dragon. :( I even had a name picked out for him, Spooky. Ah well, not everyone likes what I do and not everyone likes the colors I choose. If you have an opinion please leave me a comment below. I'm still deciding on whether to take this new design forward and offer this style of dragon for sale in my Etsy shop.

While I think about it, I'm working on a few unicorns.

Until next time...

A different breed of dragon

After making the larger dragon, I was attempting to figure out a way to include more detail. One of my thoughts was to make the legs as separate parts, allowing the underbelly to be a different color.

I began with my miniature (4 inches tall) dragon pattern and made some changes. In addition, I liked the look of the gusset I used on the head of the large dragon and created that for this smaller size.

What you are seeing is the result of that experimental pattern. It's a lot more work than the original. Each leg has to be sewn separately and attached to the body. I chose to sew the legs first, then the belly gusset. Sewing the belly gusset became difficult working around the sewn on legs. If I continue this type of dragon, I'll experiment with sewing the legs on after the sewing the gusset.

However, I think this may have potential. It's currently residing with the large dragon on a shelf while I think about it.

Until next time...

Larger isn't better

The last couple of weeks I've been getting feedback from family members concerning my small felt stuffed animals. The feedback was that the 4 inch (100mm) critters were too small. So, I took the dragon pattern and enlarged it.

The first problem I ran across was that the wings with 2 layers of felt at the small size, did not translate well to the larger size. The wings weren't stiff enough to stand up. I cut out 3 layers of felt for each wing. The wing is better. It's certainly stiffer. However, the wings are too heavy for the rest of the dragon.

The picture to the left shows the comparison of the original size, in green, and the larger size, in white. I've got the white one sitting on a shelf while I process what I learned from the experiment. I know I'm not happy with it as is. The flaws, in addition to the wings, are that the head is tilted down too much, and I somehow managed to sew the ears misaligned. The ears are operator error. The head tilt, I'm not sure what happened. I also think the legs at the larger size can use more definition. What do you think?


Until next time...