Dec 9, 2008

Buttons

In the midst of looking for button handmade ideas, I 've come across some pretty interesting button art and photos.

Here's a hug teddy stitched with buttons from Art of Housewives :




Some great ideas from Meringue Diary using buttons as art and photography :







Great button artwork by Lisa Kokin,




Passage
Buttons and mixed media, imitation sinew, waxed linen, chicken wire
41 X 29-1/2, 2004




Most Likely to Recede

Buttons and mixed media, imitation sinew, 31 x 31, 2004


There's more of button ideas such as rings, bracelet, necklace, embroidered onto bags and lots more. Creativity rules!!!! Anything from LED lights to steampunk accessories could be a piece of great artwork. Love to see more creativity peeps.


Dec 8, 2008

Kodama swap

This my second swap, a kodama (handmade swap of Miyazaki style from the film Princess Mononoke.). A kodama (木霊, 木魂, or 木魅) is a spirit from Japanese folklore, which is believed to live in certain trees (similar to the Dryad of Greek myth). Cutting down a tree which houses a kodama is thought to bring misfortune, and such trees are often marked with shimenawa rope.I have received mine from Jennifer from USA, totally love it. It is so adorable and so soft. Thank you Jennifer for this wonderful Kodama stuffie.



My Kodama stuffie from Jennifer


I have also made one from crochet for my partner Elaine from the states. Hope she like it as much as I love it.



My version of Kodama for Elaine



If you are interested in Swapping, drop by Swap-bot.com. It's so much fun, I have done 4 swapping up to Dec 08. My third swap was "I Love Your Blog Swap".The blog swapping is so much fun where you get to visit fun blogs and get comments on your own blog too!!

Happy swapping peeps.

Swap O Swap

New found hobby : Swapping!!!!

I found Swap-bot.com an interesting swapping place through introduction by a forum friend. Now, I am really hooked.

My first swap is a Profile Surprise which requires me to send 3 items to my partner, Destiny in the States. Instead of sending only 3 surprise I sent her 5 surprises. I really hope Destiny would like it!

Here's the goodies I sent last month, hopefully the parcel reach you soon.




A red crochet mushroom with pearly bead and crochet bracelet specially made for Destiny



A cupcake made with felt and with a face for Destiny's shop mascot



And this is the surprises (+ miniature cupcake where the pictures are not taken) that I have sent for the profile surprise swap.


I can't wait to receive my profile surprise from my other swap partner as Swap-bot swapping lands you with different swapping partner that you send to and receive from.


Nov 23, 2008

Snowman is in town

Ho, Ho, Ho..... Christmas and Snowman is coming to town!!!!




This is my first snowman for the year 2008. This snowman pattern was originally posted by Roxycraft. But instead of making the snowman head till 36 st, i reduce it to 30st. And i changed the traditional top hat to a party hat with a touch of green lining. As for the nose, i used a orange chenille stick and twisted and stuff into the amigurumi ball. As for the eyes, plain o button works just fine. I'm thinking of changing the light grey button back to dark grey as the right eye, as it looks a bit odd.It's simple and fun to make and hope you like my snowman too.




And this my Christmas greeting to all of you from Me, Snowman and Gabu (pattern by Roxycraft)



Do stay tune for more of my handmade snowman and christmas tree in the upcoming posts.

Nov 6, 2008

Enchanted Doll

Craftzine has pointed me a very talented doll artist that I fell in love with her work instantly. She is Marina Bychkova, the maker of Enchanted Doll. She makes her doll with porcelain, and her dolls facial expression just amazed me and she hand carved her dolls accessories. It looks so real, at first I thought it is artist impression of a girl but those pouty lips and big round eyes would melt anyone. She is the first doll maker that makes me feel that dolls actually has souls in them. I have posted some of my favourite dolls from her website:

Agnetha - The Other Woman



2007

Porcelain, Ball-Jointed. One of a kind Costumed. China-painted features and body blush. 13.5” tall. Completed in 210 hours. Removable costume.
Materials: Crown-Sterling Silver, 24k gold plate, 6 Ruby, 9 Garnet, 4 Sapphire and 5 Moonstone Cabochons. Gown- 1,158.00 Fresh Water Pearls, 698 Austrian crystals, 105 Garnets, 53 Amethysts, 6 Rubies, 4 Sapphires, 5 Moonstones, Indian Silk, Indian wire embroidery, Silk hair.

Agnetha is based on a fictional character of the Princess, from Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid.
In the story she is referred to only as the “Princess” and that she was beautiful and resembled the Little Mermaid. She is perceived as the antagonist of the story, because of her indirect involvement in Little Mermaid’s sad fate. As a child I had always sympathized with her involuntary situation and wandered about what that princess looked like and why the Prince choose her over the Mermaid. I wanted to name that nameless Other Woman and give her a face.

And here she is-Agnetha, the daughter of a neighboring king, a wife of political alliance and genuine affection.

In giving up a fundamental part of her personality- her ability to speak, the Little Mermaid had made the mistake of so many infatuated, teenage girls and put all her bets on her physical appearance to win the Prince’s heart. Although her surreal beauty enchanted the Prince, he could never take her seriously and commit to her as an equal partner. She was a beautiful but a hollow vessel to him without her ability for meaningful, verbal communication and her referred to her as his “Dumb foundling”. (Andersen) So he married a woman who had more to offer than just looks.

The moral here I believe, is that like Beauty, Discourse is Power. Power, over people’s minds, hearts and lives.


The Vessel





2008
13.5” tall

Work in progress

Materials: Porcelain, Ball-jointed.13.5” tall. China-paint and body blush. Natural Mohair/Silk. Steel springs. Leather joint lining. The porcelain is engraved with a needle while still raw, fired and then china paint is rubbed into the grooves. Accents are added in additional layers.


And my all time favourite is the Frankenstein Bride, she is a beau with those deep blue eyes that sucks my soul and her gown is so amazing, with so much details. My solute to Marina Bychkova, you are the greatest.


Bride of Frankenstein





2008
13.5” tall

Work in Progress

I like to challenge conventional imagery of known literary characters, and provide an alternative view of how they might have looked. The reason my Bride is blonde, is to contrast the iconic image of the movie's version, and also to play on the idea of the body's low Melanin levels. I imagine that when she was alive she was bright and vibrant with dark eyes and raven hair, but the postmortem trauma to her body and the mechanical process of reanimating her corpse had changed its molecular composition. I think that being blasted with several thousand volts of electricity would contribute to that also. The metal helmet is her life support and what keeps her dead brain artificially alive by pumping oxygen into it and zapping it with small amounts of electricity to maintain its basic functions. It acts like a pump and a defibrillator.

This project was inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, while the helmet in particular was inspired the Steampunk culture, as well as Camelia D'Errico's and James Christensen's work. The bridal gown is rendered in the style of Erte.






Oct 30, 2008

Last weekend

Last weekend was a long weekend with Deepavali celebration. We were thinking of where to go and end up deciding to go to One Utama, the mall that you need pure stroke of luck to find a parking spot. Anyways, One Utama is having a Halloween theme concourse area. There are giant spider web, a scarecrow, lots and lots of jack-o-lantern, cute owl and many more.......I love their decoration idea, not too creepy but fun.








And there is this cute owl sitting on the tree






Giant spider web without Spiderman, what a waste.



Lots of pumpkin lantern



"You will be cursed if you choose to sit here". What a great way to deter people sitting on your beautiful Styrofoam display.





And lastly, I would say my favourite is the black cat.




Oct 15, 2008

Secretly working on Halloween goodies

I have been a naughty girl, working away on my not so secretive Halloween themed goodies. I am just dying to show it off, but gotta wait for my turn to use to the camera. Finally I have some shots on my goodies, all crocheted !!!

Let's start with Pumpkins .........................

The pattern is adapted from Plant June, she make lovely and easy to make amigurumi patterns especially this one.






I have modified the original pattern to make a huge pumpkin, Mr Big. It is very heavy, though I don't think it can break any pumpkin record, but it would serves as a paper weight and scare of some nasty insects.






I've just realize my pumpkins are happy pumpkins as their eyes show their happiness. I love Halloween!!!










My favorite amongst all my Halloween stash would be Dracula bird, made out of crochet, felt and some gold thread for the cloak. Or is it a Vampire bat, ask by my monster friend, well if you like it as a bat, why not! But it is a bird crochet pattern by Lion Brand.




The love bloodshot eyes cupcake is my first crochet creation. A Halloween would not be complete without some elements of horror in it. I have seen a lot of cupcakes with scary elements in it, so I guess I could make one too (actually two, as the big one is the improved version).




And Halloween's best candy is in town. Introducing Mr frog with sweet Candy Corn..........








Mr Frog is a witch in hiding, with a witch hat on his crown, he become Witchie Frog, a very charming frog.





That all for now folks, I have more ideas for my Halloween stash, so do stay tune for more of Halloweeen....... Muahahahahaha..................


p/s: If you interested in buying them, please drop me a message. Thanks!

Oct 14, 2008

New found interest

I have a new found interest : hand embroidery, thanks to the influence of Pimp Stitch, Annie Oakleaves, Flikr, and other embroidery books. Here is some of my work, some stitches are bit loose, but I have fun making them. Hope you like them too.





This design is taken from a Japanese Embroidery book.




It is called Cacat bear as the nose is suppose to be round one, and due to my bad sewing skills, it became oblong. But it is my signature, as I was screw up on the nose. :P



This cute kiddie in bear suit are inspired by the cute dolls on the net.




This is my strawberry jam made to store coins or memory sticks.


I will stitch and practice more of embroidery as I have collected a lot of nice patterns. Hope to post more here. Cheers!!!

Oct 12, 2008

E.V.E weekly winner of Dadcando.com

I have received an email from Chris (Dadcando.com) congratulating me on winning the weekly challenge of my E.V.E. key chain on 21st September. I was thrilled, as I never won anything online, besides the fake messages spamming my mailbox.

After a few days wait, my prize arrived from UK : Plop Trumps Playcard


Playcard box front view


Playcard box back view



Brief introduction of the Plop cards quoted from the Dadcando website:


"Beautifully photographed, elegantly designed and wittily written, each Plop Trumps deck contains 40 fabulous cards, packed with fascinating pootastic trivia and the most compelling images. After all, who doesn't want to know what a cricket poo looks like? Or just how big and smelly a tiger poo really is? Or exactly how much atmosphere-busting-methane a cow actually produces each day? Well now these questions, and hundreds of others just like them, need never go unanswered again. "



Well, I must agree that it is a job well done. I would never dream of having play cards that is so informative on the " poo poo " of animals. If any of you interested in having a look at it, please feel free to let me know. Will try to take photo of the animal's poo that u want to see!

Sep 19, 2008

More of my handmade dolls : E.V.E

I constantly looking out for DIY crafts to play with and one day I was directed to Dadcando.com. It is a great website where parents especially "Dad" can spend time with their children on craft projects, from making dolls to recycling. On this website I found the E.V.E. doll project.

I was tempted to make the doll as I love the Wall E movie (Actually i love Wall E character more than E.V.E., but it is much more harder to make). Anyways, instead of making a big E.V.E. , I made a small E.V.E. key chain (about 10cm tall) and modified the plant detector to a LOVE detector. By the way, it is made by felt and hand sewn.














Hope the E.V.E. lovers out there enjoy my piece of art. *.*

Sep 12, 2008

Wedding Bells Yet Again


Wedding Bells Yet Again


My dearest friend BeeYun aka Girl is getting married on Sunday 14th September 2008; an auspicious day of the chinese lunar calendar: Mid Autumn Festival.

I would want to wish Girl and her husband a wonderful and blissful marriage and Congratulation my dearest friend and sister.

Here I give you my best wishes with this pair of manatees for your wedding present.
Hope you love it.








The story behind this cute and lovely manatee couple starts from the pattern that I found in Craftster by T4124. I was dying to try out the pattern but never had a chance. Since I always give away a handmade present for my married friends, so i thought i would try out the manatee pattern. And I really love the pattern, it is very easy to make.







The manatee bride is totally adorable with pearly tiara veil and rose corsage.





The corsage idea came to me when I don't want to dress up the manatee bride and think it would be fun to dress up the flipper instead of the body. The corsage is made up of rose felt and some lace.




As for the tiara veil: it is made from wire, plastic pearl and ribbons. This is my first veil, I wish I can add more volume and frill to it, but for now a simple veil would suit my bride well.




And lastly, my handsome manatee groom. Hehe the flippers is not at the same position but it looks like a swimming manatee on my cutting board.





For the gentleman's hat, it is made from felt and i embroidered it a bit to look retro and added a ribbon corsage instead of a tuxedo for the groom.