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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!!!

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!