A Little Boaring...

Last week my son showed me a picture of a cute stuffed toy, a wild boar piglet.  It was being sold by an unknown company somewhere overseas and he didn't want to chance it.  So I said 'I bet I could make one of those'.

So I did.  I adapted a pattern I found in a magazine for an ordinary pink piglet - had to change the head, alter the tail, put the trotters on the right way round(!) and add the stripes.

 I used some remnants of a velvety fur fabric that I bought a couple of years ago, not knowing what I would do with them.  The whole thing is hand sewn because this fabric is a nightmare to sew on the machine - it slips and slides all over the place.

This is a one off for my baby granddaughter - I am not planning on making any more, too time consuming and fiddly and besides, I don't have any more of the fabric to spare!

Not Enough Hours in the Day......

I thought this would be a quick and loose painting, taking no more than a couple of days.  As usual, the  painting had other ideas and turned into what it wanted to be, which this time was obviously a highly detailed and laborious view of summer wild flowers.  I am using the Inktense pigment blocks as paints because I thought they would give a bright and vibrant result which was what I had in mind for the poppies.  However, for some reason, they have ended up strangely muted with a kind of 'old' look to them....which luckily I quite like!  There is still a great deal of work to go into this, but for the next couple of days I have not time - it's the Tavistock Summer Fair tomorrow and I will have a stall there and of course, am totally unprepared.

I have taken a short break from commissioned work and tried to knit up a few farmyard friends for sale on my stall.  Despite knitting until midnight most nights, I have only managed to produce the above.

There may or may not be a fourth piglet when the set is completed - depends on how long I can stay awake this evening!

Beryl and Martha are ready to go though.  I have adapted the animation design to be more child-friendly, not a wire in sight.  The feet have been crocheted and stiffened with fabric stiffener - not the greatest of results, they need a bit of balancing to stay upright, but at least no-one can hurt themselves.  These two still have the egg-laying feature.

If these knitted creatures do not sell tomorrow, they will then be available on my Etsy shop over the weekend.  Should you ever wish to commission one of these items, do get in touch, I can always stay up a bit later.......

This Little Piggy Went To Market......

Here is Momma Pig with all six of her piglets.  Each one has different markings, jointed legs and a wired tail.

They each have a 'popper' on their snout so they can do this....

It's a bit of a crush - someone always gets left out!

This was such a fun little project - I can honestly say I didn't start getting bored until half-way through the last piglet and as they are a fairly fast knit, that wasn't for long. Now I have to figure out the cow - it is not only to be jointed, but must also have a mouth than opens......

Someone likes their new mode of transport - he can stand up properly and look out of the window for the first time ever!

And he has a wibbly-wobbly travelling companion....this makes my daughter laugh like a drain every time we go over a bump in the road. 

Happy As a Pig in..........

It is so good when you get commissions that are totally out of your comfort zone - you get to try something completely different and often the challenge sets you off in new and fresh directions creatively.  I must admit I have never felt the inclination to paint a picture of a scarecrow before, but when a friend of mine asked for a painting for her new house which combined a couple of her favourite things, I was up for the challenge.  I think the most difficult thing was to find an image of a scarecrow that wasn't totally terrifying!  This one was quite fun to do, and I really enjoyed painting the field of sunflowers.  It is painted in watercolour and has gone off to a very happy customer today.

I wouldn't have voluntarily picked a pig to knit either, least of all a fully jointed one.  But again, this was an inspiring commission, particularly as I had to not only design the mother pig, but also a tiny piglet, with jointed legs and a wired tail for animation purposes.  And the best bit is.....

...he can have a drink of milk just like a real piglet as the other half of the snap fastener is on the end of his snout!  I have 5 more piglets to make (!) for this commission but I think I will definitely make more child-friendly sets to go in my Etsy shop.

The above are the reason why I very rarely refuse a commission, the answer is usually 'I'll have a go'.

As Blogger has been acting up over the past couple of days, I will extend the end date for the giveaway to Wednesday.