Crafting the Journeys animation

These guys were made for an animation workshop I did through November & December with Croydon Council to promote their Journeys project. I’ve never had so many funny looks on the tube as I sewed them together, grabbing whatever moments I had at this crazy busy time to get them made.  


Check out the finished animation here...

Meet the monster family...

Plenty of cups of tea helped along the making of this monster family at the end of October. They all turned out so fantastically well and not so scary...well the blanket stitch seemed a bit scary at first, but everyone mastered this in no time. 


There were some crafters that had to vamoose a bit earlier than the rest of the gang. The wee green and red monster below actually got made into a Christmas decoration, sacrilege! two days before Halloween, I tell you.   

And I think this cutie was going to get completed at home, then eventually end up in the mouth of a baby. Perfect! 

I really have to create a post workshop photo gallery so that we can see where everything ends up...


Some work in progress shots, and what perfect stitching...and stuffing...

And finally some close-ups of the completed creations, frankenstein eat your heart out...erm, well maybe not quite yet.

the making of a monster

This is my favourite time of year, especially around Halloween or the feast of Samhain and All Souls' Day. And to celebrate just a little this Saturday on October 29th we will be getting the needle and tread out to create miniature monsters and you never know we might even try apple dunking...and share a ghost story around a cup of brew...

Check out the details here if you want to come along. 

I'm so excited about this that I even created a one minute horror (ahem) animation...well more like attack of the killer pin cushions, or something along those lines. 

See how the wee orange guy got made by the hand of the creator.

My monster inspiration comes from many places but I can't help being inspired by these cardboard cut outs a friend gave to me all the way from California. They are aptly called Kamisabi - in Japanese it's the term for an item given a second life as a ghost. The paper comes from trimmings so they are recycled into a new life. They make me smile...

But the pincushions have the last word, in case you are interested to see the final scene of the animation, a bit like extreme acupuncture? eh...the poor thing