Gavin the pood...., erm, polar bear

Wondering about the title? Well, to be honest, Gavin was supposed to become a poodle when I started working on this. I hadn't expected it to work out right away, but I also didn't expect things to change quite so dramatically ;-)
No idea why, but my needle felted animals tend to be on the pudgy side. In this case, however, there was no chance to call that growing piece of felt a pudgy poodle. Instead it turned into a bigger dog (whom I gave fluffy hair at first), and then I thought that was actually a polar bear staring at me, even if it wasn't really a polar bear yet and didn't have eyes yet at that point.

After changing that, though, Gavin is now ready to say hello.

Oldies but Goodies - Farm living

When I was a child, the time spent on the farm of my godmother's parents was always special.
I didn't deal well with some things like being expected to eat the chicken that had still run around the same morning (but no, I never had to witness myself how it went from running around to making its way to the stove), but most of the memories are vivid and good - with half of them probably being a little misty-eyed.
I had "my own" cow. At least I had first dibs on buying her if I ever made enough money which I was sure would happen eventually. She was white and light brown and her name was Diana.
I loved all the cats, first of all O'Henry, the big tabby, and although already being a cat person back then, I also loved Hera, the big German shepherd. Actually I don't know how big she really was, but I was pretty small back then. When my godmother's brother asked me to open the gate for her, I was always a little afraid because she would stand against it and just let herself drop - and crush me inadvertently, no doubt. Sometimes I managed alone, sometimes someone came out of the stable, saw me standing there and opened the gate with just the tiniest eyeroll.
I helped picking berries in the garden, rode along on the tractor and played a vital role (from a safe distance ;-)) in putting the cows out to pasture. I snuggled bunnies, collected eggs, read my godmother's and her brothers' old children books, watched her mother cook and was probably generally in the way of everyone.

This week's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge is about what you can find on a farm ... animals, plants, and more. I hope you'll like my selection!

1 and 9 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 and 8 Cat's Wire
3 and 5 MC Stoneworks
4 RioRita
6 and 7 The Crafty Chimp

Interview with the artist - Sydney from Day of the Extinction at Sweet Bananaberry

Today I have a special artist interview on my blog. My guest is Sydney, and Sydney not only has big goals, but also a big heart and a dream.
I met Sydney through her grandmother Darcy who is very proud of her as she should be.
I hope this was enough to make you curious what this is all about. Please take a few moments to read the interview and do keep in mind that all the replies are in Sydney's own words. I didn't change anything at all.

Hi Sydney! I'm glad to have you as a guest on my blog today. Tell us a little about who you are.

My name is Sydney Hutchinson i’m in the 3rd grade . I live in Massachusetts and I Love Animals. I love animals, even the human kind.

And I am really surprised that in such little time I’m being interviewed already. It is such an honor that you are interested in me.

Well, it doesn't happen every day that I meet someone so young who is so determined about a project and I felt I needed to do my little part to spread the word.

Fact is you've started a special project, tell us about it.

I’m very interested in wildlife so I read all about it but the more I learn about whats happening out there in the world the more terrified I become. So thats why I feel the urge do something about it. So I started my own new company to raise money to help the animals I care about.

My Company is called Day of the Extinction.

Grevy Zebra cabochon

What gave you the idea for this project in the first place and how did you pick the name for your company? It definitely does catch attention, it did catch mine.

Well the way got the idea, actually the question before this one tells you where I got the idea. And I had raised some money before, by selling bracelets I made at the shows my grandmother sells her work at.

This time.. I was at my grandmothers house while she was making supplies for jewelry designers and she was making Day of the Dead Sugar skulls and I started thinking I should start making these too of the animals I love.

I came up with the name myself. The name was easy because it is sort of like the Day of the Dead and the animals I love are about to become extinct. SO I mixed them.

How do you choose the animals for the artwork and what's your favorite animal?

I went online and looked at lists of critically endangered animals and I wrote them down on a piece of paper and thats how my list started. I have a very big list!

My favorite Animal is a.......SNOW LEOPARD!!!!!!! I don’t really have a reason to like them I just do. They make me feel warm and safe inside so then I knew they HAD TOO be my favorite animal.

Snow Leopard cabochon

I understand that. Snow leopards are really beautiful.

So is there someone who is helping you with Day of the Extinction?

The people who are helping are my grandmother Darcy Rosner and her friend Debbie Michaud.

AND my Grandfather helps.

How are your pieces made?

Debbie, My Grandmothers friend and I make the pictures together, She does the line drawings of the animals I ask her to and I do all the coloring and deciding about how they look.

She draws the lines. I color and when I like it I am ready to roll. I use special markers, inks and colored pencils to color everything just right. Then I use a special printer to print the pictures onto hard plastic. Then When the printer ink is dry....I put a glaze on them and bake them so the glaze melts.

Then I am ready to turn it into jewelry supplies or jewelry and sell them.

I know you already sold some of the cabochons and also hear you already have expanding plans, what are they?

I would like to make all these designs into Jewelry. Earrings and Necklaces and maybe pins too. But I also have a tons of other plans. I want to do cards and book marks, and coffee cups and tea-sets and dishes and tee shirts and everything I can think of that people might want to buy. The more I make The more Animals I can save.

Then I want to have these for sale in every zoo and museum and caring places that I can think of.

The more I sell the more money I can send to the animals!

White Rhino cabochon

I can share only a few of the pictures here, so where can we find you online if we want to see more?

In My Grandmothers Etsy shop Sweet Bananaberry until I get the zoos to sell and until I can get my own website.

And on Facebook at Day of the Extinction.

Blue Whale necklace

Now that we've heard about your company and the story behind it, do you have another message for the world out there?

Yes I do. I want the world to stop killing animals so that they can make rugs out of them. I want people to stop killing animals to hang them on their walls. It is totally gross and disgusting and irrational. So I have made a new Motto for myself. My motto is the more i make the more I save. My art will save animals. That is pretty cool.

People need to help these animals and I am going to do my best to make every person understand how harsh they are being to our world.

If the animals become extinct we will never see them again. It will be all over.

And if it is all over and there are no more animals then how would we live? All the animals are in some way all connected too the plant life and we need plants to breath and if can’t breath life will be OVER for GOOD! So this is the last thing I have to say.....PLEASE STOP AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO EARTH BECAUSE YOU CAN BE AMAZING!!!!

You ask people to suggest other species for your product line. Well, I love tigers. Will you make a round or oval cabochon with a tiger on it for me?

I already I started a tiger and I started ovals and round shapes that keep not working out well but the first Tiger will be JUST FOR YOU!!!!

Actually there are already some oval and round shapes available now and there are not only cabs for jewelry artists, but also ready to wear pieces.

African Elephant earrings

If a nine year old girl like Sydney is aware of the consequences for the planet if we don't care for the animals, why are still so many people out there who don't? Who - as she so aptly said - turn them into trophies or "medicine"?
We can certainly learn something from you here, Sydney.
I, for one, am impressed by your will to make a difference and I wish you all the best for your special and ambitious project and hope to hear more about it soon.

People, you know what you'll have to do now. Head over to Day of the Extinction on Etsy and Facebook and check it out for yourself!

Oldies but Goodies - Animals

At the Jewelry Artisans Community we are not only jewelry lovers, but also animal lovers. We have cats, we have dogs, we have birds, and we even have our own resident chimp, that's one of our members, though ;-)
This week's Oldies but Goodies Challenge was about animals and here is what I got for you. Please be sure to click the link to go through all the pictures. Dawn has been sharing some wonderful examples of her painted animal pendants, you don't want to miss out on that!

1 The Crafty Chimp
2 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 MC Stoneworks
4 Violetmoon's Corner
5 Cat's Wire

Interview with the artist - Jenny from JRP Crochet

Jenny who is also known as Pickleweasel360 on deviantART won the National Yarnographic contest there with a piece that's particularly dear to my heart, not only because it is an animal I think is absolutely fascinating, but also because of the expert way she put it into crochet.
Just look at the spots she brushed on! What a labor of love.

Snow leopard

Tell us a little about who you are and where you come from.

I'm a 22 year old girl from a small town in Kentucky. I've always been a fast learner when it comes to arts and crafts. I get my skills from both my mom and dad, but mostly my mom. She would draw with me and make clay animals for me when I was a kid. I wanted my stuff to turn out like hers did and eventually I was able to make it happen.

What's your craft/art and how did you get to do it in the first place?

The craft I'm currently obsessed with is crochet. I've been crocheting a few months less than two years. I try to make my pieces as realistic as I can. I love making things I haven't seen before or making them in my style. I got into making crochet because some of the cutest art pieces I have seen on deviantART are crocheted. I didn't have the money to buy them, so I had to learn to make my own.

I think this is one of the most asked questions - where does your inspiration come from?

I've always enjoyed animals of every kind. Most of my toys as a kid were animals and dinosaurs. My favorite ones being the ones that could be posed. So when I started getting the hang of crocheting, naturally I wanted to make animals I could play with. Making them poseable is one of my favorite things about my work. It gives them personalities and each one is unique.


Tell us a fun thing about yourself.

I graduated from Nashville Auto Diesel College. The whole time I was there I was the only girl in my class. All day, everyday. It was the first time I had been in a school where I didn't know anyone. So besides making little animals that could sit on your dash, I could also fix your vehicle if you broke down.

Do you do other crafts, if yes, what?

I used to sculpt things out of clay, but I haven't made anything in years. The last things I made were in High School. I haven't had the desire for it since then. The clays I have now stain my hands and I don't want to mess up my yarns.

Which one of your pieces is your absolute favorite? Which one was the hardest to make and why?

My favorite will always be the deer. It was the first thing I designed completely from scratch and it is what led to all the other things I make now. I would have to say that the dragons are the hardest to make just because they take the longest to finish.


Is there someone whom you admire and who inspires you?

I've made a lot of friends because of my art. People who enjoy my work and people who share the same passion for crochet. I'm inspired by them. Reading comments and sharing ideas helps me think of what to make next.

"Which way to Santa's sleigh?"

If you had free choice of just one supply you can use for your craft/art, what would you be dreaming of, no matter how expensive?

I suppose a machine to dye my yarns custom colors would be the most fantastic. Finding the right color yarn in the right thickness for a project is hard. Especially when only certain types of yarns come in only certain thicknesses.

Do you sell online, if yes, where can we find you?

I do indeed! I have a new Etsy shop at JRP Crochet or you can send me a note on my deviantART.

Is there anything you feel you need or want to tell the world outside now?

A lot of people say, 'I wish I could make things like that' or 'I wish I knew how to crochet!'. It isn't as hard as it looks. With each piece I learned something and slowly improved. I found a lot of free patterns on Ravelry and used them as practice. Once you learn a few of the stitches, you can make a lot of things with them. In most of my pieces I only use 5 different types of stitches!


Thank you, Jenny, I really hope to get to see more of your fabulous pieces over time and hope so will others!

Interview with the artist - Janene from UNcliche Crochet

The next few weeks I'll introduce you to some more ladies I got to know on deviantArt. Actually all of them won in a monthly contest in a group called National Yarnographic, that's reason enough to present their lovely work.
Today it's Janene's turn, have fun!

Crocheted Albino Kangaroo Joey

Tell us a little about who you are and where you come from.

I'm Janene, I'm a 19 year old girl with a passion for anything creative or artsy. I come from Texas, but also have ties to Papua New Guinea where I once lived when I was a child.

What's your craft/art and how did you get to do it in the first place?

My crafts are crocheting, felting, and knitting. My main choice of craft would be crocheting, but I dabble in all three. I also know basic sewing techniques which is necessary to know when making Amigurumis. It all really started when I learned how to crochet. I was home-schooled for a year in 8th grade and would stay at a family friend's house to be watched over in the morning when my mother was at work. She taught me one day saying it could be my "Home Economics" class. I picked it up rather quick in her opinion and my first thing I made was a really ugly scarf that I quickly unraveled once I was done. For a while I had stopped crocheting due to a lot of my hats and scarves coming out a bit wonky, but then I found a book on Amigurumis. It was Amigurumi Animals by Annie Obaachan, I found it to be one of the most brilliant things ever. Since then I haven't stopped crocheting animals and people.

Blacktip reef shark

I think this is one of the most asked questions - where does your inspiration come from?

That is tough, I never really thought about that. I would have to say animals and anything cute, haha. Animals are so magnificently created and are so much fun to see and just watch. Cute things are just nice, but honestly a lot of what I find cute are from Japan; like their anime, manga, and mascots. But also Japan being where Amigurumi originated from it's only natural that the country and its art inspires me.

Tell us a fun thing about yourself.

Well, I once lived in Papua New Guinea which was the last country to be found in the New World. It is also the only home of the Birds of Paradise which is a species of birds that are so unique and so different from any other bird in the world. Since I lived there in my childhood, I was always so in awe by animals making me want to be a zookeeper. Now that I am older I hope to go to college into the field of zoology and see where it takes me. Maybe one day I will be able to actually help care for wild animals and help bring more knowledge into this world.

Platypus scarf

Do you do other crafts, if yes, what?

I was once taught how to make a bilum which is a bag only made in Papua New Guinea. I was actually brought to a village where very few people spoke English and was taught by seeing and repeating since there was a language barrier. Although I can't fully remember how they do it anymore, if I saw someone doing it in person, I could pick it up again, but I remember it hurt my wrist a lot. I was also taught how to make baskets out of tree leaves, but I don't think that tree exists in America.

Which one of your pieces is your absolute favorite? Which one was the hardest to make and why?

My cheetah is probably my favorite thing I have ever made. He is a lot more posable than the rest of my creations, and he is just so darn cute. I am not sure who was my hardest, but if I had to choose, it would be my gryphon because she took FOREVER to make. She probably was about a week of work, but only because I kept running out of white and brown yarn. I kept lugging her to school to work on her during art class to hopefully get her done faster.

Crocheted cheetah

Is there someone whom you admire and who inspires you?

I believe a ton of crocheters I have seen online inspires me, like Brigitte Read, also known as Roman Sock. She, I believe, was the creator or at least the pioneer of the brushing technique to make your Amigurumis look more realistic. Susan Oldfield aka Sad Days Crochet who is a fellow deviantArtist is another one of my inspirations, she made this stunning doll Asmodeus who is so expressive and was a huge impact on me creatively. I was so amazed something like him could be crocheted. Last but not least is Shauna Richardson, she made the world's largest crochet sculptures which were lions for the London Olympics in 2012. She also makes the most realistic crocheted animals coining the word crochetdermy (from crochet and taxidermy). Again another person who blew my mind with her phenomenal work.

If you had free choice of just one supply you can use for your craft/art, what would you be dreaming of, no matter how expensive?

If I had an unlimited supply of yarn, I would probably do a lot of yarn bombing, haha. But also probably try to find a way to use yarn for everything, like furniture, accessories, and so forth. I would want my entire house to be made from yarn. Basically I would just yarn bomb my own house.

Do you sell online, if yes, where can we find you?

I have a shop on Etsy at UNcliche Crochet. (I was previously known as Yarn Concoctions, but I felt the name wasn't the best.)

Baby harp seal

Is there anything you feel you need or want to tell the world outside now?

Thank you for reading this, and continue being yourself and just stay awesome!!!

I really have to say that I had a lot of fun reading this interview because I learned so much from it. Please take the chance to let the links guide you to discover some amazing stuff!
Also step by Janene's deviantArt page where she's the Yarn Hoarding Dragon! ;-)

The Monday collection - Old MacDonald had a farm

.... and here are all his animals. There's not really much to say about this collection, it speaks for itself and I had big fun putting it together!

My blog layout doesn't like the large collections. Please click the picture to get to the original collection!

And a little extra for all of those who love Donald as much as I do!

Thank you, Veevid4u!

My little zoo at home

Not counting Mr. Pigster who hopefully will arrive in his new home soon, my little zoo has grown to six animals now. Two of them will leave me in a while as well. I am sure they will be replaced soon, but not forgotten.
New additions to the household since last time are another pig, the elephant (he did cost me nerves!), a fish and a plump little bird. Pigpig - hey, I never claimed to be good at giving names - as the biggest is about 2 inch long.
I wish they were easier to photograph, but no matter from what direction you take a picture, you see wire through wire and that makes it a little difficult.

I hope you can enjoy anyway!

Edinburgh Day 5 - Feathers and fur

We do have a very small local zoo as you may already know. We also have a big and quite famous zoo in Stuttgart, the town where I work and where we used to live for five years. I have blogged about it before, it's the Wilhelma, a mixture of botanical and zoological garden. Still we like to see other zoos as well. Often friends don't understand us. They wonder why we don't care for the nightlife, why we don't visit more museums, drive around or flop down on some beach to get baked in the sun. Let them wonder :-) We had picked the last day of our stay for the zoo. We thought Monday might be a good day for it. When our taxi arrived (none of us was able at that moment to deal with the hassles of a bus schedule), it had started raining already. The receptionist sounded worried about our day, the taxi driver asked where we were going and shook his head gravely. Really the tall guy hadn't been too sure, either. He had watched the weather forecast on TV, but I said I didn't care. There would be houses you could go into and it would be ok. Of course I was right. The rain stopped exactly the moment we got out at Edinburgh Zoo. The first fellow to greet us was this elephant. The only elephant in the zoo, by the way. That is one thing I liked a lot. It didn't seem like they just had the typical collection of the usual suspects. No elephant, no giraffe, no big apes as far as I could see except for the chimpanzees at Budongo Trail that we didn't see because of the crowds of children which was probably a terrible shame as it is the largest chimpanzee enclosure in the world. Here we also got a first glimpse at Mansion House. The building has a restaurant inside and the other wing is occupied by the Zoological Society. Mmh, I would to love a house like that in the middle of the zoo! Almost the first enclosure we came to was the one with the African wild dogs. I am a big fan of them and have been ever since I read the book by Jane Goodall and her first husband Hugo van Lawick when I was still a child. Unfortunately they were no fan of mine and were not to be seen at first. After a while I spotted them hiding at the other end, probably they hadn't liked the rain very much. Some others were not too happy with the rain although it was already over, like me when I tried to take a picture of the dikdiks and some birds that could have been kingfishers. Raindrops were hanging in the fine mesh of the cage, making all pictures blurry. It was also impossible to take a good picture of the large group of penguins. I would have loved to show you how a keeper tried to convince a group of king penguins to have a fish. She offered it to every single one, but no chance, they refused. All the while behind her a desperate penguin of another kind tried to get to that fish and when she left, he followed her until he had to face the cruel fact he wasn't going to get it. Unfortunately we missed the daily penguin walk and we also don't know if we got to see the VIP penguin, Sir Nils Olav. We just couldn't tell them from each other, sorry. Nevertheless I got my penguin photo ;-) This guy has a lot of little friends! Up to now we had not thought about where the zoo was situated. Does the word "hill" ring a bell? Yes, we started climbing uphill again, by the rhino enclosure where we only saw the keeper mucking out. It's ok, we always have rhinos at Stuttgart, but never before had I seen pudus. They were a little shocked when their keeper "threw" them out of their cage, it was wet out there! I also couldn't resist this turkey. Many say it's ugly, but look at the beautiful colors! It's hard if not impossible for me not to see something beautiful in all creatures, no matter how many legs they have (yes, even spiders and do you remember Bruno, the swimming slug?) Until then we had not really seen very many people and let me tell you ahead I heard nothing but English that day. It seemed as if quite a few people had taken their kids to the zoo, but that was it. No foreign tourists, except for us. We felt very special ;-) Now when we came to the wild cats there were more people and we pointed out to each other where they were hiding, were showing each other the spots from where you get the best pictures, it was a really nice atmosphere (except for the guy in the green shirt who managed to walk by the glass every time I had a chance to catch the Amur leopard - I have no picture of him now that I could show, the only ones that were not all blurry showed green reflections, but I guess I can't have everything). I almost got the black panther. Almost ... The jaguar didn't do me the favor of holding still, either. Maybe I am just too slow? Here is the tiger and here is a cat I hadn't heard of before, a Pallas cat. The girl was hiding so well, I didn't see her, but the guy was doing us the favor of showing us his beautiful face. By the way, his intense look we owe to a nice, plump pigeon that sat on the roof. Now we went up to see the Asian lions. Here we made a big mistake. We climbed up the hill that clearly led us to the lions with these footprints (there were also prints of plants on the ground, it looked really neat). We didn't see the lions in their big enclosure and around the corner it looked like it was the end of the way, so we turned around. Mistake, keep it in mind. We had a good look at the European wolves, great animals! No pictures, sorry, but I didn't like the way it looked with the mesh. From time to time I had to take a picture of a flower instead. Maybe I was still inspired from the day before. It rained a little again, just a tiny drizzle, but I loved the effect of the drops on this flower. At the same time it was so hot that the ground started steaming. I hoped for a rainbow, but I wasn't lucky. Next was the zebra and antilope enclosure. Look at that space! From a wooden bridge going out into the enclosure ending in a hut we could see the town. From there we walked to Hillpoint View, the highest point in the zoo. We were sitting there looking at the reindeer when the safari bus arrived. What do you mean, you could get a ride up there without having to walk?? I wish that had that in Stuttgart, whenever I have made it to the polar bears, I am dead. The reindeer enjoyed the sun, there was also a baby hiding underneath a bush and refusing to come out for me to take a good photo. When we walked down the hill, we noticed a sign that pointed to the lions and the maned wolves. Huh? How could we miss them? I have only seen one once at the Wilhelma, they seem to avoid me. We found out we shouldn't have turned around when we thought it was the end of the way. We just had to walk around the corner. It is hard to choose pictures of the maned wolves, I have quite a few and even two short videos. Aren't they gorgeous? I have no idea how young the cubs were, they definitely looked younger and smaller than the big ones, but not at all like babies, more like silly teenagers. They were playing and hunting (mice?) and seemed to have fun. Meet Mercedes now, the polar bear. When we first saw here, she was in her crate. We didn't know why, but we were told (just follow the link) she would go to a big wildlife park as soon as possible. When we passed her by a second time, she had fun playing with a branch. We just got to the Scottish wildcat in time for listening to its keeper and his daily talk. He told us the cat was in a "food coma" and it really looked like it. This is the best my macro could do. Also sleeping was this guy. The outside enclosure had been closed down, so he and his friends had to stay inside and dream of better days. They are the only koalas in the whole UK. I had never seen a koala in a zoo before. I think it was then we decided to have a little snack. Sandwiches. I was getting tired of sandwiches, but we didn't want to waste much time. That's what Mansion House looks from the front. I couldn't find a place where they would take my application to move in :-( After being fed we started to make our way back. I'll make it shorter for you now as I don't want to lose you before you have seen these fellows. We met Ellen and her two month old baby girl ... ... gibbons in love ... ... many more flowers ... ... a crazy bunch of lemurs that held a conference ... ... and the sea lions ... ... and yes, we also went to the gift shop, what did you expect?? I am sorry if I missed to talk about one or the other animal, like the goral, the flamingoes, the red river hogs or the eagles or the tapirs, the baboon in the tree and many more I'm sure. I want to make clear I enjoyed seeing them just as much as the ones shown here. I am still disappointed I couldn't see the bush baby, another one of my favorites :-( When we came back to the hotel, we rested our feet for a little while and then it was already time to meet Taz from my cat forum. I had really been looking forward to that. We decided to stay at the hotel and eat there and I think I am safe to say we had a fabulous time. It was the perfect ending to a great vacation because the next day we would return to Germany. Much too early really and with the feeling there was so much more to see, but we didn't think about it that evening. Enjoy the moment, right? Back at the room I still didn't feel tired and while the tall guy was dreaming along, I finished another pendant with a smaller fossilized coral, for me this time. I don't even have a picture of it, but I think you get the idea. Thanks for making it through this long post with me, I promise the one tomorrow will be shorter. Why I'll have one at all if it was only travelling back? Wait and see ;-)