Hello, little hedgehog

Almost exactly seven years ago I made a little hedgehog family.
Today another of these little fellows turned up in my house. Maybe the big ones I encountered in the streets every, now and then when walking to the train in the morning sent her to check on me because we haven't met since I started home office due to the pandemic ;-)

It had been a long time since I made a hedgehog, but it had also been a while since I last did some wire crochet.
It's so funny how good it felt on one side - like visiting a very old friend you haven't seen for some time - but also how different the movement is for hands and wrists compared to the different beading techniques. It actually took some getting used to again.
Also I had to experiment a little because you may remember that I never put down patterns, so I had to figure out some parts again. The good thing about that was that I tried something different and was very happy with how it came out (and I'm not even talking about the ears ... yes, she's my first hedgehog with ears, the other ones probably preferred not listening to me ;-)).

She will be travelling across the ocean soon. Safe travels, little one!

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.

Tackle that stash - The little hand

I have been thinking I should add a new category "Experimenting" to my blog. It might be interesting. Maybe a little creepy, sometimes frustrating, and possibly making you raise your eyebrows from time to time.
Experimenting is mostly about my wire crochet sculptures. A little face here, an eye there, a glove, an animal - the latest ones being two hands. A bigger one and now a smaller one.

Where is the stash coming in, you will ask. In the form of a beautiful blue bubble lampwork bead. See for yourself.

I already posted this picture on Facebook. You have no idea how difficult some wire creations are to photograph.
I'm not completely happy with the proportions yet, but after all this was a first attempt in this size. I'll be getting there, so stay tuned.

First flying lesson

"Fly, Matthew, fly! You can do it!"

Going fishing

"Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will. He slept on doorsteps in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have to go to school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody; he could go fishing or swimming when and where he chose, and stay as long as it suited him."

Of course I'm talking about Huckleberry Finn. He's the boy who can do as he pleases, has all freedom that we are secretly jealous of, on the other hand I doubt any of us would like to sleep on doorsteps or in hogsheads.

Meet Huckleberry Ted.

He just caught a fish and I hope for him he'll go home now showing it off.

Ted is made from a lampwork bead by Dzign by Jamie, his clothes, a shirt, pants with a pair of suspenders and his hat are crocheted from colored copper wire as is his fish.

I'm a little behind on listing, but hope he'll make it into the shop in the next few days.

The rocky river bank

THE fish

Fishing in the morning when the sun just comes up is the best

The glove

I am not Michael Jackson and the glove is not white. Oh, and there's no glitter.

But let's start in my childhood. I can hear you yell "not a-NOTHER childhood story", but sorry, it's part of the glove's story.
In Germany there is a game called "Fang den Hut", in English called "Coppit", according to Wikipedia.
I used to play it at my grandparent's house, with my friends, but more fun than actually playing the game was putting the little hats on our fingers and pretend we were witches. Of course my favorite hat was the golden one. Today when I have long finger nails I still do the same, wiggling my fingers around.
I also remember a Swedish book in which one of the guys ate some kind of berries of his girlfriend's fingers.

After I had started crocheting with wire, it had taken a while before I discovered tubes. I tried to make bird cages that didn't turn out quite right, but they ended up on my fingers a lot while making them, just like the little hats in my childhood. I even thought about what wire gauge and what size hook I might have to use to make myself a thimble. It would hardly have made any sense with all the holes in wire crochet, don't you think?
The thought of covering my fingers somehow didn't go away, though. It was there when I made my larger tube necklaces and after a few people said that sometimes the crochet reminded them of chain maille, like on my Joan of Arc ring for example, the idea grew from a pure thimble to a glove.

I finally did it. It's not perfect, mind you, but for a first attempt I'm pretty happy with it!


My fingers are not. One should think they are hardened by now, but this project was just a tad too much for them, I guess.


It's not really a comfortable glove, either, but I think it makes a pretty cool sculpture ;-)
It's a little like those wire mesh "sculptures" used in furniture stores here to show off clothes hangers and stuff. Of course they are cut out of machine-knitted mesh and molded into shape.
I think I like mine better! :-P

Ugly beads - a challenge, Part 1

What's ugliness? Like beauty it's in the eye of the beholder. Texture, shape, color ...
If you don't like orange, a carnelian will probably be ugly to you, if you hate purple, amethyst might not be your stone.
If you are not into piercings all over your body, some punks may seem ugly to you, and maybe they think the same about you in your neat little costume and the high heels.
At times I feel today really anything goes and sometimes it's best to just look away. Or maybe not?

At SJA some open minds started an "ugly bead challenge". Ugly beads were swapped and the participants are challenged to make something out of it now, using some or all of the beads. Last week my beads have arrived and I have to admit at first I thought there was no chance at all for me to make anything out of them because they were so out of my line.


Only one idea popped into my head right away. The blue beads looked like eyes. Big eyes. Animal with big eyes. Bingo! An owl! Of course I had never seen an owl with blue eyes, so I guessed he'd have to be something special.
I started and let the hook take over as usual. When I had finished the body - which is 3D, you can see it a little better in the second picture, and made in four parts, could you have told? - and the eyes were attached, I thought about the beak. Did I have a bead that would make a good beak? None of the other uglies yelled "here" really.


I could have gone for a more conservative look then and use a golden wire, but that wouldn't have been special. Instead I chose the green wire.


I don't know what you think, but I saw the little fellow and I loved him as I love all my critters. His name is Mr. Hoot.
So, is he ugly now? Or just a little goofy? Strange? Or special? I think he's special because he made me think outside my box. Usually I make an animal and then choose the eyes to match it, but this time it was the other way round.
Know what? I'm really looking forward to playing with the other beads this weekend. Even if my brain will start smoking, the challenge is good for me. It's good to be pushed off the usual path sometimes.
I'll keep you updated.

Little mermaid

Since I was a child, I loved Andersen's fairy tale about the little mermaid. Of course I always had to swallow my tears when I came to the end. Many of his tales are so bittersweet and I myself am really drawn to happy endings, if not in life, then at least in stories.
I make an exception for Andersen, though.

When the poll result for the monthly Polymer Clay Smooshers' challenge was "Oceans", I thought of fish first, but then I saw one of Dori's layered pieces and the mermaid came to my mind. I started out with a disk of blue clay and wanted to make one of my bas-relief pieces, but suddenly I had the idea of a rock coming out of the sea.
The rock was pretty lonely for a few days because when I started I had not thought about how I wanted to make the mermaid. Then I just started with her upper body and head, then continued with the fish tail, her arms and last her hair. I love long hair (ask my hairdresser, our motto is "as much as necessary, as little as possible" for my own hair) and I love how it flies in the breeze or looks floating in water. So she got a pretty wild hairstyle.

In the end I wondered if I should varnish her, but I liked her much better like this. So now she is sitting on her rock, waiting for her prince or maybe just a friend to have a chat with.
Oh, I forgot to say that the whole sculpture is 1.2 inch high - or low ;-)

Call me Dr. Frankenstein!

But please pronounce it Fronkensteen. Yes, I am a fan of "Young Frankenstein". I might even be able to mess my hair up like Gene Wilder's in the movie, but I doubt I could do the wild look.
Whatever.

I'll introduce you to Lizzy now. Lizzy's name came out of nowhere and so did she. Would you believe she started out as a bird cage that had the wrong size? I got asked if I could make a bird cage with a bird inside (which actually rekindled my polymer clay "career" that had got stuck in its baby shoes, but that's a different story). My first attempt was too slim, so I put it away. As with many of my unfinished projects, though (gee, sounds like I have thousands of them lying around while there are only like ... *mumble mumble*), I looked at it again and again. I rarely throw away a messed up piece because I like how failure can be an inspiration for something else.

The more I looked at this "non-cage", the more it looked like a skirt to me. One too many Georgette Heyer books maybe? (Note: Re-read your Heyers once more.) And finally I took a heart and added a little bodice and puff sleeves. Not that bad, but what now? Put it on a wire hanger? Make a pendant out of it? I thought of putting a body in there, but I had no idea how to do it. Polymer clay, yes. But how? How?

The dress spent quite a while on my desk until I finally decided to make a head. I found I am not a great head maker. A little piggy nose, fat eyebrows (I still use to underestimate how big a speck of clay can become if you flatten it, but I'm working on it), and huge hair, but at least tied in a knot. As it had only been my third attempt at a head, I still felt it was ok (don't ask about the two heads still lying around here, I am afraid I won't be able to put them to good use! ;-)
More time went by. Then, on another inspection of the dress, I saw the long wire ends still sticking out of the sleeves.

That's when my "Fronkensteen" genes started to move. Polymer clay around the wire, a neck, ah, you should have heard my mad laughter. Unfortunately there was no lightning and thunder. It would have been nice and fitting.
Little did I know how difficult the process would prove to be. For a trained polymer clay artist it wouldn't have been a problem, I'm sure, but for me - oh my, I can't count how often the wire went bouncing back just when I thought the clay looked good now. I even tried to make a pompadour to keep her hands together, but I didn't like the look of it. To make a neck for the head was easier, but it turned out to be a little fat.
Into the oven she went (had to be the oven, no lightning, you remember?) and out of the oven she came like this.



The wire color was shining through the clay and the poor girl had the "uneven elbow disease". I thought some lace for longer sleeves and some jewelry for the neckline would be a good idea, hm, and something to fill up the skirt. More lace maybe?
When I showed Lizzy - told you the name came out of nowhere - to my online friends, I got a few more suggestions ... and was told whom she reminded them of. Very funny indeed. Lizzy will have to spend lots of time in therapy! And I almost cried from laughing so hard.

Today was the big accessory day. First I made a wire crochet stole for Lizzy. Although I used the smallest hook possible with this wire, it got - hm, let's call it luxurious. It wasn't easy to bend, but I think it's ok even if it hides the bodice and the sleeves.


Then Lizzy got a simple little necklace with a tiny freshwater seed pearl that doesn't look so tiny on her as she is only 2 inches tall herself.


And last of all I filled up the skirt. If you look very closely at the two pictures above, you can see the red wire peeking through. In daylight you can see it better. Now that she is not that lightweight anymore, she also stands better.


There you go. That is Lizzy. I don't know yet if she will get any siblings, but I promise to keep you up-to-date on the subject.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. Fronkensteen ;-)

How desperate can you get?

Ok, so today it's rain and no snow. The snow on the streets is melting. But hey, this is still not at all spring and I am desperate for spring!

When reading a forum thread about gardening and mild Californian weather (!!) I decided to plant snow flowers to have some flowers at least. I thought sticks with snowballs on top would look nice, but no, one of my forum fellows said it was not enough.
And that was how she planted, not flowers, but an idea in my head.

I'm not the gardener type anyway, I might have mentioned it before. I say Hi to a flower and it cringes and dies, but there are ways ...


Voilà, my spring has officially started. I don't know what kind of flower this is, but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn ;-)
(Don't be surprised, I love movie quotes!)

One step closer to a million giraffes

You remember this post not so long ago?

Well, my giraffe has just been finished. And you can be sure, it will be my first and my last. That guy took up a lot of time and work! I think all in all that would be like 10 to 12 hours. Yes, you read right. Just attaching his legs has taken me forever.
I couldn't give up, though, could I?

So please welcome him (shhhh, and don't make fun about the very irregular pattern of his spots, I told him that he is an artistic giraffe and that they do come this way)!
Oh, and another thing - he does have ears, but they don't really show in these pictures. It's late and we did only a short photo session as he was still tired from his "birth" ;-)



Oh, and he is already uploaded to Ola's site and is only waiting for his approval.

Words with S

Hmmmm, let's start with the word sniffle. Because that's what I do. My head feels like a water-filled balloon, my throat hurts and my nose is trying to run the marathon.
My sneeze is already a winner. I have to be honest, I don't sneeze like a lady. I sneeze like an exploding elephant and whenever I do it today, cats jump in all directions. I have the feeling, though, that they are very slowly getting used to it.

My second choice would be one of the reasons for the very unladylike sniffling. Snow. Yes, it started again and it hasn't stopped today. There are big, fluffy flakes coming down. You will forgive me for not jumping out there now, taking pictures. Instead I took some from two different windows.


If I ever feel better (I like to whine when I have a cold, so don't take this melancholic statement too seriously ;-)), I will go out there and build a snowman voodoo doll. If I then destroy it, that means the snow will be gone, too. Right? Right? Don't disappoint a dying woman! (Yes, that is slightly overreacting to a simple cold, but check again what I wrote before ... whine ... melancholic ... blabla.)


Number 3 lifted my spirits a little. I got a parcel today and in it were my brandnew flannel Snoopy pyjamas. My first two were light pink and Woodstock was on them, too, but this was the only one I could find fast enough to satisfy my Snoopy cravings, after the first ones finally ripped. It's light blue and it says "You're my sweetest" (another word with S, yay!).



Last, but hopefully not least is the only accomplishment from today. Slimy the Snail has been "running" (snails don't run, in case you didn't know that) around naked in my project bag for a while, but today he finally got his shell.


And if you wonder now what the meaning behind the S-words is, there is none. If you wonder what drugs I am on for my cold, there are none, either. Sometimes I'm just being .....

........ silly! ;-)

Squeaky clean

I'm not talking about myself, but about my latest project.
The hedgehogs made me taste blood, not because they got me with their (non-existent ;-)) quills, but because I feel the challenge to see what I can do.

Once more my head is full of ideas which is dangerous for the other WIPs still lying around. On the other hand I'm still on vacation which is perfect for Frankenstein experiments.
Come to life, my little creatures, mwahahaaaa!

Today's "monster" is Mr. Pigster.
Mr. Pigster has had a little too much to eat over the Christmas holidays (just like his creator) and he looks as if he is on the lookout for more with his nose in the air like that.
Unusual is that he likes to keep very clean. No mud for this piggy! And I'm sure he squeaks while I'm not around ;-)

In the garden

The first close encounter with a hedgehog that I remember vividly - except seeing them as roadkill :-( - was many years ago at our local zoo, the "Tierpark" in Göppingen. It was winter and I was mucking out the wallaby stable. Of course in the winter there is even more hay in there than during the summer to keep our little Bennetts warm. So I was there mucking along, sticking my fork into the pile of hay in the corner when the pile suddenly moved.
Of course you already know what it was, but I didn't. I have been jumped at by rats before and automatically jumped back. But instead of a rat I saw a hedgehog, quite a big fellow too. No wonder the wallabies had stayed in the front part of the stable!
We decided to make him a new nest somewhere where he wouldn't be disturbed all the time.
I can't be sure, but I like to think it was him who came back many years to spend winter at the zoo.

Then of course there was the little fellow that was brought up by Frieda, the good soul of the zoo for many, many years. When he (or she? I don't remember) was stronger, he broke out of his box every night and wreaked havoc in the kitchen. Such a small creature, but so full of energy. She must fed him well indeed!

In my sister's garden there also used to be hedgehogs every, now and then. They scared the cats sometimes when they started grunting loudly. Served the cats right, you don't disturb a couple in intimate moments, even if cats think they're allowed to intrude anywhere and anytime.

A very close encounter with a hedgehog was when we had to "rescue" one. My sister and my mother walked me home one night and there he was sitting in the middle of the street. Sis and I both have soft hearts and we were sure he was going to get himself run over. I didn't have gloves on me of course, but at last he was sitting in a garden next to the road (I was so glad nobody came out to ask what I was doing in their garden!), probably a little confused what had happened to him now.

Yesterday a dear Plurk friend who loves hedgehogs as well, wondered if I could make an ornament from wire. This was a challenge I could not resist.
I used gunmetal and ivory colored copper wire. The problem was that the ivory colored one is coated differently which means working with it is tougher. The wire also feels not as bendable as the gunmetal one. Listening to a concert of Max Raabe and his orchestra on TV helped to keep me relaxed enough to finish it.
Today I decided to try it in a different way and with bronze wire instead of the ivory one. The bronze wire also is not as smooth as my beloved copper wire and also I used smaller hooks, so it took somewhat longer, but in the end I was quite happy with the design. I think I was inspired by my Steiff hedgehogs.
I guess I'm not done experimenting yet. I need a good way to put ears and feet on there. And then there was the idea to make some farm animals .... hmm .......

Here you see them together in their little patch of (artificial) grass and flowers.

Dragon!

To understand what I am talking about now, you might have to read these posts first in case you didn't already.
A while ago I notice strange things going on in the house and a sighting, even if vague and blurry, gave me confidence I might find out the solution to the secret soon.
If you want to know what I mean, check it out here:
http://catswire.blogspot.com/2009/07/power-of-jasper-and-strange-eggs.html
http://catswire.blogspot.com/2009/07/they-are-here-i-know-it.html
http://catswire.blogspot.com/2009/08/first-traces.html

Today I wanted to take some more pictures. I already had my camera in my hand and just wanted to set up my items on the chest of drawers (that is driving Esme crazy, but that is a different story) in the tall guy's "playing room" when I saw her. She was sitting very quietly behind the alarm clock that is standing there.
There she was, with the sweetest little dragon face, looking at me from her blue eyes. Not moving, but wary obviously.
I knew it! I have a dragon in the house and such a cute one at that!
How good to have a zoom, so I didn't have to disturb her. Very carefully I raised the camera and took a shot. Only one, then she had disappeared.


Of course now I hope I'll be able to take a closer shot of her eventually without scaring her off.
A dragon in the house must mean luck, don't you agree? :-D