Evolution of the Jellyfish

Occasionally, I try to make plushes that are a little more realistic, and resemble the natural form of the animal they are modeled after.  One of the first I tried to do this with was the jellyfish.  Formed mostly of spirals, long tendrils, and a half-sphere, jellyfish are a great place to start as a beginner. 

As time progressed, I refined the design a little bit, and tried to use better materials.  The proportions are also a little more accurate here.  I'd love to have an ocean-themed relaxation room, and hang a few large jellies from the ceiling. 

With a jellyfish, since there is a lot of variation in shape and color, you can have a bit of fun with the design as well. This one features a multicolor yarn I found and had to buy, which is rare for me.  I normally try to stay away from multicolor yarns, but I think the colors really lent themselves well to the jellyfish.  This variant also has an extra "stem" under the half-circle, and looks even more realistic, aside from the wild colors.

Coffee & Donuts

Lately, I have been making lots of tiny food amigurumi.  One of my favorite sets so far has been this pink-frosted donut, and a cup of coffee.  The donut is basically a long cylinder that is sewn to itself at the end, and the frosting is a separate circular piece.

The cup of cofee is a larger half-cylinder, with another tube sewn to the side for a handle.  9mm safety eyes work very well for tiny items like this, and everything *must* have a face.  These two are great for getting rid of a case of the Mondays.  

Gir!

One of the first things I really focused on, when trying to grab people's attention with my projects, was Invader Zim.  There are an untold number of people who absolutely love Gir. 

I'm inclined to agree,  since the puppy outfit is great, and Gir shares my love for cake.  For anyone who doesn't know me,  saying that I love dessert is a severe understatement.  I have a rather large tattoo of a cupcake directly over my heart. >.<

I ended up making Gir in his normal form a few years ago, and just took off on all sorts of strange variations from there.   Gir loves cake, so why not make Gir AS cake??

The shots above were taken at Anime Boston this past spring, where I had a vendor table for the first time in the Artist's Alley.  At that same convention,  I also made a Gir hat to use as a raffle prize.

Since I don't generally use patterns, and Gir's head is shaped kind of funny,  I may not be making any more of these for a while,  but they were definitely fun projects to work on.  Something something, doom doom doom!

New beginnings, and Brains

One of the first plushes I created without the use of a pattern was Gnarly the Zombie:

Gnarly, as you can see, fit very well with his name.  His defining features included an 'interactive' brain that rattled around inside his head, and a dangling eyeball.  He's been beat up a bit, and is covered in fake blood made from flour, water, and food coloring. 

Over time, as I've learned to make a variety of other things, I keep coming back to zombies. The design has evolved a bit, and I've experimented with other varieties of zombie, including zombie cats and a zombie Easter Bunny.  

This style of zombie has a hollow head that has been cut in half,  but some others have regular-sized heads with bits of brain sticking out of the back in the form of pink loops of yarn.  Other features like bitten-off ears, stitches, bandages, and bits of exposed stuffing have all appeared on the newer variations.

What can I say? I love zombies. Zombies, however, only love brains.   :'(

Changes

I have spent a lot of time absent from this blog, getting distracted with Tumblr and other social media platforms.  It's time for a fresh start, and I am going to focus on rebuilding the NerdStitch blog from the ground up. 

More to come, very soon!