The Wolverine!

I made this guy, Wolverine from Marvel Comics X-Men, in record time (about two days). My superhero main body is completely figured out which made things easy. But with this guy I wanted to try a new cartoony body. I had a dream...this is true...I dreamed a whole toy store, filled with amazing new toys that when I awoke I was disappointed to realize were not real! I sketched as many of the toys as I could remember (notepad by the bed, kids, is essential!!)

The little drawing of Wolverine in costume is the sketch I made based on the dream Wolverine. He was in his Byrne era costume but with the stripes on his side from the blue and yellow costume. I don't know my Wolverine history but I don't think he ever mixed the two eras in costume form. Anyway, once I started sketching my plans I realized that what I really wanted to make was not the costumed Wolverine at all. What I wanted was a jeans and t-shirt Wolvie! Just the casual cool Logan character seen in more leisurely scenes.
So off came the gloves and boots. This made it a whole lot easier for color as well. I don't know that I've got the yarn for Wolverine's Brownish-red/tan-yellow costume. But I do have deep maroon and grey-blue yarn! I also sketched up a profile of Wolverine's head in order to figure out the parts I'd neet to make to get the right shape. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is a motto I always try to follow in my work (drawing and crochet). Busying something up almost never turns out well. In my past crochet projects I've tried to make the head shape by increasing and decreasing as I go around the head. Bah! Too much trouble.

Wolverine before hair! You can sort of make out that I made a long tube for his head and neck. Just straight up stitching until it felt like the right length. Then I made a chin, again based on scale of everything and my profile sketch, until it looked right. Add ears and nose which are just flat stitched and curled or folded into the right shapes. Pop on some eyes and Bob's your uncle.

Here's the completed Wolverine by the light of day! The body is exactly the same as my generic Superhero body pattern, the arms are almost the same. I think I increased the diameter of all segments for cartooniness and Popeye style forearms. I returned to mitten hands for this guy because it just seemed to call for a simpler approach (K.I.S.S.)
You will notice two things are missing - arm hair and claws. Claws are coming. Arm hair I tried in several different ways but nothing looked right. Once I get it figured out I'll post new pictures with the arm hair added.


Here's Wolverine's butt! You can see that he's sturdy enough to actually stand on his own. Most of the male hero dolls are able to. The girls can't at all because I give them such tiny feet.
"You lookin' at me, bub?"

Yarn!
j.

Metamorpho! The Element Man!

Pretty much my favouritest of all the superheroes is Metamorpho, due in large part to his artist Ramona Fradon. I love Ramona's art! I tried to capture the way she drew his face but it was difficult to recreate with yarn. For the most part I like how it all turned out...only his mouth still sticks in my craw as being "off". Ramona had a very distinct way of drawing Rex Mason's mouth and I didn't get it with yarn.

Ah well...at least I've now got my own Metamorpho doll to cuddle up with! 

best,

j.

Knitted Landscapes!

Check out a few links that were pointed out to me by Mr. Thomas Foxley. The first is a blog post about Urban Knitting (when my Grandma knits is it Sub-urban knitting? Is it simply where the knitter lives that dictates urbanity or the placement of the knitting in a city street that makes it so?) Either way the knitted swatches make for some pretty graffiti.

Next is a site dedicated to submitted photos of Knitted Landscaping. I love the idea of "planting" a knitted flower, or mushroom randomly in a park. Imagine the confusion as someone sees it and then double-takes when they realize it's not actually a real flower. I want to join in!

best,

j.

Christmas Presents!

This year I made a few Amigurumis for some special people! Catwoman and her cats (Ebony and Ivory? Midnight and Snowy? Blacky and Whitey?) based on the Darwyn Cooke Catwoman was made for... Darwyn and his gal, Marsha. Catwoman's whip is her belt and it can be removed for capturing criminals.

Spidey was made for the brilliant and wonderful Cal Johnston of Strange Adventures. If you're ever in Halifax with a hankerin' for some comic bookin' go to Strange Adventures. Cal and the kids who work there are incredibly friendly and they know their stuff. 

p.s. I also made one for myself because I love Spidey.

Batman was made for Rachelle of Living Between Wednesdays. Check out Rachell's blog for her reaction to the doll. I'm not entirely happy with Batman's bat-symbol but it was the best I could do. I thought stitching the bat would be easier than it was. 

Princess Christi of Princess Planet was made for my good friend Brian. He's also a fan of sock monkeys so I threw one in as a leg humper so Princess Christi wouldn't get lonely. 

Mother Mary, Joseph and Baby were made for my Grandma. She's the only member of my family to get a crochet doll for Christmas. These were made small and stitched all-together because Grandma hasn't got much room in her apartment. I know it's not historically accurate for Baby Jesus to have a pacifier but, c'mon, it's adorable! Right?

Hope everyone had a good Christmas. 

j.

Doom Patrol! Robot Man and Elastigirl!

Robot Man is one of my favourite comic book heroes. I don't remember when I first saw the old Bruno Premiani Doom Patrol but I know it was love at first sight. There's just something about the cast of characters that I love. So with Robot Man I finalized my Hero body. I kinda find it's best to create a new pattern with a character who has very little body detail...that way when you pull out stitches in an unsatisfactory shape it's all the same colour yarn.

Like Doop, I couldn't resist showing off Robot Man's brain. His is pink, though, because it's all that's left of race car driver, and human, Cliff Steele.

Cliff welcomes Rita Farr to the fold. Welcome, sister Rita. Elastigirl is my Female Hero body test subject. There are still some kinks to work out with her. For one thing the arms are too long...not a failing on a character called Elastigirl, but something I'll want to fix in later Yarn Sculptures.

The only thing I'd like to redo with Rita is her face. She's a little too harsh looking. Like the headmistress of a school. She looks like Eve Arden or Agnes Moorehead. Classic beauties in their own way but not the bright eyed beauty I think Rita should be.

"Hello, sailor", says Rita as she reclines in her boudoir.

Oh yeah, check out the newest issue of Wizard Magazine issue #207 for an article on yours truly. It's all about my little hobby and showcases my early superhero Yarn Sculptures (which is my new name for these things...it's so much more "arty" than calling them "dolls"!

best,

j.

I don't own these...

My attempt at a Godzilla doll. Something is lost, to me, when you don't show Godzilla's teeth. If I were to make another I would try to create an open mouth with rows of fangs and a cute little pink tongue. As it is I wanted a cute Godzilla...and added teeth only made him look like a doofus.

I love/hate Elmo. He's really just too adorable to truly dislike. On the other hand the media saturation coupled with the ENDLESS attempts to re-create the Tickle-Me-Elmo phenomenon make me cringe at the sight of him. On the other Other hand, my mom loves Elmo. So for Mother's day I made her my very own Cuddle-Me-Elmo. He doesn't talk or dance or sing or poop...he just sits and smiles.

And occassionally drinks. Can you blame him? He's probably sick of himself, too!

j.

Doop!

All right, this guy is probably one of my favourites ever! Somewhere online I saw someone's Frankenstein creation with an exposable brain. I'd started sketching a Doop doll and just knew that he'd have to have a full on removable blue brain. I don't know why his brain is blue. I don't think his brain is blue in any of the comic books. But MY Doop's brain is blue :)

I made the initial Doop for myself, he being one of my favourite of the newest characters to come along in the past few years. The second Doop was made for the Doc Allred because he wouldn't exist without the brilliance of Mike (and, I'm sure, Peter Milligan too). And the third went to Darwyn Cooke because he and I worked together on the Wolverine/Doop mini-series. I absolutely love the way Darwyn drew Doop.

Construction-wise this was the first character to get fingers. Until now everyone had mitten hands.

j.