Carmen Hävago

My doll enterprise continues, today with the emergence of international secret agent Carmen Hävago.

Carmen masquerades as a dumb blonde with an ass which won’t quit, but unsuspecting suitors beware. Miss Hävago has a dagger in her garter-belt and a glint in her eye. Specialising in extraction of information through her hypnotic gaze, when Carmen looks at you there’s no mistaking that she means business.

I’m pretty chuffed with how this little lady came out, and technically she is much more sturdy than the prototype in the last post. I do however feel that I’m still exploring the idea of dolls rather than monsters and am finding that I’m sewing blindly without much of plan instead of sketching a design to work from. To try to solve this problem I’m going to work on a little collection of dolls on a theme to get into the swing of things. More on that another time…

Christmas Commissions

I had a lot of fun recently making up a couple of commissions for a chap who’d seen my work at a craft fair in the summer and very kindly kept one of my cards in case he ever found himself in need of a monster!

Without further ado, meet Scarlett Sullivan and the ‘Abominable’ Bartholemew Cox (along with Tilly who’s just sniffing them out to see if she likes them)

Scarlett Sullivan has an unhealthy addiction to strawberries. Doctors have told her she must cut back or else risk turning red and developing a pointy bottom. She’s tried electronic strawberries, strawberry patches, and even hypnosis in an attempt to kick the habit. Unfortunately the latter just resulted in Scarlett making chicken noises whenever anyone said the word ‘Collywobbles’. She can usually be found wearing her trusty headphones listening to her beloved hip hop music, however it does make her quite unaware of her surroundings and she can often be found bumping into lamp-posts and ignoring advances from handsome strangers.

Needle-felted Strawberries

 

The ‘Abominable’ Bartholemew Cox hails from Nevada. His father was a cowboy, as was his father’s father before him. Bartholemew longs to carry on the family tradition but much to his parent’s disappointment, is scared of horses and gets tangled up in his lasso. His passion is skiing, and he ROCKS the slopes! Decked out in his signature cowboy hat and scarf, he’s won every competition in the state. Now, having earned himself the nickname ‘The Abominable Snowman’, he has his eyes set on global domination of the skiing world.

Bipolar Awareness Day

Today is the first ever UK bipolar awareness day. A great chance for people to talk openly and learn more about this much misunderstood and stigmatised condition. I have spoken at length on the blog about my own experiences with cyclothymia, a form of bipolar (and the same one Stephen Fry suffers with  – that makes me feel special!) and even made a little monster called the Bipolar Bear to reflect the daily struggle of living with the condition. You can visit him here.

I urge anyone who is worried about the welfare of a loved one, workmate, or acquaintance, to just talk. Don’t be afraid to ask a simple ‘are you ok?’. To those of us who have mood disorders like this, don’t be ashamed to tell the truth if someone reaches out. We are all in this together

Buttons, Buttons, Lovely Buttons

I love buttons. Like, seriously. To the point of it becoming a problem. One thing I’m loving about my new mini-monsters is that it gives me a chance to raid my button stash in its many jars, tins, and drawers, to find the perfect little embellishments for them. Today when I was tidying up the craft room a bit, I unearthed from beneath a pile of felt, an old Turkish Delight tin my Nan gave me full of buttons she had collected up over the years.

The greatest and most drool-worthy little collection of vintage beauties. After a bit of a root through and a fair bit of girlish squealing, I selected some of my favourites and set about turning them into something monsterous.

Plenty more where that came from!

Here Be Pirates!

Who doesn’t love pirates? Swashbuckling, deck swabbing, robbing and plundering pirates. Well, clearly I have a slight obsession with them if exhibits A and B are anything to go by!

Exhibit A – Arrrrthur Riggington

Exhibit B – Mini Pirate

Pirates are quite the de rigueur topic in Bristol at the moment after the release of the latest Aardman film ‘The Pirates! In an adventure with scientists!’. Mr Monster and I went to see it after work a month or so ago and absolutely loved it. Not least because my mister bears an uncanny resemblance to the main character of ‘Pirate Captain’, voiced by Hugh Grant. He got so sick of me searching through his beard for Dodos that he ended up shaving it off for a bit.

We recently had the pleasure of getting to see the model pirate ship used during filming, on display at a local museum. It’s size was surprising, at least twice my height, and exquisite in its detail. Take a look.

It makes me want to make lots of mini monsters to live on it and sail it to Monsterland!