Cheeky Coco

I am venturing out into new shapes and forms of Amigurumi, and the result is Coco. She is a tiny cheeky hotdog dog...ah ah don't bite me! Ok, I promise not to call you "hotdog", Dachshund Dachshund!

See, told you she is cheeky :) Here is Coco running away from my drawing figurines.



Side view and top view; she may look sweet and innocent, but don't
be fooled!


Making of Coco, all parts ready.
Coco is fashion-conscious miniature pup, who can put to shame any Hollywood Chiwawa.

Are you well hung?

The Brief
Pick a typography rule out of a hat and design A3 poster communicating the rule. The copy limitation is 300 words, and the post must have a hand-rendered element to it.

Design Outcome
I originally pulled out "headers and sub-headers," but the caveat was that we could trade the rules amongst ourselves, and I finally ended up with "hanging punctuation." Yes! I've explored a few ideas, such as "hanging here does not mean death by suspension, but failure to use it could be fatal to your design reputation." But I keep hearing that sex sells, so I went with "are you well hung?"

I actually cut out the woman shape, the letters and boxes with a scalpel, and the top part is a pattern made of felt (I bought it, hehe). There is also a string of jewels at the very top to add dimension. Much of the inspiration for my Semester 2 work came from paper crafts and scrapbooking, including this one.


Semester 2: Typography with Jodie Richards

Berry girl amigurumi

Welcome the newest addition to my amigurumi family. Berry was born just yesterday as a gift for a baby, born in the distant lands of America. She will be traveling there soon to meet her baby friend.

Berry's name comes from Strawberry, which was the original idea. Look at her hat, it looks just like a top of the strawberry! And like a true lady, Berry already likes shopping and high teas.


She is brave too, climbing trees and hanging on branches. She loves nature and flowers, and she insists that all her clothing items have flowers on them. Even the bib.

Special gifts for special people

Phil's sister is having a baby, and he's been looking for that perfect gift for her and the baby. That's when I was giving a presentation about my interests, and I included some photos of the amigurumi dolls that I make. Next you know, Phil asks me for a commission. And I gladly accept.

This particular doll had a lot of special requirements. It's for a baby, so no sharp or chokable parts. Yarn needed to be fluffy, but washable. On top of that, the gender of the baby was not known, so I had to come up with "gender neutral" colors and design.

I called him Huggles (cause he is VERY huggable). For the yarn I picked Lincraft Fairy Floss, which is only available in limited colors now. Sad, cause I love it! And I've altered a Japanese pattern I had to make it bigger and more interesting. The result is this adorable and quirky Huggles. He is pretty big, probably the size of the baby! Phil was very happy :)

You can see, he is as tall as the chair back.


And here Huggles is taking a nap...zzZ


Chilling on the Ikea chair, my favourite reading chair.


Inspired, I also finished another Amigurumi I was making for Anne, I called him "office buddy", but Anne came up with an even better name, "null object." Hahaha!



Look for null object on Facebook!

May: Inspirations & Observations

This is the May issue of Inspirations & Observations, my monthly list of 5 things that inspired me, and 5 things that irritated the eye.

Inspirations

1. Life Drawing. I've been taking life drawing lessons at COFA to make animation and design process more hands-on, and I fell in love with drawing the human body in the process. Here are some instructional drawings by A. Loomis:
   
   
   
   
2. Neil Gaiman Sandman series. Totally inspiring, dark and accurate when it comes to portraying human nature. I was especially moved by "A Dream of a Thousand Cats"
   
   
   
   
3. Christopher Hart. I think he is the greatest teacher of comic drawing!
   
   
   
   
4. Cupcakes. I've been baking cupcakes for fun after seeing Cupcakes On Pitt store on my way home
   
   
   
   
5. Knitting - room shoes. Another one of my little projects...still in progress though
   
   
   

Observations

These are the things that didn't sit with me so well this month. It's mostly focused around usability and paying attention to your client's needs (mine in this case).

1. Xbox 360 setup and menu. I have recently purchased the Xbox (mainly to play Guitar Hero) and it felt like I needed a master's degree to set it up.
2. Western knitting pattern notations. It's interesting that I can understand Japanese patterns without speaking a word of Japanese, but when it comes to the American/Australian patterns I am having a really hard time. And I assure you that I can read and write English :)
   
3. Finsbury Paper uses iStock photos to illustration their collateral! And it's using some of the most popular images too. As soon as I received the magazine I felt, "Hm...I've seen these." Of course, a quick search on iStock revealed the answer.
   
4. Paper mail. Please, don't kill the trees for advertising!!! Send me a clever e-mail, and I might just open up my wallet.
5. Digital print shops, in this case Snap Printing. It was one of the most exasperating experiences trying to print 5 pages in the morning, which I needed that afternoon. I refuse to believe that printing has to be so complicated...but who knows, maybe it is. I did learn a lesson though: print the day before, save yourself hours of agony.
   

Previous months

• April: Observations & Inspirations
• March: Observations & Inspirations
  
• February: Observations & Inspirations
• January: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

February: Observations & Inspirations

Let's just get right into it, 5 things that I found inspiring this month, and 5 things that could be improved.

Inspiring Bits

1. Cubeecraft, perfect place to learn hand skills, to play and to create something for your workspace. Here is my Cubeecraft creation, Italian Spiderman.
   
   
   
2. http://www.unarmedjavascript.com/ website that teaches JavaScript. What I love about it is that it starts the lessons from the bottom of the page, and you have to work your way up.
   
   
   
3. http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ tool to organize everything. My use of it ranges from keeping track of a todo list, to managing agile projects for my clients.
   
   
   
4. Helvetica Movie
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Watching sunrises... here is my photo from Lady Elliott Island, at about six in the morning
   
   
   

Annoying Bits

1. Airport security. It exists solely to create a perception of safety (or presence of a threat), and it greatly slows down travelers.
2. Cinebuzz asks you if you want to buy discounted $8 tickets, at the same time giving you the option of full-priced $16 tickets. Clicking the hint link yields a not-so-helpful help box.
   
   
   
3. Websites that don't let me pay on the site, i.e. only have pay-by-phone. Nowadays, existence of Paypal makes this inexcusable.
4. Slow or no e-mail responses to inquiries. Usually, if I don't get a response within 24 hours, I take my money elsewhere.
5. Facebook Visual Shelf app has got the social element right, but not navigation. I always find myself puzzled when looking for a page in the app. In addition, there is an ever-present "books" bubble that hovers over My Collection, regardless of what page you are on.
   
   

Previous months
January: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

"Triple T" film festival campaign

For this project we selected a topic related to motion picture industry, and we had to create a full advertising campaign around it.

My team of 3 people came up with an idea of an outdoor short-film festival to promote socially conscious films. The name of the festival is Triple T, and it showcases work of young and upcoming film makers or anyone who has an idea worth sharing.

As part of the campaign, we decided to give away "goodie bags" with some symbolic items inside: seeds for new beginnings, band-aids for strong health, as well as Triple T branded badges, the festival program and a DVD of the movies shown. All of this is hand made, except for Band-Aides, of course ;)


When all was ready, each team gave a 20-30 min presentation to the class on their ideas and proposal.


Semester 1: Tim Jettis, Introduction to Studio Practice

More hand-made gifts

Keeping up with the holiday spirit, I spent the last couple weeks of the year making gifts. This year I decided to make the gifts myself, so as to help the planet by not shopping, and to give something with meaning.

Here are four paintings I did using acrylic paints. They are based on Australian aboriginal Dreaming culture, with each piece representing a Dream journey.





There is also Molly, a gift for one of my very close friends.



And a little turtle Jacky.


Happy January :)!

Amigurumi for the Holidays

Hello. Meet Reks! Mischievous and spunky, he is my niece's new friend. But sshhh.... she doesn't know it yet. Of course she is way too young to read blogs, even too young to tie her own shoes, so I think we are ok :)


Reks is soft and fluffy, and 100% baby-safe since he doesn't have any buttons or chokable eyes (actually, they are made of felt). I made the body from a special yarn called "Fairy Floss" purchased from Lincraft. It was a lot of fun to work with it, since I couldn't really see the stitches, and I had to rely a lot on just feeling the loops. It feels incredibly soft, perfect for baby skin.


He is curious, just like his maker, lol. And he has a friend (below). This little guy is called "waterdrop dude" or "the happy dude", and he likes to hang out on my shelf next to the books and brushes. Happy Dude was the first Amigurumi I ever made, so cute! Now my co-worker wants me to make him one, hehe.


And this is "sleepy Sarah" made from a pattern by Owlishly. She is offering this pattern for FREE. You can get it here!


Oh, I just love making these little toys, and each one develops its own personality through the creation process. I discovered Amigurumi quite accidentally by attending a crochet circle at my local shop Tapestry Craft. The teacher had a bunch of books with patterns, and from then on it just snow-balled. This Holiday season I am making hand-made gifts for everyone!

Love, peace and creative energies to all :)

Now My iPod Has a Home

How My iPod Got a Home

Like many of her brothers and sisters, my silver iPod Nano is enjoying a happy and productive life. The only sad part of her life has been the lack of permanent home in my purse to tuck away all her wonderful cords and strings.


I have finally decided to help my iPod out by building her a soft and cozy home. I am currently inspired by the Japanese Amigurumi toys and Softies, so I decided to try my hand at crochet.

This is my iPod happily napping inside her soft and comfy pouch.


... and the back view


... and the zoom on the buttons. My friend said that it looks like a face.
I agree ~:-)

If you would like to see the pattern for this iPod Nano case, I would be happy to share it. Just leave a comment, and I'll post it right up!

Piperoid - Made in Japan

Ooohh, it's almost end of November, and this is my first post this month! That's because I've been super busy at college. It was end of the semester, and every assignment was due within a 2-week period. But now it's all done done! *:-)

Now that I have more time, there are many posts to come with all the Billy Blue assignments and other things I've made. Here is a cool idea of "toys for adults". A way to nurture and develop that creative energy that lives withing us all. It's called PIPEROID... what will the Japanese come up with next.

From http://piperoid.jp/en/:

Please Remember the Excitement
Do you still remember how excited you were to make handicrafts when you were a child? The process to create things with one’s own hands is always thrilling. Why don’t we, adults, enjoy such a sense of excitement, too? Piperoid has been launched in the hope to stimulate adults’creative minds and open the door to familiarity with handicrafts.

Piperoid is creative handicrafts produced in Japan, which transforms into a robot by assembling paper pipes. It is possible to show a wide range of expressions through little pose adjustments due to its movable joints made of minimal material, paper pipes.

Awesome!