Woolies a-Wonder!!

It's been another long and cold winter. I am glad February has come, as it brings the delivery of this bitter winter closer to an end. The weather's been ferocious all over the country in the last few days and it makes me wonder why I stay in Illinois. Oh....that's right....because I'm also a farmer. Unless there is some useful crop that can be grown on sandy beaches (sugarcane? bananas? coconuts?) in mass quantity then I don't see me moving anytime soon, unfortunately. However, the cold weather has brought out some new items and new ideas. The doll bodies in the previous post have already made their way to Earth Angels, all duded up, of course, back in January. Pictured above are new designs of what I like to call Woolies. These monster guys all are named (above: Jonas, Scamp, and Paddy), made all out of wool, and as they are created will become the siblings/cousins/aunts & uncles/friends of Abbot, who is pictured with Caruthers P. Davenport in his blog (see left sidebar). Abbot was the first Woolie I made and tonight I cut 10 more and hope to have them ready to go to EA very soon. I LOVE making these as well as my monsters because they are like playing colorforms with fabric....like making construction paper dolls, cutting and pasting these flat pieces together, then watching them come into 3-D with the stuffing inserted. Then the faces make them come to life, while the embellishments cause the creatures to practically jump off the table and run around my ankles like a looney animal (the Tasmanian Devil comes to mind). Anyway, I've been working on all sorts of new ideas. This IS a precious time of year, if only for this reason: It's when I get to watch my sketches come to fruition. I am the least harried in the winter and trying out my new ideas is always something I look desperately forward to. They don't always have the best results, but even the not so good ideas are worth the effort....a pinch and a tweak sometimes is all it takes.
Tootles!