Plushroom Soup

Octozombie

Introducing octozombie! He is made with 100% wool and has needle-felted mouth, eye sockets, eyeballs, teeth, and blood. Detached tentacle reattaches with use of a magnet hidden inside. Tentacles are wired for posability. His fish prey is also 100% wool, with a needle-felted head wound.

I just sent this fearsome creature to terrorize the Big Apple. He's my entry in the APW Gallery's Custom Toy Exhibit, running April 3 to April 27. The exhibit is actually contest, with the grand prize being a solo exhibition. So if you live in or near New York, please go see the exhibit and vote for octozombie!


Also, don't forget that you can now become a fan of Plushroom Soup on Facebook, and you can also follow me on Twitter! So become a fan and a follower, and make me feel popular! :)

Become a Fan!

You can now become a fan of Plushroom Soup on Facebook!

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

If even. . .

I've been laboring over this zombie face for the last few days. Any guesses as to the kind of creature this face belongs to?

The Other Fur

So, I finally got around to photographing the other yeti in the other  fur I posted about last week.
 

This poor guy, confused as all get out, was found on the last patch of snow in the yard. I brought him in and tried to acclimate him to spring and to his new home, but he still seems quite unsure.

I don't think he's cut out to be a flower vendor, but I do like this one's fur better than the last one. What do you think?

My Etsy Treasury Made Front Page!

My very first Etsy treasury made front page this morning! Whoo hoo!

And by happy accident, I featured three MN artists—Buttonpom, Jennie the Potter, and Tiny Decor.

Thanks, Etsy!

My First Treasury

Today I built my first Etsy treasury. Check it out:

 
This was a really fun way to showcase some of the fun items I covet, but can't currently afford
It was so hard to limit the number of items, though! I can see how creating these could become extremely addictive.

Zombie Beginnings

I was looking over past posts today and noticed that I had somehow failed to blog about my favorite creation to date: zombie frog.

Zombie frog was the first truly twisted (but still cute) plushie I ever created. I had dabbled in strange before, but nothing that had gore, not to mention removable body parts! I started out with the same pattern I used for my regular frogs, which was hand-drawn by me. I decided to use wool felt instead of my usual cotton, as I knew the details I wanted to add would be easier to accomplish if I could needle-felt them in later.

I started with the face. Before sewing the two sides together, I used wool roving to needle-felt his details. I cut a small hole for each eye, and a long slit for his mouth. I needle-felted little cup-like shapes, then pushed them through the holes I created, using the felting needle to felt the shapes into the wool face. I kept shaping with my needle until I liked the result. Next, I needle-felted two eyeballs, giving one of them an optic nerve so it could dangle from its socket, then I needle-felted each eye into its socket.

Then, I sewed the two right sides of the head together and added stuffing.

I wanted one of zombie frog’s legs and his head to be removable, and for him to be able to hold either his head or his leg in one of his hands. So before I sewed his head closed, I glued a super strong craft magnet into the bottom. I also glued a magnet inside the body where the leg would attach, another inside the body where the head would attach, one inside his right arm, and one inside his left leg. I then stuffed both arms and legs, sewed all but his left leg into his body, then stuffed the body and sewed the opening closed. The final touch was to add some gore. Again, I did this by needle-felting roving into the areas that I wanted to look bloody.

Creating this guy opened up a whole new world of crafting for me, and was pretty much the start of Plushroom Soup. Look for more zombie goodness this month; I am currently making a zombie octopus and a zombie pegasus. What other zombie critters would you like to see?

Tiniest of Shop Updates

I just added this sweet guy to my Etsy shop:

You may notice that he looks a little different. I ran out of the fur I had been using for these guys. I've been looking high and low for the same fur again, but so far to no avail. Which is too bad, because I was rather partial to the fur I had been using. This is cute too, but it lacks a certain something that have made all my yetis so far sadly sweet. I'll keep looking, but for now I have no choice but to use alternatives. I have a crazy pure-white fur that I'm sewing up next, and should be ready to show you by Sunday night.

Uh-oh.

First, it was MySpace. Then it was Facebook, deviantART, Indiepublic, and Ravelry. And now? Now I've just joined Twitter (you can now follow me there if you're so inclined). Is this what it takes to own your own business these days?

Don't get me wrong, all this social media is tons of fun. But it feels like a second job to my second job, and I fear I won't be able to keep up. If you have tips about how to stay on top of it all, I'd love to hear them!