Origami Lotus Flower

I found some cute Japanese origami paper in a charity shop and this video on how to make a lotus flower :)




















I also finished the crochet blanket today... pictures soon!

Katamari hat

Can't stand to keep looking at Nick Griffin any more, even if it is in cartoon pisstake form.

So here's a not-as-good-as-the-ball-one Katamari hat to go with the cake. Much cuter!

I want to make woolly, sew-y things!

Rorschach Plush

Found here.

Amigurumi

Wiki - "Amigurumi (編み包み, Amigurumi^? lit. Knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc.), but can include inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. Amigurumi can be either knitted or crocheted. In recent years crocheted amigurumi are more popular and more commonly seen."

This is our new favourite thing (Bek and me). We spent all of last night frowning at low-quality YouTube videos trying to figure out how it's done, not talking to each other as we tensely counted each stitch and swore when we lost count and had to unravel again. Crochet and foul language - who'd've thought the two would be linked...?

So, as it's so fun, easy and inspiringly adaptable I thought I'd put some information here for anyone else who might be interested in giving it a try. I think I'm going to make some cute animal Christmas tree baubles... pandas, cats and polar bears...

Amigurumi tutorial (part one)
Amigurumi tutorial (part two)
Free patterns
Cupcakes and other animals
Amigurumi Kingdom
Amigurumi cactus pattern (and others)
More crochet cacti
Roxycraft patterns
Ana Paula Rimoli Etsy shop

Applique illustration

There is an artist whose colourful, and warm appliques seem to have a mysterious healing power. Today PingMag talks to Tokyo-based Yoshie, who when she is not teaching workshops, seamlessly stitches and sews her illustrative embroidery art onto picture books, ads, and CD jackets to spread the love with mixed sewing media.

First, please introduce yourself!

I work as a picture book writer and illustrator. Since the end of 2005, I have been working freelance. Now I live in an old house which contains a studio, and I spend my days creating

Yoshie’s studio in her own house. Looks like a cozy work of art already!

You used to work in the apparel industry: How did it start with the picture books?

When I was a kid, I was always drawing. For a while, I wanted to become a veterinarian, and after that I wanted to work making something. I found a job in an apparel company, but I realised I wasn’t able to create the kind of world that I wanted to create. I wanted to make something with fabric and somehow naturally came back to the world of drawing that I was living in when I was a kid.

How do you think up picture book stories?

It is hard to explain, but in my mind, I just throw out fragments of ideas. So I always have all these thoughts racing around in my head! Sometimes I take memos and begin to build on ideas and start scene out of them. That is always the most exciting moment for me. Pulling together tiny little thoughts to build something new is a bit like making an applique picture.

See the full interview and more pictures over at PingMag.