Mortal Plush
Finally done! Woot!
I found out about this show rather late and have been totally grinding on my submission for the past two weeks. The exhibit will feature plush works in any medium (crochet, felt, etc.) that convey emotion. I worked up an object, but didn’t like the execution of my first idea. It just wasn’t “emotional” in the way that I wanted it to be.
After going back to my sketchbook in search of inspiration, I decided to work up one of my older sketches of a pirate monkey. He was just a doodle that I ended up really liking. He’s just sort of “kawaii” in the sketch, but I felt like I could make him fairly expressive in yarn. After I finished him, I reviewed the list of emotions on Wikipedia and finally settled on “Weltschmerz“. I had been thinking of something like “resignation”, but I think weltschmerz is more precise.
I like the way that he turned out, but the project took a loooong time. I tried to work out a bunch of problems that really got me sidetracked. The jogless stripes exercise was futile. I tried joined rounds and the Noisy Pitta method. Both worked to some degree, but with the high contrast between the navy and white, the transition was still detectable. In the interest of time, I ended up abandoning the quest and just embracing the jog with spiral rounds.
I also spent a lot of time designing. I wasn’t working off of a pattern and probably should have spent more time writing down what I was doing. Eyeballing symmetrical parts like arms, legs and the contrasting face area wasn’t as easy as I had assumed it would be.
The highlight of the project was definitely the parrot. I had the idea at the very end (yesterday; deadline day!) and worked him up after watching a pirate episode of Wow Wow Wubbzy! with my son. I’ve always liked amigurumis that have a larger figure and a smaller figure together. I’ve seen several Japanese designs of a bear or bunny holding a hand puppet of a smaller animal. It seems like the two animals together magnify each other’s cuteness. 
Most of all, I’m glad that the pirate monkey is done. I submitted the photos last night and will look forward to hearing back one way or the other. The Flickr group has had a lot of very cool submissions. It should be a great show.
Btw, the name of the piece is “Bronzebeard.” Yes, this is a WoW reference, but I play Horde. 
July 9th, 2009 at 6:51 am
Congrats, Amy! He turned out really well. I’ll have a glass of wine for you
July 11th, 2009 at 9:30 am
@Beth Doherty Thanks! Hope you have a great time. The show looks like it will be a lot of fun.