Skip to main content

It's All About the Bunnies

With the last week of lovely sunny weather (admittedly it was still freezing) and pastel coloured pretty things starting to appear in shops, it definitely feels as if Easter & Spring are on their way, hurrah! While Autumn is undoubtedly my top season, Spring is a close second with all of it's freshness, places re-opening for Easter, and it's emphasis on chocolate and adorable animals like chicks, sheep & bunnies! I feel a bit too young, poor and urban to properly qualify as a target 'Land Love' magazine reader but I bought this lovely glossy slice of inspiration/aspiration this month as it featured lots of rabbits, flowers & Spring crafts.

Last year I made a few little bunnies for family and friends (& myself naturally, they look very sweet peeping out from behind the rack of crocheted toast on our dresser) based on crochet guru June Gilbank's Baby Bunnies pattern which is satisfyingly straightforward & adaptable. My favourite two are pictured above, Johnny & June, during their photo shoot in Mamma C's garden. Initially, I was thinking of making more to sell this year (with permission from June Gilbank) but think the time each one takes to make is hard to balance with what I'd have to charge and what people would pay. A neater/faster crocheter may not have this issue but alas, I do. Also, re my quest to find a distinctive style, I want to make my own unique items.

Sticking with the rabbit theme (because it's hard for me to look past the bunnies) and mixing it with my odd passion for faux taxidermy, which happily seems to have become on-trend now, I've created three crocheted bunny heads with fabric covered button noses and ears. Pictured are Rosie, Bel & Freddie. They are currently gracing the spare/craft room wall in their unfinished state. If we have any visitors coming to stay in the near future, I fear they may be susceptible to traumatic Watership Down themed dreams as they sleep underneath the bunny heads! They are soon to be finished off with wooden mounts which the very lovely John at Ogwen Art & Craft http://www.ogwenartandcraft.co.uk/ is making for me. 

Adding to the bunny delirium, I've also now made tiny needle felted bunny heads mounted on their own fabric 'shields'. Today I've spent a happy day tinkering with fleece, experimenting with shrink plastic (getting the size right & remembering to punch holes in before shrinking in the oven has been tricky!), playing around with fabrics and trying to avoid getting too messy with glue. Time limitations & the fact I've run out of brooch backs due to a stint at making crocheted daffodil brooches for the office job's charity fundraiser, mean I've stopped for now. I'll take one of them out & about for a test drive tomorrow. Then I'll get on with making more of the big & small heads and putting them up to sell on Folksy. I keep hoping that the bunnies will breed in the night (like they're supposed to!) & I'll awake to find a craft room containing a much multiplied bunny population. This really would help things along...






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Joyfully Geeky Crochet- Creating a TARDIS

Creating a TARDIS (correctly using capitals now after previous admonishments by my pedantic husband) has, I can confidently declare, been my second favourite present make ever (only bested by a crocheted honeycomb frame made for my bee-keeping mother). It may indeed have a wibbly-wobbly roof (angle of the above picture is flattering!), cheerfully wandering letters on the 'police box' signs and a tendency towards a leaning base, but I am sadly very proud of my little blue box. Part of the pleasure definitely comes from anticipating the look on my brilliant Dr Who-loving friend's face as he opens the box it's travelled north in. Concerned about any misunderstanding, I've taped an 'it's not shoes!' note to the top so as to avoid even momentarily confusion when presented with a peppermint green Clarkes box. Once he fights his way through the swathes of bubble wrap (it was a big box), he'll be the wondrous owner of this mini delight. I'm thrille...

(Anatomical) Love Is In the Air!

Crochet Anatomical Hearts by Lost In The Wood February has been set aside for a much needed catch up with the paperwork (dull but essential), a move into my new cute little studio (exciting), finishing commissions (overdue) and an exhibition piece (satisfying). However, I was a very busy little bee in January, working on some new anatomical designs (which will be a key focus for my work this year). I've started with hearts, the most appropriate bodily organ for this time of year and one of the most interesting to crochet with all it's ventricles, veins and arteries. I'm not claiming these are anatomically correct (no student of biology/ physiology should look to these as learning aids or we're all done for) but they make a reasonable attempt. Intended as large wall pieces, hang them as statement art works or nestle a smaller one under a bell jar and let them be brazen about their well crafted weirdness! They have been hanging splendidly in the Lotti & W...

Tension at Christmas (of a different kind)

Hello, hope you have all had a splendid Christmas! Mine was very lovely indeed as I've been enjoying a week in my home town of Edinburgh with the delights of spending time with family & friends, delicious home cooked food, planning crafty & arty makes for 2013, dangerous trips to Hobbycraft (find it hard to retain spending control) and seeking inspiration in my new book of Grimm Tales (by Philip Pullman) . While there's been a remarkable absence of tension  in our household this festive season, there has been tension of other kind (please be generous & excuse the pun). I've been told that my crocheting is very neat which sounds like an unequivocally good thing but others have warned that my tension is too tight. While I've not been at all concerned about this, I do realise that attempts to crochet something larger than my small creatures/ foods and which require to be a more specific size, ie a piece of clothing, are likely to come out far smaller than in...