Category: Crafted Things

Two Factories Available

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Anna

Update: The yellow Cheeseburgers into TVs factory has been sold and is no longer available.

I should mention that these two Tiny Things Conversion Factories are available for purchase!

Trees into Lions:

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Cheeseburgers into TVs:

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These are original knitted pieces that I made for the third annual “Luv-able & Hug-able” plush show that took place in December at gallery hanahou.

The price has been reduced to $200 each. Email me at info@mochimochiland.com if you’re interested!

Oh, and if I may do a quick brag: my third Tiny Thing Conversion Factory (which sold at the show) made it into Flickr’s Explore feature and has been viewed more than 11,000 times!

Boston Cream Why?

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Anna

My husband John loves cake, so I thought I’d bake him a cake for Valentine’s Day. Seeing as how I’m a pretty inexperienced baker, why wouldn’t I just choose the first complex recipe that I came across? So there it was on Design Sponge the other day, a recipe for a beautiful Boston cream pie—accompanied by pretty photos, of course!

So I tried, and… kind of failed.

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As you can see, my “chocolate glaze” was more like a chocolate syrup when I poured it on top, but I rolled with it anyway. I think it was a matter of substituting an ingredient or two, and maybe also an issue of temperature. (And boy does it look extra creepy sitting in the fridge in this photo!)

Anyway, it was eaten, and enjoyed, so I guess I kind of succeeded in the end, too. What will happen on day two of the cake remains to be seen, though.

Going Gocco

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Anna

Can you believe my mother-in-law has had a Gocco printer for YEARS and we only tried it out this weekend?

Figuring out how to use it was a snap—we just watched this tutorial video from Etsy. The hardest part was sitting around trying to come up with something to draw. That took… an embarrassingly long time.

Anyway, I finally settled on a mess of little rectangular monsters. (Bonney insisted on refraining from printing her own design for this trial run.)

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(Apologies for the cell phone photos, btw.)

The Gocco contraption lets you burn your image onto a screen, then you paint the screen with ink and use the same contraption to press the ink through the screen onto paper.

I didn’t take any pictures during the screen-burning process (it was too nerve-racking!), but here is the printing process, as demonstrated by Bonney.

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You can apparently make up to 50 or so prints with one inking!

Here’s a better view of the finished print on brown paper.

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This was so much fun that it’s tempting to imagine getting my own and printing up tons of stationery. If only I wrote more notes!

Hug-able Plushes Still Available

Posted on December 17, 2009 by Anna

There are still some plushes available from “Luv-able & Hug-able” at the gallery hanahou online shop! Since we’re starting to get down to the wire, gifting- and especially shipping-wise for the holidays, I thought I’d highlight some of my favorites that still need homes.

Sophie by Elisabeth Doherty (aka Gourmet Amigurumi):

Drakkart with Wave by Sandra Monat of herzensart:

Swimmers – Egg Plant by Hine Mizushima:

Telephone by Katie Park (aka Caffaknitted):

Mineton by Yuriko Sera:

And of course there are still some Tiny Things made by me and two of the Conversion Factories available.

The gallery and its online ordering will be closed December 24 – January 3rd.

Also, check out these little interviews with Katie Park, Keighty Paul (aka Keighty Crochet), and me on the CWC-i blog!

Luv-able & Hug-able Opening

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Anna

It was a great opening at gallery hanahou last Thursday for “Luv-able & Hug-able!”

There were so many cute plushes there! I took home this “Snowflake” guy on the left, by Eerika Valkonen…

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And the little bitty bearded one at the top right here, made by Yuriko Sera:

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Keighty Crochet was also there, and so was Katie Park—we talked knitted toy design, which is something I don’t get to do as often as I would like.

Check out more photos from the opening at the gallery’s Flickr page. And all of the plushes are now available online!

Here is the obligatory photo of me posing next to my factories.

I’m already starting to think about what I’ll make for next year’s show…

Too Crewel

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Anna

Over the weekend my mother-in-law and I went to a workshop in crewel led by Katherine Shaughnessy, the author of The New Crewel, at Make Workshop in NYC.

I’m actually not one to try each and every craft out there, but there is something about crewel, which is embroidery done with wool on linen, that I’ve been attracted to for a long time. Once I saw the beautiful abstract designs in Katherine’s book when it came out a few years ago, I knew it was just a matter of time before I gave it a try, so this workshop was a no-brainer for me.

In the workshop, we went over the basic stitches to get started on a sampler. I chose some different shades of yellow wool to work with, and though I still have a way to go, I’m loving how it looks.

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I think it’s the way that wool is such a forgiving fiber that makes crewel so great—instead of perfect stitches, it’s more about the organic shapes. Katherine has done a lot to bring crewel into the mainstream, and she now sells the hard-to-find supplies on her website Wool & Hoop.

I guess I’ve had stitching on my mind this whole year—later this month I’ll be adding the first cross-stitch pattern to the Mochimochi Shop! (More on that soon!)

Ossu! Shugeibu Opening Tonight

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Anna

Isn’t that umbrella bird the cutest? You can see it and tons of other unusual creations by Shoichi Ishizawa and Ossu! Shugeibu at tonight’s opening of “Before and After,” at gallery hanahou in NYC! Stop by the gallery from 7-9 pm tonight (10/14) for the opening party with a surprise participatory event.

There’s also a workshop this Saturday at the gallery where you can make your own walking and barking robo-dog for $29.99. Email info@galleryhanahou.com to sign up!

Before and After: hijacking everyday stuff to craft incredible creations

with Ossu! Shugeibu, the macho crafting club from Japan

October 14 – November 13

gallery hanahou

611 Broadway, Suite 730, NYC

M-F noon – 6 pm

Sat by appt only

Ossu! Shugeibu, translated into English as Yo! Crafting Club, is fueled by a mix of testosterone and pure creativity uninhibited by rules or conventions. Using repurposed materials and freestyle techniques, founder and president Shoichi Ishizawa inspires his myriad club members – men and women who have participated in his workshops – to create surprising craft art without any prior experience in the traditional crafts.

“Before and After” will feature unusual creations handmade by Ishizawa himself, but the guerrilla crafting guru is passionate about recruiting new members to his club and has plans to get everyone involved!

Visitors to the October 14th opening will be encouraged to join in on a participatory handmade “happening,” then Ishizawa will lead a workshop on October 17th in which participants will each make a hand-sewn robotic dog. Come join the Yo! Crafting Club!

Opening party (with surprise participatory event!) – October 14 (Wed) 7 – 9 p.m.

Robogurumi robot dog workshop (only $29.99!) – October 17 (Sat) 1 – 4 p.m.

Email info@galleryhanahou.com to sign up!

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My Dad’s Clocks

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Anna

My dad is passionate about clocks—more specifically, he is passionate about fixing antique clocks that stopped running a long time ago. When my parents moved into their current home a few years ago, he finally got his own workshop.

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I love visiting and seeing what he’s up to! Lately it’s cuckoo clocks.

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Not only is he fixing the works on the inside of the clocks, but this year my dad has started fixing up the outside of cuckoo clocks too, by carving and painting pieces to match the rest of a damaged clock. He’s discovering vast stores of creative talent that he never knew about.

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I thought it would be fun to count up all the antique/vintage clocks in my parents’ house—including grandfather clocks, carriage clocks, schoolhouse clocks, and cuckoo clocks, among other varieties—and I came to a total of 22 clocks, 15 of which are in the workshop, in various states of repair. (There are probably several more in storage that I didn’t even see.)

I asked my dad which clock he uses to tell time, and he said it’s the digital clock on the stove. Obviously!