Year: 2009

My Dad’s Clocks

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!

Big Mouth O’ Fluff

Update: I can’t believe it, but someone pretty much guessed spot-on in the comments! It’s going to be a factory with tiny stuff coming out on a conveyor belt.

Bet you can’t guess what this guy is going to be! (No really—I’m pretty certain you’ll never guess. But you can try anyway!)

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It’s something I’m making for the upcoming Luv-able and Hug-able plush show at gallery hanahou. I’ll reveal more as it comes along!

COLOURlovers

I just discovered COLOURlovers, an online community/blog/resource for color inspiration—very cool! A contributor to the site recently blogged about the colors used in some of my toy designs.

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I love the way the people on COLOURlovers obsessively create color palates from different sources. Here is the distilled version made from the colors in my Giant Mushrooms Attack the City knitted sculpture.

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It looks so planned out when it’s shown like this! Gives me inspiration to put just a little more thought into my color choices.

Ossu! Robot Dogs

Check out this video of awesome hand-sewn robot dogs! They were made by Ossu! Shugeibu, the “guerrilla” crafting club from Japan.

Ossu! Shugeibu is coming to gallery hanahou next month, where they will have a show and host a workshop on October 17th in which you can make your own robot dog! Email info@galleryhanahou.com for more info and to sign up.