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Semifinalists ’13, Group Two

Posted on December 16, 2013December 23, 2013 by Anna

UPDATE: Congratulations to our winners!

It was awesome to see all the impassioned comments on our last post of semifinalists—thanks, everyone! Let’s keep up the cheering for our next group of semifinalists, which we present to you today.

Like the last group, these are photos that John and I chose for their originality, their storytelling, and their overall cuteness. They are all winners to us, so we need your help narrowing these down for the finals! Take a good look at each, and ROOT FOR YOUR FAVORITES IN THE COMMENTS TO THIS POST.

Here they are, in no particular order, your final batch of semifinalist photos in the 2013 Mochimochi Photo Contest…

Rappelling Gnome by Shannon

Go, go tiny gnome! We love this dramatic close-up.

Teeny Tiny Lolcats by Monica

Mochi cats plus internet meme equals happy! We love all the different breeds, too.

Knit Nested Birds by Hannah

The composition is just lovely. And happy wings!

PTA (Painted Turtles of America) Campout by ForeverWrens

We love how everyone seems to have a job in this busy scene, except maybe for the guy who’s just sitting on a rock. Adorable!

Thor! by Lucy

Thor indeed! The attention to detail in this very tiny knit is just awesome.

Giant Squid Attack by Amanda

It seems inevitable that Squidpocalypse would start attacking the other mochis sometime. The water and clouds are a great touch!

Mochi Burger Restaurant by Sarah

There’s so much going on here, but we especially love the tiny dog who’s getting a melted ice cream treat.

Hens Playing Quidditch by seakame

Awesome diorama! The 2D/3D combo is very clever.

Bird Conga by Bonnie

They’re rainbow penguins and they’re marching in formation! Enough said.

Luvbot Mending Broken Hearts by FatalsAttraction

There’s something irresistible about this photo. I think it’s how seriously Luvbot is taking his task.

Aren’t these all just the tops? Congrats to these witty knitters!

Don’t forget to leave a comment telling us which of these photos (it can be multiples!) you want to see in the finals. We’ll be taking all of your comments into consideration for the big final vote. The poll will open later this week, so don’t forget to check back and cast your vote!

Semifinalists ’13, Group One

Posted on December 13, 2013December 23, 2013 by Anna

UPDATE: Congratulations to our winners!

It’s semifinalist time in the 2013 Mochimochi Photo Contest!

Today we present to you the first batch of ten semifinalist photos. It’s always really difficult to narrow the entries down, but John and I selected photos of mochis that were unexpected, that told stories, and that showed lots of originality. And cuteness, of course! We also decided not to have more than one photo by the same person in the semifinals this year.

And we need your input to help narrow the semifinals down to the ten finalists! So take a close look at these awesome photos and ROOT FOR YOUR FAVORITES in the comments to this post. Just leave a comment saying which photo or photos you would really like to see make it to the big final vote. Your feedback will really help us out!

Here they are, in no particular order, your first batch of semifinalist photos…

Stormtroopers Knit Droids by Taylor

We love how seriously these little guys take knitting!

Giant Squid Love by Jill

Just wow! Some amazing engineering going on here.

Sty Guys by Elly

Who knew there were so many varieties of Pigs with Wigs? Each really seems to have its own personality!

Poseidon by Shanna

Lovely scene and a great mod!

Tortoise and Hare: The Deleted Scene by Ilana

All those tiny shoes! (And that tiny foot measurer!) Awesome.

Snowman Friends by Emily F.

This one is so charming in its simplicity!

Herding Chicks by Emily

We didn’t know that tiny armadillos were good herders, but now it just seems obvious!

Polar Bear Plunge by juleenbean

Such a cute wintry scene! We love the set and the tiny mug!

It Looks Like a Purple People Eater to Me by wooly brain

Watch out, little guy! We love the composition and colors in this dramatic scene.

Best Beard Contest by The Happy Cupcake

It’s about time that someone featured one of the big gnome events of the year!

Aren’t these photos just super? Congrats to these clever knitters!

Now we need your help to narrow these down to the finalists. Don’t be shy—let us know which of these especially tickles you in the comments! And be sure to check back on Monday for the next batch of semifinalist photos!

Photo Contest ’13: Honorable Mentions

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Anna

Thank you to everyone who entered the 2013 Mochimochi Photo Contest! It’s hard to believe that is the seventh year we’ve been holding this contest, but there seems to be no end to the creativity of mochi-makers: once again this year we received HUNDREDS of funny, creative, beautiful entries!

Yesterday John and I spent several hours carefully looking through all the entries in the Mochimochi Friends Flickr group, and after much debate we managed to sort out 10 honorable mentions and 20 semifinalists.

So without further ado, we present the honorable mentions, photos that tickled us and deserve special recognition. See them all—in no particular order—after the jump!

Continue reading “Photo Contest ’13: Honorable Mentions” →

Mochimochi on Nickelodeon

Posted on December 10, 2013December 13, 2013 by Anna

I’ve been getting emails all month from knitters who think they’ve spotted knitted gnomes, snowmen, and other Mochimochi Land creatures on TV. If you’ve been watching Nickelodeon, you’re eyes are not deceiving you! Last month I had the opportunity to work with Nick on a series of animated holiday IDs featuring a variety of wintry mochis making mischief in the snow. If you tune in right now, you’ll probably see them airing between commercials!

I’m excited to share the full animations here.

Like with the other stop-motion videos and GIFs that I’ve made, the animations were created by moving the creatures a fraction of an inch and taking a photograph, and repeating that again and again until we had a series of hundreds of photos that could be put together to make one action happen. Then repeat. And repeat. Making a 10-second animation could take up to four hours, and that’s pretty good time for stop-motion!

I worked together with the Nick promotions team to concept and animate the first six IDs, with all the post-production work, including the sound and the flat animations, handled by Nick. The last four animations starring mochi-fied Nick characters were done by the Nick team themselves using materials I had made.

It was an incredible experience to get to work on these ambitiously-conceived animations with such a talented and enthusiastic team. I had a blast with this project, and I learned so much! The project has made me more excited about all the possibilities for mochis in motion.

Big thank-yous go to Matthew Duntemann at Nick and to my agent Koko for making this happen!

Last Day for Your Photos!

Posted on December 9, 2013December 10, 2013 by Anna

UPDATE: The contest is now closed for entries. Thank you for your photos, and please check back soon for honorable mentions and semifinalists for YOU to vote on!

tinyelephant_brandi Photo by Brandi Simons

Don’t forget! Today (Monday 12/9) is the last day to enter your photos in the 2013 Mochimochi Photo Contest—photos added to our Flickr group after midnight (Pacific time) won’t be eligible for the contest. But if you just can’t help being late, don’t fret! All photos added after midnight automatically will be entered in next year’s contest.

Once all your photos are in, John and I will carefully look over all the entries, and do the difficult task of selecting honorable mentions, and then our semifinalists, which we will ask you to give us your input on. And next week we’ll have the final vote for everyone to participate in. So be sure to check back here for all the photo fun!

Win Cute Toys from Japan

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Anna

How are your Mochimochi Photo Contest entries coming? The deadline is MONDAY—that still gives you enough time to knit up a mochi and take a funny picture of it!

As I’ve been featuring this month, we have some awesome prizes for the winners, including gift certificates from Knit Picks, classes and special discounts from Craftsy, gift cards from us here at Mochimochi Land, and a bunch of surprises straight from the World’s Biggest Yarn Stash. But wait, there’s more!

pc13_sonny

Each of the top three winners will get a Sonny Angel! What is a Sonny Angel? It’s a Kewpie doll from Japan that wears a funny costume, or something! We have two holiday-themed Angels and one chocolate-themed one. Our first-place winner will also receive a Hello Kitty grocery re-ment set from Japan! (You knew I couldn’t resist throwing in some cute stuff from Japan.)

So don’t forget to add your photos to our Flickr group by midnight on Monday, December 9th! We cannot wait to see what your mochis do! See full contest details.

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last year’s first group and second group of semifinalists!

Tiny Kits in Martha Stewart Living

Posted on December 4, 2013December 4, 2013 by Anna

I’ve been making extra trips to the post office over the past few days, thanks to this magazine…

That’s right, we’re featured in Martha Stewart Living this month!! Well, it’s actually a tiny gnome and Santa who get all the glory—our tiny kits are part of the December 2013 issue’s gift guide.

msl2

It’s such an honor to get a mention in this magazine. The only downside is that all the other mochis are jealous of these two overnight crafting sensations!

A big thank you to Martha Stewart Living for this early Christmas present!

Patricia’s Cool Fox

Posted on December 3, 2013December 3, 2013 by Anna

Here’s another original toy created by a knitter who took my toy design class in October!

Patricia wanted to design a fox, but was unsure about where to start, especially when it came to the head. So in the class she sketched out the triangle shape she had in mind, and as a group we discussed some different options for how she could make it, with varying degrees of complexity.

I was so excited when Patricia sent me photos of her finished fox with his triangle head. Often the simple solution is the best way to go for a charming toy, and I think Patricia got it just right—this guy reminds me of an illustration, with its handmade quality and basic shapes.

Patricia shared a bunch of photos of her fox-in-progress on her Tumblr. It’s awesome to see her fox take shape!

She mentioned in the Tumblr post that she mostly pieced him together using different patterns from my books, and that’s totally OK! Existing patterns are great resources, and it’s all about simple shapes anyway, so taking elements from various sources is a good way to start designing your own toys.

Thanks to Patricia for sharing her fox!