Three new friends: Opal, Gladys and Elliott. You can see the photos and read their stories on our Flickr page, and you can check them out on our Etsy shop.

Our new little friend Pico came to us from just south of the border. He made his way North after he was downsized from the entourage of the feared, mythic creature- El Chupacabra.

It seems that with all of the stress and strain on the global economy of late, people are not spending quite as much time in leisure activities and pursuits. This decline means that it’s become fairly lean, income wise, for creatures like El Chupacabra, Bigfoot, The Strawman and UFOs as more and more people are focused on dollar retention. And sadly, less vacations translates to less sightings-translates to less income-translates to Pico being on the streets.

So, what is a 6″ out of work monster to do? Well apparently, Pico caught one of our TV ads at 2:00am advertising our placement services and decided to see if we could help. After hiring a coyote to get him across the border, riding several box-car trains and hitchhiking his way through the West Coast, he ended up on our door step looking fairly disheveled.

It has been a couple weeks now, and we are happy to say he has his wonderful orange glow back. He has started working on his memoirs, “Mi Chupacabra es su Chupacabra”, and is looking for a safe, quite environment to add the last chapters to his seminal work.

This is little Nizumi. She has been living in my sketchbook for a mighty long time, and now she’s here! Yay! Our goal these days is to grow, and widen out in our creations. And little Nizumi is a prototype, an experiment in a way. But once I made her, I loved her, and couldn’t bear to part with her. She is now a permanent part of our personal collection, keeping guard on my bedside table, perched atop of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Erin and I love what we do because we have a lot of freedom which allows us to create whatever we feel like! But what I love the most, and hope we never lose sight of, is creating pieces for ourselves and our family. We own many pieces that will never be duplicated, copied or mass produced simply because they went from sketchbook to sewing machine to us. And that is just so awesome! Personal projects are the lifeblood of any creative endeavor, and we are indulging ourselves this summer!

And in the end, we are hoping to emerge even craftier, plushier, and far more interesting than ever. Until then…

Craft Flickr Pool Weekly Roundup (June 14, 2008)

National Hot Fudge Sundae Day (via nowpublic.com) – We were asked to contribute a photo of a recent trade (between us and the fab Love and a Sandwich) to a story on National Hot Fudge Sundae Day.

Meet Sam and Pete (We made their “Plush Goodness” section)

Tinymeat (Friends are good to have)

Pop’s Book Shop

Thanks again to everyone for your support.

So… the phone rings at 10:40 on Friday morning. Me, in pajamas sewing leisurely preparing for the much awaited Buckman Art Show & Sell. Answer phone calmly, only to be thrown into terrifying panic mode because we are supposed to be in Portland setting up our table for the show! What?! Of course, I’ve misread the instructions and gotten the setup times mixed up, the doors are closing in 20 minutes, and we live not in Portland, but across the bridge in Vancouver! Needless to say, several unladylike words later, and sweating like a banshee, we were in the car and Dolls for Friends arrives at the Buckman Show! TA-DA! Thank goodness Erin was calm, and he was driving, so we arrived safely.

Fast forward several hours, and we return showered, and ready to roll! Immediately, the talent is VERY apparent, and I was really excited that we were getting to be a part of this cool event.  So, everyone we met that was involved with this show, were just fantastic. I can only imagine the countless hours they put into planning this exceptional venue. For instance, Mary Bradshaw who coordinated the silent auction, and gift bags for the musicians was so wonderful, and I really enjoyed getting to meet her. And our neighbor at the show, Peri of Perisponchos, was super. We swapped a doll for her daughter, and she is going to donate fabric scraps (garbage bag full at a time, mind you) for our plushies. How cool is that? And of course, one of my favorites, and who is quickly becoming a good friend and ally, Shannon of Mayabella was there with all of her sweet owls, horses, and octopi! And a shout out to Chris Haberman, a fantastic artist- we were lucky enough to snag one of his paintings over the weekend. And the list goes on and on, I think we had a great time, can you tell?

If you’ve never been to Portland, consider this a formal invitation! You should come visit, it will be an experience you won’t forget, the scenery is gorgeous, the people smart and friendly, and the depth of talent will blow you away!  And  don’t forget us Washingtonians, Portland’s friends across the river, we’re cool too!

We were to thrilled to receive our half of a trade we recently initiated with Dawn Ramerman of Look What I Can Do. Jill contacted her on the off chance that she might be willing to share one of her wonderful creations with us in exchange for one of our pieces. Thankfully, she was up for the trade. Patty the owl came to us a few days ago in the mail, and we just love her. The craftsmanship (craftswomanship) of the piece is top notch and her choice of fabric was wonderful.

The art of the trade is something that is essential to the DIY/craft experience. There is so much wonderful and talented work out there that if two artists are in mutual admiration of each other’s work, it’s wonderful when a trade can be arranged between the two to foster that mutual appreciation.

If you are interested in seeing the piece we sent Dawn, you can check out her post on the Hanetori we sent her and all about here work on her weblog. Better yet, after you’re done with that check out her Etsy store to see what she has available for sale. Her pieces would surely be a welcome addition to any home.

Thanks again Dawn!

Here are a few of the pieces we’ve put together for the upcoming 2nd Sunday Sustainability Fair being held in Portland on February 10. All the pieces we are bringing with us will either be made from mostly recycled and/or reclaimed materials.

Jill and I have learned quite a bit about the extent to which we can push certain types of reclaimed materials while getting ready for this show.

There were several designs that we made it quite far into the process with, only to be abandoned because of limitations and flaws that surfaced due to the types of reclaimed materials we were trying to use. It’s also allowed us to take some mental notes on our processes and eliminate certain types of reclaimed materials because they are simply too hard to work with.

Our newest friend up on our Etsy shop.

A little back story perhaps? Sure:

Percival is extremely fond of techno, dub, trip hop and downtempo music. He’s been known to attend a variety of rave and house style parties, spending days grooving to the hypnotic, repetitive musical structures while hopping around in a semi-trance like state alleviating his cares and concerns.

He’s extremely mellow, widely read and loves to talk about a variety of subjects. Despite being a bit squinty from a variety of strobe light induced corneal burns, Percy is extremely friendly and outgoing.

We were so excited when we were contacted by Tender Loving Empire in Portland asking us if they could carry our work. We thought about it for, oh, about 5 seconds, looked at each other and shouted, “Hecks yes!”

We were finally able to get downtown today and sign contracts with the hospitable Bri, deliver a couple of pieces for the shop and to take a look around her awesome store. There is just so much there that you could easily spend your entire paycheck there without even blinking.

Our agreement with TLE marks the first retail space we’re going to be located in, and it looks like it might not be the last. We’ve just received interest from a new vendor that if it works out might take us across the pond to merry old England before too long. Let’s hope.