Cthulhu Stirs

I really wanted Cthulhu to rise from the deep but he just rolled over mumbled a bit and went back to sleep. I honestly thought I could finish the sculpture this weekend but there is still quite a bit to go. You may wonder what I was doing gallivanting about on a road trip with all this work to do but I promise I was crocheting all the way in the car and in the motel that night.

Road Trip

I cannot remember the last time Scott and I managed to go away anywhere together which made our road trip over the last couple of days extra special. In preparation for our upcoming week in New Zealand we went away for a night to give our excellent friends Wendy and Bevan a chance to practice looking after the terrible two.

We drove up to Bendigo on Good Friday under some of the most fabulous cloudscapes.

Every so often a really heavy squall would come through.

When we got there we went to the Chinese Museum which was full of the most stunning embroidery unfortunately the lighting was too dim to get pictures of most of it but I did manage this one.

We also fed the goldfish in the garden.

We had a fabulous dinner at The Dispensary Enoteca I highly recommend it if you visit, especially the Cucumber Martini and the Gorgonzola Soufflé.

After a not too comfortable night owing to a soggy mattress we had a yummy breakfast of poached eggs and headed off to the Bendigo Woollen Mills. I mail order a lot from them for my monsters but this is the first time I have been to the factory outlet. Needless to say my stash has been enriched and my wallet depleted - now I just have to figure out where to put it all.

Next we went to the chrysanthemum and goat show. I had no idea chrysanthemums were so big some of the flowers were almost as big as my head.

The best bit of course was the goats, they had these beautiful Anglo-Nubian goats with totally amazing colours and spots.

This particular goat loved Scott she put her hooves up on the fence and lent over to give him a big kiss, she was beautiful and we would have smuggled her home in the car if we could.

Then we discovered there is such a thing is a miniature goat - I want one so badly they are adorable. Apparently you can keep them in our area if you get a permit from the council.

Then we went back to the centre of town for lunch and a wander round the art gallery. We drove home the back way via Kinglake and Yarra Glen. All in all a fun journey and the dogs were not too evil while we were gone, although Corto is still in a bit of a sulk.

Time To Catch Up

I know I have been missing for a bit but I have been working away on monsters. Cthulhu is the last large monster for the exhibition and I am probably about a third of the way there.

He is going to be bigger than I thought.

I have also done a bear making class with Linda Benson which was lots of fun. I haven't made bears for ages but I learnt some wonderful techniques which I hope to apply to some of my other work. I have not quite finished due to monster time pressures but it is very cute so far.

I learnt so many cool things about making leather noses, and eyelids and paws and open mouths.

Other than that have had my Aunt and her friend visit or a couple of days which was lots of fun.

We are going to Bendigo for a night at Easter to visit the Woollen Mills and see the Chrysanthemum and Goat show (an odd combination I just just hope none of the goats get out and eat the flowers).

But mostly I will be crocheting Cthulhu.

Sunday Shoggoth Frenzy

Yay, four out of five big monsters are now finished for the exhibition, last one is the big crouching Cthulhu for which I have had some ambitious ideas that I hope I can pull off in the time left.

Monster number four is the Shoggoth, particularly amorphous in its written descriptions (other than driving sane men mad as is par for the course with Lovecraft beasties). My interpretation has 13 eyes on stalks and 13 eye/maw thingies and is otherwise kind of slug like. I think it is kind if sweet and cuddly.

Here are this weeks sock creatures:

The antlers were a bit of an experiment but I think they came out well.

Tuesday Shelf Frenzy

How amazingly beautiful is this. There are lots more pictures here.

I have wanted to see lava for real ever since I was little, maybe one day.

Some new sock monsters for the market - mostly gone now as I had quite a good day on Saturday.

No new monsters but I made a shelf for Ithaqua which hopefully will work for the exhibition.

Sunday Finishing Frenzy

Last week was a bit crappy things happened that made us both sad and mad (although luckily not with each other), however the universe made it up to us in its chaotic random fashion with a particularly lovely weekend.

We went out to Credo in Olinda on Friday night and had a truly delicious dinner, we went and saw Jerico and Sydonia at the East Brunswick club on Saturday night and had a fantastic time, the weather has been cool and he dogs have been snugly. Plus I finished two monsters for the exhibition.

For starters here are a couple of photos of Ithaqua after the surgery to insert armature.

Notice he is standing on his own now, although I was holding my breath he is still tricky to balance even if his head no longer lolls.

After a two week delay while I waited for the eyes to arrive Gol Goroth is finally finished.

I am still trying to figure out how to display it, I have added a hanging point at the top of the head which seems to help but not sure how to implement it at the exhibition. Scott had the brilliant idea of putting it in a cage, so I am on the look out for one of those old fashioned wire dome ones with the idea that we can tear holes for the wigs like it has been trying to escape.

The original plan was that it would be self supporting but with only one leg it tends to twist too much. Plus I did the leg on a separate piece of armature connected to one that runs from the head to the tail and it wobbles a lot - next time I will run the support from the foot to the head and join the tail separately.

I am looking forward to perfecting the bird design, I think my next big project once this one is done will be a series of bird creatures.

I have also just finished the Gug or Old Gug as Scott keeps calling him (cos he has a mangina - you were right Tonia he is incorrigible) .

His armature is much more stable - I am getting better as I go.

I was hoping to pose him kind on on all fours using his second forearms support himself but he tends to just look like he has accidentally toppled over.

I sewed his teeth in individually this time instead of running a wire through the loops like I did with Ithaqua, they seem to sit much better this way.

Old Gug wants your Baileys.

Sunday Burger Frenzy

My boss came back from leave the day after Australia day and I managed to wangle the Thursday and Friday off - so I have just enjoyed a pleasant and reasonably productive 5 day weekend.

My studio, while still an abomination is a significantly more organised abomination than it was a couple of days ago. We did an Ikea trip to get more bookshelves for the library, I got a plasma globe for $20 - its cheap and nastiness does not in anyway diminish its cool electrical Teslaness.

We framed and hung some beautiful art sent to us by our extremely talented friend Tonia, you can see more of her works here.

This one was a Christmas present.

And this one was part of Scott's birthday present (apologies for the crappy photos).

I found a new fabulously ugly piece of horse art at the Silver Compaq (the best second hand store around and a source of many fantastically ugly things).

This is the first painting (well textured print) that I found there:

And this is the new acquisition:

The horses are in relief on a kind of a hessian background and it has a kind of tikiness to it. I did not mean to start an ugly horse picture collection when I bought the first one but I guess having two is probably a bad sign.

Navigating the yard has become a little hazardous with summer getting into full swing, we have orb spiders everywhere.

Their webs are so beautiful, except when you wander into one without knowing whether the spider was home and have to do the get this thing off me dance. I have become very cautious when heading down the front path on my way to work.

Gol Goroth is coming along slowly, I have done about as much as I can until his eye gets here. Still having some issues keeping him upright as the leg armature keeps twisting relative to the body but hopefully I can sort something out.

I have also finished my piece for the Strumpets Crumpets valentine craft swap. My swapee is a vegan which presented some interesting challenges re materials but with a bit of questing I managed to put together a suitable combination of acrylic and cotton yarns.

Meet the veggie burger purse with beetroot, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and of course veggie burger.

I'm not entirely happy with the veggie burger yarn which is a mixture of two yarns knitted together but there was not a lot of choice. Tomorrow I will send it on its journey to Canada.