Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Fox


I cannot remember which of the kids asked for this fox. When you make almost 20 different animals, everything about the process feels fuzzy. And not just literally.

And speaking of fuzzy, it's astounding how imprecise my impressions are of specific animals. I mean, when I was designing their features, these were what my useless memory told me:
  • pigs have triangularish ears and circular snouts. 
  • cats have triangularish ears and bottlebrush tails. Some have stripes. 
  • penguins are ovoid and white and black and there's yellow somewhere.
  • frogs have webbed feet and are green. Are their hands also webbed?  
  • foxes are rust colored. They have fat tails. The tails have white tips. They also have white somewhere on their faces. Er, what kind of noses have they got?

Total rubbish.

So then I had to google actual images of real animals for enlightenment. I was shocked at how wrong I was about so many animal features. For example, pigs do not have perfectly circular noses (duh). And cow ears stick out at the sides of their heads, not the tops. And not all cows have horns, crumpled or otherwise. And foxes sometimes have black socks. And kangaroos have standy-up ears that are dark inside. And pandas have a big black waistband, like a negative tapir. And dragons! And, apparently, dragon eyes are not anything like snakes'. Which is all obvious until one has to actually draft templates, at which point one sits, with pencil poised over cardstock, second-guessing oneself because one suddenly and inexplicably cannot distinguish between, say, a beaver and an otter. 

But anyway, here is our fox (whom Emily has since claimed as hers). 

And which, by some miracle, did not end up looking like a wolf. Or a pig. Or a pterodactyl. Thank heavens for google.




14 comments:

  1. Thanks for the lessons! :) Your (er... Emily's) fox has a lovely tail!

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  2. Everyday I look at your sweat animals, I love them all. No I am waiting for a horse. I hope my englisch is not so bad!
    Best regards from germany

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  3. I hardly ever post a comment but I am so impressed with these beautiful, lovingly made stuffed animals!!! They are adorable and unique. You won't be finding one of these at ToysRUs! Your talent is amazing and I thank you for sharing with the rest of us! Well done!

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  4. I love it. I think its amazing that you can take that same shape and with seemingly minor details create an abundance of animals that are so obviously the animal you are aiming for. Also, I'm really hoping one of your girls asked for a narwhal.

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  5. waaaa.. its so cuteee.. may i have one?? hihihihi.. just kidding

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  6. Haiii..
    done follow ur blog no. 4814
    nice blog.. nice to know u..
    will u follow me back?
    leh kita saling kunjung-kunjungan..

    http://tengkubutang.blogspot.com/ - official blog

    http://kucenkucenbleog.blogspot.com/ - my catlover's blog

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  7. My daughter is entranced with your animalsand asking every day when she gets home from school, "what animal was posted today?" Cannot wait for the pattern.

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  8. i wrote in response to your question that i would prob not buy a pattern, but i have changed my mind as it is the sloper as you mentioned in a post and it's good for ALL these critters with my (or your) own details. This is so very cool. :-) I love all of them. very much.

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  9. Dragons? Which dragons? Around the same time that Harry Potter was talking about different species of dragons, my kids were learning about the differences between European and Asian dragons. For fictional creatures, they sure have a lot of nomenclature.

    Now my boys think they are grown up, and it's just me saying "Hey, that's really cute".

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  10. You have done it again.....Made an animal that I will have to make...Jake will be jumping up and down the entire time I will be sewing this up...Saying "hurry, hurry, I need to hold" Boy when you make cute things you go all out to get us Grandmas to bend to our notion that we can make everything.........

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  11. I love fox and all! Anyway what is the material (or may be I miss it). Is it felt or fleece? Because the color is not that common.

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  12. I'm loving seeing all these cute softies!!

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