Excuses, excuses

Hey everyone! Sorry there hasn't been a post in a while. Wanna know why? This is what we had to do this weekend (well, we actually still have to do more, this is what actually got done).
So once everyone is assembled (that's 6 Links we have to finish!) hopefully we can get started on some new characters--I soooo want to make Leonidas, so hopefully we'll get working on him soon.

In other news, the boyfriend (the ever talented sculpey maker) entered the Craftster 350 contest, which is helping to spread the world about global warming. Since he is a t-shirt designer he entered the t-shirt contest, and here is his design:
Isn't it pretty? If you like it, go vote for it! You don't need to register to vote, so if you like it help spread the love! Stay tuned, more updates coming soon.

Free Lightsaber Pattern!

So, one day while I was supposed to be working, I thought to myself, "you know, there just aren't enough crocheted weapons out there". And so I bring to you, my crochet lightsaber!


You can see my lightsaber here, being modeled by my lovely ewok. Artoo looks like he is ready to come whoop some butt, though. He does look rather menacing.


I didn't really like the lightsaber when I first finished it, because the edges weren't hard enough and I thought it sort of looked like an out of control beer bottle cozy. But I really like it now, I can appreciate for it's toy-like appearance and it's kitschiness.

Depending on your gauge, this guy should turn out pretty close to life size. They're not going to win any awards for authenticity, but they are pretty fun to hold and throw around. They would make a great baby toy, if they were made out of acrylic yarn.

Just to warn you, this is a really informal pattern. I don't have row numbers or anything, so just use your best judgment.

(Half-Assed) Lightsaber Pattern

Start with gray yarn, chain 2
6 st in 2^nd chain from hook
(sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) until you have anywhere from 35-36 sts
11 rows even

Change to black yarn
6 rows even

Change to gray yarn
11 rows even

Change to black yarn
(sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog) for one row
Dc in the front st only for 6 rows
Next row even
(sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog) until you only have about 13-15 sts left

Change to gold yarn
5 rows even
(sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) for two rows
3 rows even
(sc in next st, sc2tog) for one row

Change to gray yarn
(sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) for two rows
3 rows even
(I didn't close my lightsaber up, I just stuffed it and left the end open. Not the best solution, I know, but I don't know how I want to close it up, so sorry! If I figure something out, I'll edit this)

Small Buttons (make 4)
10 sc, 1 ch, turn
9dc, 1 ch, turn
9 dc, 1 ch, turn
9 sc
leave long tail, attach to the lightsaber

Large Button
10 sc, 1 ch, turn
9dc, 1 ch, turn
9 dc, 1 ch, turn
9 sc
sc around the edge of the rectangle twice, with a (2sc in 1 st) in each of the four corners
leave long tail, attach to the lightsaber

Ah! Wicket! Don't kill Artoo! Jeez, these things are dangerous.

Anyway, I hope you guys like it! If a lot of people really like it, I will write up another pattern for Vader's lightsaber. Stay tuned!

Cool Custom Clone Wars Jedi Clones

Hey guys! To celebrate the new Clone Wars movie that is coming out today, I thought I'd show you our newest creation: Ahsoka Tano!
Awww, isn't she cute? Her little head thingy was really hard to make; luckily I didn't have to make it, my boyfriend did. He's getting pretty handy with the sewing machine. This was the first time we've painted on crochet, and I think the effect turned out really nicely.
WAH! Clones! How cool would an army of cloned jedi be? We actually made three of these little guys, and they all turned out really cute. I like their little lightsabers. Their costumes were actually pretty easy, the hardest part was getting their heads to look right.
I even made a lightsaber out of sculpey this time! Alright, so it didn't turn out well enough to be one of these final three, but I was still pretty proud of myself. Those things are dang tiny, and I don't have nearly enough patience to work on them.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy! I'm excited about the movie, but I don't know if I want to see Tropic Thunder even more. I doubt I'll be brave enough to venture out to the movie theaters twice, so I'll have to choose which one I want to see more. Anyway, have a great weekend, and stay tuned!

My Little Pony

Aw, remember My Little Pony? I used to have a ton of them when I was a kid. Okay, I still have them, they're sitting in my parent's garage right now--I just can't bring myself to throw them away. For anyone else who has this problem and wants a creative solution, here are a couple of cool modded little ponies I scrounged up on the interwebs.

Kind of random, but I knew instantly who is was supposed to be. This is an Admiral Thrawn modded my little pony, by craftster user ravenau1. The red eyes are creepily evil.

Warf pony! He's pretty cute, in a really creepy kind of way. This is from flickr user kipperfrog, you guys should totally check out the rest of the flickr set, there's a Ferangi and a Spiderman and a Borg and some other neat characters. The Terminator one is pretty scary looking.

This Davy Jones pony is pretty awesome looking. It's from a DeviantArt user, you can see the rest of her stuff here. It's worth a look, she has some really cool stuff, including some (sort of creepy) anime characters like Ed and Al Elric, and Sephiroth and Squall. I like the Davy Jones one though, and of course the Master Chief and a really cool Joker.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed these! I think they're really fun to look at, even though I don't know if I could ever do that to mine. New character Friday (Clone Wars Day!) so keep an eye out! Stay tuned.

AT-AT: The Ghetto Files

Ever wonder what would happen to an out of commission AT-AT when left in a bad part of town? Unlikely scenario, I know (those punks on Hoth blew everything up, there wasn't much to deface) but bear with me. Check out this super cool modded Hasbro toy.
Isn't that so cool? All of the graffiti is in Aurabesh (the large graffiti on the side spells out "REBEL") and I love the little rebel tags everywhere. I wish there were more pictures of the other sides, but I think you can get the general idea. Stick it to the empire, guys!

This item sold at Christie's for $1250. Let me tell you, if I had that kind of money I would have snatched this up in a second, I think it's so cool. I have a thing for AT-ATs though, I just love them. Just wanted to share with everyone!

Sorry, no ridiculously huge shoes here

Hey everyone! We just finished a new figure, and I wanted to show him off here. It's Sora, from Kingdom Hearts. He looked really simple in the beginning, but he turned out to have a lot of really complicated little things on him. Stupid Squeenix, with all of their stupid belts and buckles. Anyway, here he is!
I'm not a huge fan of Kindgom Hearts (though I did play and like the first one) but I think he's really cute. His little keyblade is really adorable. I like the huge zipper on his jacket too, that was the boyfriend's idea.
A lot of the details are painted on, but some (like the yellow straps around the front and the black ones around the red) are real ribbons with real tiny little buckles. We just made a generic keyblade for him, but I think it's really cute.

Anyway, I hope you guys like him! More new little dudes coming soon. Stay tuned!

Really cool "Wonderland" kit

Hey there everyone, I saw this Alice in Wonderland adventure expedition kit the other day and I just had to share. It is just way too cool, and it is so detailed. It was made by livejournal user absinthetic for his girlfriend who, obviously, loves Alice in Wonderland. The story is that this was made by an explorer who went to Wonderland and cataloged the various specimens and flora and fauna he found there. Here's an overview of the case:

First off, how cool is that suitcase? It's so old looking! And I love the map on the back--I'm a sucker for maps though, especially fake ones. Here's some inside shots:
Now, I'm not the biggest Alice in Wonderland fan (in fact, my only knowledge of it comes from the Disney movie, which I haven't seen in a long time) but I can recognize most of these. I love the little bottles with the "eat me" and "drink me" labels on it, and I like all of the various poems/scientific notes that are scattered around. Some of the various formaldehyded creatures are pretty creepy, but still really cool. There's a little mome rath in a bottle, too. But this is my favorite thing:
The little card guard that is all pinned and labeled, just like a butterfly or something. It's brilliant. You can see the rest of the pictures here, although I wish they were a bit brighter.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you all, and the subject being somewhat geeky I thought it would fit in here. I would totally love to make a version of this for myself, but either Star Wars or Lord of the Rings inspired (of course). In the Star Wars case you could have a little galaxy map, some Kessel spice, maybe some various droid parts, little notes written in alien languages, maybe a crystal from a lightsaber, stuff like that. You can tell I've been thinking about this for a while. Of course it would never look as polished as this, I think this case is just amazing.

In other news, I made a crochet lightsaber today, but I'm not thrilled with it. I might post it here later and see what you guys think, and post a pattern if you guys like it. I think it kind of looks like a messed up beer can, so I'm kind of ashamed to even take pictures of it, but someone may think it's cool, I guess. Anyway, that's all for now, stay tuned! We have a special dude made for the opening of the Clone Wars movie, I can't wait to show everyone!

You asked for it

And here she is!
She has to be so mysterious! What a drama queen. Alright, take off your cloak.
That's more like it! Here is Zelda. She had a lot of little sculpey details, as you can see her shoulder armor, front piece, belt piece and crown are all made out of sculpey, with little colored beads stuck in them. Her dress is painted at the bottom. My sculpey maker says that all of her accessories are probably the most complicated thing he's ever done. They look great in person, though. They are all really tiny and detailed, though, I can't envy him ever having to make more.
She's ready to kick some ass, too. She doesn't need a boy to come save her! She has her own slender but very menacing sword.

I'd like to eventually make Midna as the Twilight Princess, and we've already had some family members asking for Ganondorf, (I always type his name Ganondork, it's my inner dork coming out) but who knows when we will even/ever get a chance to start on them. It would be cool to have the whole gang, though, and the Twilight Princess is pretty neat looking.

Anyway, sorry things have been so quiet around here lately. I'll try to update more, but we've just been knocked on our buts lately with custom orders. Hopefully things will be quieting down soon, and we'll be able to get back to making new characters. I know we have some super cool new Star Wars ones coming soon, so be on the look out for that within the week. Stay tuned!