Do you ever get the feeling that you’re being watched?

See more from Sylvia Windhurst in her Flickr photostream.

Whenever I got out for dinner to a restaurant, I like to get a doggie bag to take home. Melissea takes the doggie bag to another level with this handmade Muffin!

Danny Mansmith made a pretty amazing thing.

Fantastic. Go see more great things from Danny here.

I’m hypnotized by Paper Moon Gallery’s felted sculptures. She’s prolific, so look here for hundreds of covetable twisted folk art pieces. This is just a sample.

Top Left – Lil Mer Girl, Top Right – Elephant in a Vintage Dress, Bottom Left - The Grim Reaper, Bottom Right – Tiffany

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Felter Skelter is written by Moxie, who is an artist, fiber pusher and genuine human being. She likes you very much indeed.

madebymoxie.com |   hifiberkits.com |   ifeltawesome.com

Plastic?  Fibristos and Fibristas, this is not about bags or pop bottles! Soft sculpture is one of the “plastic” arts–forms that are persistent rather than permanent, the arts of shaping, modeling, manipulation and creating volume in materials other than stone, glass, metal or wood. Often metaphorical, or with metaphysical meaning, these larger than life creations can point up the absurdity of a subject, or transcend its daily meaning and function. These malleable materials reference the ’70′s when the revival of interest in craft traditions became both more experimental  and more mainstream as Art mediums.

From Claes Oldenberg’s giant vinyl foods and Meret Oppenheim’s fur covered tea cup and saucer with hairy spoon, to Camilla Taylor’s oddly disturbing but appealing life forms and Danny Mansmith’s revisitation of the ordinary object, soft sculpture is more than felt plushies, nylon needle sculpted doll faces and oddly shaped cushions.

We often forget the other meanings of “plastic”: in the hands of the skilled and visionary, materials as diverse as paper, textiles, hair and plant material and the most ubiquitous of all, actual plastic,  are able to be manipulated, influenced and shaped. The intrinsic qualities of the medium can be exploited or it can be made to do or appear as if it were another material.

Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg

Meret Oppenheim

Meret Oppenheim

Elizabeth Ingraham/from the "Skins" series

Elizabeth Ingraham

Karen Elizabeth Reese/"Garibaldi"

No info available–sorry!

Barbara Schulman/"Lace Maker's Daughter"

Barbara Schulman

Hans Belmer/"½ Poupee"

Hans Belmer

Rachel Bernstein

Rachel Bernstein

Dorothee Van Biesen/Microscopic Inspirations

Dorothee Van Biesen/Brode&Roll

Camilla Taylor

Camilla Taylor

Danny Mansmith

Danny Mansmith

And for fun, try out this (downloadable PDF) with either the Picasso inspiration, or your own favourite artist, or your own art!

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Arlee Barr is a Canadian artist, working primarily with textiles. She describes herself as “curious, eccentric and just a little opinionated“.  Surrealist in thought, Fauvist at heart, Arlee likes the eclectic, explorative and absurd. Sprinkled around the interwebs, she can be found hanging around her fantastic blog.

]]> http://www.mrxstitch.com/2011/03/25/arteries-the-plastic-arts/feed/ 2 http://www.mrxstitch.com/2011/01/28/arteriessaruboboaddictively-sweet/ http://www.mrxstitch.com/2011/01/28/arteriessaruboboaddictively-sweet/#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:31:47 +0000 Arlee http://www.mrxstitch.com/?p=18860

And now for something completely different from the usual ARTeries fare! Fibristas and Fibristos, i introduce to you: SARUBOBO.

baskets of Sarubobo

I’m not one who’s much for cute or plushie, quite frankly, but when i saw these, i fell in love. The scope for ornamentation, storytelling and possibly odd materials really had me thinking.

Sarubobo (baby monkey) are Japanese good luck charms, tiny simplistic figures that symbolize good fortune, happiness and fertility. Newly wed couples are given baskets of them for luck and babies, travellers carry them as safety amulets and children are given them as gifts of love.

They couldn’t be easier to make either! A circle and a rectangle, and some tiny scraps of fabric and you can tell a tale. Group them, pose them, frame them, fun and funny, sweet and silly, trade them, give them as prezzies. Scale them up for pillows and soft furnishings!

pillow Sarubobo

All you need is a 5cm (2”)circle, and a 5x6cm(2x 2 1/2”) rectangle, add a seam allowance as well. This is the basic size of most of them, but scale up if you have difficulty with tiny pieces–these are hand sewn because of the dimunitive size. (I sized up by half an inch as it seemed so small to sew on even by hand!) Gather the edges of the circle and draw tight, stuff and sew closed to create a puff ball head. The body is created by sewing the points to themselves making tiny arms and legs, with a small opening in the belly to insert stuffing. Sew the belly slip closed, sew the head on–Sarubobo in seconds! There’s a quick pictorial tute here on Mairuru’s blog.

I’ve seen them strung on ropes like acrobats, attached to keyrings, with elastic on their bellies for use as napkin rings, large as life for costumes(!), sewn to pincushions and as mascots.

Colour plays a part here too:
Blue – for luck in study and work
Pink for luck in love
Green for luck in health
Yellow for luck in money
Black to remove bad luck
Red for protection from bad things, for luck in family life and childbirth
White for luck with property
Purple for banishing evil spirits

Thought i’d try my hand at a couple too:

First, a very wierd baby: couldn’t resist using the rust marks as eyes and then needlesculpted the mouth. Looks like there’s been surgery on the belly recently!

Then a cat:

TigerCat Sarubobo

Triangular sequins for his ears! I also found that if you stuffed the head very firmly and drew really tight with the gathering thread, that the head would be better formed and easier to attach to the body: use a strong thread for this step and more stuffing than you think you need.

And sometimes despite your best efforts, something will go wrong:

Alien/Bug Sarubobo

The fabric stretched,  one leg was too small and the body contorted. SO, forget the head part: it’s a one armed alien or bug!

Tips:

1. If you want a certain motif on the fabric to be a “face”, set it slightly off centre on the circle. Though traditionally they have no features, it’s fun to add a little extra personality here.  2.If made larger, you could probably sew on a machine if you are dextrous and patient.  3. Embroider, cross-stitch, add hair and features, make them into little animals! They won’t be traditional, but they will be yours

Each one of these took half an hour to make, mostly because i fiddled with details. You could probably get them down to 2o minutes and create herds, gaggles, flocks, crowds! Have fun!
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Arlee Barr is a Canadian artist, working primarily with textiles. She describes herself as “curious, eccentric and just a little opinionated“.  Surrealist in thought, Fauvist at heart, Arlee likes the eclectic, explorative and absurd. Sprinkled around the interwebs, she can be found hanging around her fantastic blog.

Neta Amir continues to inspire and amaze me with each new scene she sets with her soft sculpture creations.

See more from her at her Flickr photostream, blog, or etsy store – you’ll be glad you did!

There’s a variety of interesting things to see in Catherine Rosselle’s Flickr photostream.

This stuff by MadeStuff is cool stuff.

Many thanks to Ursula, who emailed us to brag about the awesome things she has made.

In fact, she’s so talented I had a hard time picking just one piece to share.

Have you made something awesome? Let us know! Email me at beefranck@mrxstitch.com or email the big guy himself at mrx@mrxstitch.com and brag away, baby!