Are You Finished Your Holiday Shopping?

I am.

What about you? Still looking for something that hard-to-shop-for black sheep in your family? Four of you might luck out with the last of the items in my shop.

Stephen Colbert Hates Bears

I bought this gigantic stuffed bear at Goodwill for $5, intending to reverse taxidermy it and use the fur for other projects. Fur fabric is 'spensive, for one, and for two, it's not green to keep fabricating new things from new materials--so I often purchase old stuffies on the cheap and use their hides.

But this guy grew on me. I let him ride around in the back seat of my car for a while, and I would eye him in the rearview mirror, picturing what I was going to do to his face with scissors and a sewing machine. I started to feel guilty. Now he's sitting in my bedroom looking all cute, and I wasn't sure I'd have the heart to cut him all up.

Then I saw (NSFW) this. And now I'm kind of uncomfortable having him in my bedroom...possibly thinking dirty thoughts. Thanks, Regretsy.

He's getting cut up.

Back in Action!

I spent nearly all of my autumn working on a major work project in Houston, TX. I'm just starting to recover from weeks on end of 14-hour days. What's proven to be the best medicine? Making. I have a sewing machine, a digital camera, free time in the evenings, and more motivation than ever. Ellyzee.etsy.com is back and open for business!

Death to Stuffed Animals??

Read the article first: "Death to Stuffed Animals" by Emily Bazelon

Wow. I don't know if I was especially affected by this article because I make stuffed animals, but something about this makes me think Emily Bazelon is the one without the soul. She advocates parents replacing traditional stuffed animals with Webkinz, an online application wherein your stuffed animal actually "lives." If I have this straight, the child has the actual stuffed animal at home with you, but its "soul" lives in your computer. Therefore, if the actual toy is lost or destroyed, it can easily be replaced and still be . . . the same stuffed animal. This will alleviate all the parental headaches that come when a child loses an inanimate object to which s/he was attached.

Are you kidding me? That's so wrong on every level. The first problem is that the online "world" would seem to all but eliminate any imagination on the part of the child to impart life into the stuffed animal. Yes, stuffed animals are inanimate objects. No, they are not alive. No, they do not have actual souls. But the child's love and imagination are what impart those characteristics onto the stuffed animal. Goddammit, I'm in the Velveteen Rabbit camp!

The second problem is that you're taking away from your child valuable lessons about loss. Yes, it's going to be a disaster when they lose their favorite teddy bear. But it's a step towards maturity so it will be less of a disaster when they lose their favorite dog. Then their favorite grandparent.

A child's attachment to and love for a toy is a wholesome, natural, beautiful thing. Trying to co-opt that notion into an online application is utterly soulless.

Wild Goose--er, Swan Chase

Yesterday, I got this very strange email from my boyfriend:

Can you do me a huge favor after work? I need a stuffed swan. I thought maybe like the card store at the mall or something, or even Toys R Us, might have stuffed animals. I don't think I'm going to get a chance to get to a store like that and I need it by Wednesday. Do you think you could stop by on your way home? I know it's a huge pain in the ass. Also, if there's a little stuffed black and white border collie, I would like to get one of those too. Is that possible?

No explanation - just the request. I didn't ask any questions; I just accepted the mission. Needless to say, I didn't get any painting done last night. But I did get a lot of other things done. Five stores, and four and a half hours later, how did it end up? You can read the whole story, complete with illustrative photographs, here.

Warning: there is a graphic picture of plushicide in progress. If you are squeamish about seeing a toy's stuffing, you may not want to look.

*Snap, snap*

Since my wonderful boyfriend was thoughtful enough to get me a new digital camera for Christmas (I broke my last one falling down in the streets of Montreal), I have been able to start back into my Etsy business.

It's been almost exactly a year since I started on the site, so it's kind of like my second try at doing this. I was very successful the first time, and I think I have two options:

1) Keep doing what I was doing, and do more of it, and thus be even more successful (financially and statistically successful, to be specific)

2) Use past success to "check off the box" (I sold things I made for money - yay), and now spend this "round" being experimental with what I'm selling (less conventional items, less "cutesy" stuff - more "authentic" art).

3) A hybrid of both.

I think I'm going with 3. I can really only make so many stuffed animals before I want to paint a portrait or take provocative photographs. I have never felt, and do not feel now, that they are mutually exclusive. I should be able to, and just plain should, make and try to sell whatever I want to. It all comes from me; there is no need to segregate one from the other. I think... Sometimes I'm not sure provocative photographs and stuffed toys should be sold together in the same store. Sometimes I think, "Fuck it." Who knows.

But now is the time to be experimental. I'm pushing my boundaries in both directions, but still creating some of the old standards that bring in enough income to buy more supplies. You can write off hobby supplies on your taxes - but not if you make more money than you spend. I'd like to fall into the latter category. But I want to maintain my integrity, too.

On that note, I've posted some new items, and plan to spend the rest of the evening on a really cool rabbit doll I started yesterday. Please check them out when you get a chance.