Monster red, Monster blue...

I decided to do some monsters this year. Eyes were just for my frog towels, but I decided to try some other things with eyes. This is how my Monster red came out.

With Monster blue I was trying out a different style of eye. It will be left to the imagination of the user of this towel to decide what it is. I think piranha when I see it. I also started to think... hmmm maybe walrus. I got told it looks like a snake. What does your imagination think?

Bath Time Frog

This is David (15 mo.) using a Little frog hooded towel. I hope bath time is a little more fun with the towel.Thank you Ben for sending me the four adorable photos and allowing me to use them.

Happy holidays to everyone. Have a safe and joyous time with family and friends.

Frog.

This customize created towel has a larger hood and uses the Dino towel's green. Currently I will just do larger hoods by request.

It was another year of interesting craft fairs. I am partially glad I did not sign up for more shows/ fairs. I have not really started on Holiday shopping and plans. Half the month has flown by again with out my realizing.

Ivory cat.

I made the cat in an off white color that I will call ivory.

What is it?

I just realized I did not post my pink(melon colored) towel here. I created to be a pink/ melon colored cat. People have guessed it to be other animals. The bunny is another one that people tend to say it looks like a dog. Which is one of the reason I am hesitant when people ask me what it is. I feel it is the imagination of the individual to see what they want in the things I make. This is one of the reasons I stay more on the abstract side and not add details like eyes.

Because of the inquiries I decided to stop procrastinating on making a dog towel. I was trying to figure out the type of ears and how to make the coloration different than the other towels. Kent suggested making the ears one color and the rest of the towel another. I happen to like floppy ear dogs, so I gave it beagle like ears. I'm thinking of making one in all dark brown to be more like a dachshund.

Bear... hood.

I just realized that I posted a picture of the bear hooded towel, but did not write a blog about it. I only made two of these bears. Using the same color as the monkeys I decided to try something different.

I am still debating on making more of these. There are four ears that I was going to use that are sitting on the side because I decided I wanted a different shape and color combination. These big ears remind me of a mouse. I guess it could be a big brown mouse. I will just leave it up to the viewers imagination...

Quack

How did August sneak up on me? I feel as if I am still in June.

I remember having ducks when I was younger. Ducklings were so fuzzy and cute as they swam in the water. Ducks can also be mean. I still remember the pain of being bit by a duck. And all I was doing was feeding it some lettuce.

Duck hooded towel

As I fondly remember yellow ducklings, I created a duck hooded towel.

I debated on doing eyes on this towel. I went with my normal philosophy of simplicity and allowing the imagination of the view to interpret my creation.

Chomp chomp!

A few months ago I was asked if I could make a great white shark hat. I sure hope it wasn't an order being placed because I treated it as an inquiry. I seem to get quite a few people with suggestions which makes me think of thinks in different ways. So, I pondered of what would make a person think 'shark' since most of my creations are semi abstract.

I personally think of the famous great white in"Jaws" and the big open mouth full of teeth. But the more I thought about it, different aspects of a shark came to mind. Working with pictures of great whites and a sketch sent in to me, I did create a hat, which I will later blog about.

Right now I am engrossed in hooded towels. So why not a shark robe?

Shark hooded towel

When I first saw this blue I knew I wanted to do something with it, I just didn't know what at the time. Chomp... an idea... a shark! I decided to go with teeth and a fin as distinguishing marks of a shark. This hood was on my mannequin for a few weeks as I pinned and re-pinned.

Shark hood

Chomp... Chomp!

Ideas...

hand painted panda

Funny how images and ideas look different in my head, then sort of mutates onto paper then into creation. I have used pandas in the past, I still have a panda mug I made in high school. There are the panda hats I made. And the hat I made for my cat. So... here they are panda towels!!

Panda hooded towel

Why did this take so long? The search for black towel materials to work with was always something I have been looking for. I was also hesitant to work with white towels, which is one of the reasons I made a brown bunny instead of a white one. I like the black and white contrast of a panda, and originally wanted more black on the hooded towel.

Panda sketch

I am happy with how it looks. Maybe I will change it later, but for now all white with black ears is what it will be.

Spikes

No ears this time, it is spikes on the hood.  I played around with the way in which I made these spikes.  I am thinking of making the dino hat in the same manner.  

Dino hood

This towel has been in my to be blogged about pile for a little while now,  really nothing to say about it but.. raaawr!  

Dino hooded towel

The other day I was thinking about how as a child we associate sounds to animals, monsters, insects, etc and use the sounds instead of using the names they have.  But as an adult we tend to use the name if talking about the animal, monster, insect, etc.  I think sometimes the sound associated with the thing is all you need.

Rawr.

Floppy ears

A floppy ear creation.  

Bunny hooded towel

Trying to keep the towel from being too difficult to dry, I decided to make the ears a  single ply of material.  It took on a worn bunny look, which I like.

Bunny

When choosing the color I decided to do this light brown instead of a white.  But like all my creations it might end up being made with another color.  

Green mood, color mood...

Well here it is... it was only a matter of time that this would appear.

Frog hooded towel

The hooded towel collection would not be complete without a frog.  I stuck to a soft green.   For some reason light green has become my color of choice.  I would not call it my favorite color, since I have never claimed to have a favorite color.  It is more of my favoring certain colors.  As I think about it, I tend to like muted earth tones like grays, blues, browns, greens etc.  But I have been in moods of more vibrant tones of yellows, oranges, pinks, reds...  I will attribute the whole purple and lavender mood I sometimes get into, to my sister.  She once gave me lavender corduroy short pant overalls, which were very comfortable.  That lavender got etched into my mind as being a comfortable color.

Frog

There were three or four choices of greens.  I want this to be my primary hooded towel frog color.  Deciding on the eye color took a while too, the eyes are not the normal black.  I was going to make them blue or even a green but finally decided on a dark brown.

Monkey towel

The towel(in the picture below) I made last year, the first one that I placed ears onto was a monkey.  It will be a one of a kind since I will not be attaching ears in the same way.

 

Monkey 2008

I decided to lower the position of the ears.  Still haven't decided if I will change it later, but for now that is where they will be.

Monkey towel

Start of my Spring 2009

I am still here!  My posting have been few and far apart.  But they are about to start again, as I begin on my newest addition.  Hooded towels.  

The first hooded towels that I made were in 2007. They were gifts for my friend's two sons.  I have always thought hooded towels were a great thing.  You can just set it on your head and your hands are free to do other things without worrying about dropping the towel.  The towels I made in 2007 were just plain towels with a hood.  Last year when making another gift, I added ears to the towel.  

I was out shopping earlier this year and saw striped towels and thought... tigers! It was at that moment I knew I was ready to embark on creating them for Little frog.  I excitedly got a bunch of towels in gray and yellow.  And started on creating the tiger hoods. 

 

Gray Tiger

Yellow Tiger

More hoods to come in the next few days...