Artist Studio Clearout Sale!

I have been invited to take part in this awesome event: 

Less than a month away till the annual studio clearout SALE!! 

A whole bunch of arty girls get together with all their seconds and samples and fabulous bargains!! 

Pass the word on - its a great chance to shop for Christmas and birthdays and an excellent place to nail those end of year teacher/thank you gifts as well as an opportunity to pick up some great art! 

Here's just a taster of some of the work I will be including in the sale, all at marked down prices.

I'm also including some extras such as some of my crocheted Nest brooches, the remaining few Lubi Lids Hats (some of you may remember me making and selling these at the Titirangi Market while my kids were little), and perhaps even some of my little knitted kete, amongst whatever other bits and bobs I can hunt out. 

Maybe even some crocheted Nudibranchs!! 

Hope to see you there!

Psst: please pass this on to all your friends, family and work colleagues, etc. Maybe even drop some big hints for yourself for Xmas! 

Crocheted Nudibranch

The idea for creating these began when I wanted to send a birthday present to a good friend of mine in the UK. She is a keen diver and a Nudibranch lover. If you check out the link, you'll see why - they are gorgeous, magical wee creatures and there are so many variations. 

Chromodoris elizabethina

So, I began by making one for my friend. I thought it would be more fun if it was able to be worn or be interactive in some way so I made it as a finger puppet. There are many patterns on the internet for nudibranch, believe it or not, but I prefer the challenge of making it up as I go along. Of course, when I finished the first one, I couldn't stop there. I had to make one for myself.  Then I couldn't resist making another design and then another.... There are so many colour, shape and pattern variations in nature that it's like trying to choose between lollies in a sweet shop. 

Hypselodoris apolegma

I started with relatively simple designs and I initially kept them all a similar size, as one-finger puppets. Gradually, however, I wanted to be able to add more detail so I needed to increase the size of them.

Chromodoris kuniei

Hermissenda crassicornis

Nembrotha kubaryana

This one is slightly larger and is a two-finger puppet. Additional detailing is added with embroidery.

I try to be accurate with colour combinations and main features so that they are recognisable against their real-life models.

Hypselodoris kaname

Hypselodoris Bennetti

Of course I got more ambitious and wanted to be more accurate and so the next one was even bigger still. This one is a hand puppet and so it took a lot longer to complete but it is very interactive and fun to play with. It has also given the anemone, that I created "accidentally" while experimenting with knitting techniques a couple of years ago, something to hang out with.

Please note: I have had many requests for patterns to create these beasties but I'm sorry I don't create patterns to work from. I simply make it up as I create when I'm crocheting and my "patterns" are only ever rough notes to myself, if anything.