Friday 28 April 2017

Vintage Ride of an Austin



This time not a drawing but an already existing object turned into a plushie. I've already created different vehicles, but always from kids' drawings. Now I couldn't resist Kate's, my returning customer's request to sew an Austin A30 car for her beloved neighbors in Tasmania.

custom car plushie: an Austin A30

The two guys own a vintage Austin car that was turning 60 years old last year and Kate thought it would be fun to make a stuffed caricature toy of the two of them in this car.

Here are some of my rare werk photos taken while I was turning the Austin into a stuffy version - I felt like a plushie body ironer at work:

how to get inside a stuffed plushie car?!

stuffed passangers waiting patiently




they made it! happy owners looking forward to the first journey in their own toy car


Egy vintage Austin A30, két cuki utas - ez volt Kate meglepetése a szomszédainak, akik imádják meglepni a körülöttük élőket. A fazékkék autó (egykori járművezetés oktatóm megnevezése erre a színre, én ilyen színű Trabantban tanultam vezetni) tavaly ünnepelte a 60. szülinapját - ezért volt fontos a rendszámtábla is:)

see you soon!

Sunday 23 April 2017

"Where do the Mermaids stand?"


Robert Fulghum’s "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" used to be my favourite bedtime reading. It gave me comfort and joy when I needed it so much. These mermaid softies make me think of this story from the book again... Dear mermaids everywhere in the world, be brave enough to be different! ;-)


Quinn's drawing turned into a plushie mermaid

Maja and me created her own toys


Marina's mermaid surrounded by her own custom stuffed sea creatures



Giants, wizards and dwarfs was the game to play.
Being left in charge of about eighty children seven to ten years old, while their parents were off doing parenty things, I mustered my troops in the church social hall and explained the game.  It’s a large-scale version of Rock, Paper, and Scissors, and involves some intellectual decision making.  But the real purpose of the game is to make a lot of noise and run around chasing people until nobody knows which side you are on or who won.
Organizing a roomful of wired-up gradeschoolers into two teams, explaining the rudiments of the game, achieving consensus on group identity–all this is no mean accomplishment, but we did it with a right good will and were ready to go.
The excitement of the chase had reached a critical mass.  I yelled out:  “You have to decide now which you are–a GIANT, a WIZARD, or a DWARF!”
While the groups huddled in frenzied, whispered consultation, a tug came at my pants leg.  A small child stands there looking up, and asks in a small, concerned voice, “Where do the Mermaids stand?”
Where do the Mermaids stand?
A long pause.  A very long pause.  “Where do the Mermaids stand?” says I.
“Yes.  You see, I am a Mermaid.”
“There are no such thing as Mermaids.”
“Oh, yes, I am one!”
She did not relate to being a Giant, a Wizard, or a Dwarf.  She knew her category.  Mermaid.  And was not about to leave the game and go over and stand against the wall where a loser would stand.  She intended to participate, wherever Mermaids fit into the scheme of things.  Without giving up dignity or identity.  She took it for granted that there was a place for Mermaids and that I would know just where.
Well, where DO the Mermaids stand?  All the “Mermaids”–all those who are different, who do not fit the norm and who do not accept the available boxes and pigeonholes?
Answer that question and you can build a school, a nation, or a world on it.
What was my answer at the moment?  Every once in a while I say the right thing.  “The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!” says I.  (Yes, right here by the King’s Fool, I thought to myself.)
So we stood there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of Wizards and Giants and Dwarfs as they roiled by in wild disarray.
It is not true, by the way, that Mermaids do not exist.  I know at least one personally.  I have held her hand.”


© 1986, 1988 by Robert L. Fulghum

Worth reading all the other stories as well! :-)

Friday 21 April 2017

Post-Easter Plushie Post

Quite frankly, it happened all by accident I was sewing a bunny right before Easter: March 25th was the 19th birthday of a boy, whose mom I love very much. We haven't known each other for a long time but I was so grateful to her that I wanted to give her a special gift. And what am I good at? Well, yes, turning kids' drawings into stuffed animals. I was a bit excited when she showed me her son's drawing - what if I didn't like it...? But tell me, is there anyone, who could not love this bunny?! (By the way, this toy & drawing won the Bunny World Beauty Contest on my Facebook page - nobody's surprised, I suppose.)

I received some photos of Krisztina's son when opening his birthday present - the smile on his face is priceless. He had no idea it was possible to make your drawings come alive, and even if you're a 19-year-old boy, you're touched by seeing the bunny drawn at the age of 6 turned into a plushie.

I am pretty sure when kids draw something, they are copying something that exist in 3D in their mind. They create their own toys in their mind, and all I have to do is to translate their ideas into 3D - to create custom stuffed animals and dolls tailored as close to dreams as possible. An important job, I think...

Next year I'll try to create a pre-Easter post with bunnies, I promise!

when your childhood drawing is made into your own stuffed bunny

Olyan régóta nem írtam már a posztok végére magyarul, de ezentúl igyekszem :-)

A foltos nyulat egy fantasztikus masszőrnő fiának varrtam, és imádtam. Gondosan kipöttyöztem mindkét oldalát, bár a 19 éves gazdája valószínűleg nem játszani fog vele, hanem csak álldogál majd a nyúl egy polcon. De pöttyök kellenek akkor is mindenhova, anélkül felemás lenne szegény jószág! És tessék egy bónusz kép a karcsú nyusziról:

stuffed bunny plushie with spots on both side - she deserves them!