The post Cat Rabbit’s Plush Toys Aren’t Meant to Be Played With appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“I first started making little plush toys for friends when I was studying at university,” Rabbit recalled in an interview with AG Gallery. “My interest in textiles grew from there and I began experimenting with embroidery and 3D felt techniques.”
Her handmade figures draw on the tradition of embroidery, doll-making, patchwork, and textile design. “I like to devise new characters all the time!” admits Rabbit. “I get an idea in my head or sketch something out and am not satisfied until I work it up into a 3D character.” The finished result appeals to both adults and children.
“I like my work to engage a wide audience, so there are elements that appeal to young children and also an older generation,” she notes. “My main objective when creating new work for exhibition is to incite feelings of comfort, joy, and nostalgia – when I make a piece that encapsulates all of these elements, I am satisfied with the work!”
Aside from her soft sculptures, Rabbit also makes books for children and other fantastical artworks with her collaborator and good pal Isobel Knowles under the name Soft Stories. Follow her Instagram page for more:
The post Cat Rabbit’s Plush Toys Aren’t Meant to Be Played With appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post Add a Soft Touch to Your Kitchen with These Textiles appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“Something that influenced me from a young age was the drive people had to decorate and personalize their living spaces with found materials and find beauty in the simplest of objects,” she told Etsy’s blog. “My passion for transforming spaces was massively encouraged when I went to art school in England. I was making illustrations, and a lot of times I was thinking, ‘I wish there was an object with this illustration on it.’ My dad has always worked in textiles and he kind of encouraged me. He said, ‘Let’s try to put your images onto fabric,’ and that’s how things got started.”
Colour your kitchen with our Floral Apron and spice up your imagination: https://etsy.me/2EWZH4w! 
#aprons #kitchenapron #kitchenaprons #kitchenaccesoriesNedialkova draws and designs each pattern, working closely with textile designer Paula Downes, who then carefully chooses the fabrics, matches the colors to materials and sews the finished pieces. The fabrics are produced in a family-run workshop, made entirely in Britain, and meant to last.
“My illustrations are a mix between the Scandinavian aesthetic and Bulgarian folk tales, and they’re also influenced by Bulgarian artists from the ’70s who created these beautiful logo types,” relayed Nedialkova. “I’m Bulgarian originally, but I’ve also lived in Brighton, UK, which is a beautiful town with old architecture. There are amazing decorations and patterns on the houses—circles and ornaments. I translate those into illustrations as well.”
Scrolling through her Instagram page makes us want to upgrade our kitchen!
. . . . . #etsy #etsyuk #etsygifts #etsygiftideas #etsyhomedecor #etsyholiday #etsyseller #etsysale #etsyfindsThe post Add a Soft Touch to Your Kitchen with These Textiles appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post This Quilt Maker Is Inspired by the View Outside Her Window appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>Based in Reston, VA, she draws inspiration for her contemporary wall quilts from the view of nature outside her window. This inspiration is quite literal. “Pebbles on the path or currents in water might become part of the texture I stitch into each piece,” she writes. “Color combinations in bird feathers or flowering plants might slip into the palette I use to start my next design.”
Textile art also comes quite naturally to Grisdela, as she comes from a long line of women who have expressed themselves using a needle and thread (although, curiously, she notes that there were no quilters in her family). “Creating with various forms of fabric and thread has been a part of my life since I was a child,” she says, adding that she taught herself the ins and outs of the trade through trial and error.
Grisdela’s quilts are showcased and sold in fine art and fine craft shows nationwide and can be found in private collections all over the country. She also teaches classes and workshops and is the author of Artful Improv: Explore Color Recipes, Building Blocks & Free Motion Quilting, published by C&T Publishing in November 2016. But you can also follow her work online, via Instagram:
The post This Quilt Maker Is Inspired by the View Outside Her Window appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post Emily Yeadon Makes Moths, Butterflies, and Fungi out of Fabric appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>Of course, her incredible collection of faux taxidermy was also very much inspired by her rural upbringing. Having grown up in the countryside in a rural hamlet, deep in the North of England, Yeadon’s home was surrounded by open fields and ancient woodlands, while in the distance, the Yorkshire Dale mountains towered above the horizon. Having spent her entire childhood immersed in nature, nature is second nature to her; it’s also what drives her creative passion.
, and a humongous thank you for your loving support and kindness. You’re all so wonderful and truly brighten my day. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. . Be kind to one another, spread happy vibes, do the things you love with passion and determination and hold each other up high 
“My favorite way to seek enchantment is by taking long walks,” says Yeadon. “I’ve always loved climbing mountains in the Lake District with my dad and our family dog, Toby. That moment when we finally reach the summit—icy winds whipping around us as damp heavy clouds form a blanket over our view. A peaceful moment in nature, tranquil, and calm.”
But when it comes to her creations themselves, incredibly enough, she relies on experimentation and much trial and error. “One evening, I randomly decided to dust off my old sewing machine and rekindled my love for textiles,” recalled the self-taught artist. “I gradually began to incorporate fabrics and machine and hand embroidery into my wire creations at the very end of 2017,” she notes, adding that she loves experimenting with mixed mediums.
Take a look at some of her incredible creations:
If you’ve been after one of the Bumblets, you’re in luck. I’ve just added some to my shop. Very limited number available, so grab one whilst you can. . (Please note, I have increased the price ever so slightly since the first batch I made over the Xmas period. This is just to better reflect the time spent making them) . Hope you all have a wonderful weekend 
) and I came across this pretty collection of fabric fungi I made in November of last year. I loved making them so I just had to reshare them again 
The post Emily Yeadon Makes Moths, Butterflies, and Fungi out of Fabric appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post Meghan Shimek Makes Large Woven Wall Hangings appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“Weaving has definitely become my life’s work,” she admitted in an interview with The Project for Women. “I started weaving in February 2013 when I was visiting my family in Michigan. I took a scarf weaving class and was completely hooked. Ever since I have been taking as many weaving classes as I can and reading books and trying out different techniques.”
Since dedicating herself fully to fiber work, she has studied tapestry and Navajo weaving, rigid heddle, and floor loom weaving, developing her own signature weaving style over several years. Exploring organic movement, Shimek’s weaving style allows the fibers to fall into an indeterminate pattern that reveals the beauty and vulnerability of her materials.
“I am extremely inspired by nature,” she says. “Since I began weaving I have met so many incredibly talented artists, both weavers and in other disciplines,” she adds. “I wasn’t an artist before I started weaving and honestly felt pretty intimidated to jump in and meet all these people who have been working in these fields for years! The weaving community especially has been amazing. All these wonderful people sharing their work and explaining techniques, it really resonates with me.”
With more than 60k fans on Instagram, the weaving community definitely accepts her as their own. Today, Shimek exhibits her work, creates commissions, and teaches weaving workshops across the world. You can also follow her creative journey via Instagram.
The post Meghan Shimek Makes Large Woven Wall Hangings appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post The Improvisational Quilts of Lorena Marañon appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“I began quilting late 2013 when working for a fabric manufacturer,” she recalled in an interview with Brown Paper Bag. “I’d done many digital quilt designs there and understood the basic steps and terminology, and I thought that was enough to start on a project on my own. I dove right into a king-sized quilt using that experience.”
According to Marañon, the toughest step was the math she had to figure out to get the design to fit together. “Weeks later I completed assembling the top of the quilt, but to this day it remains unquilted, mostly because of its massive size,” she notes. “I’ve since learned that my preference is with smaller scales, and on pieces that are improvised rather than designed and calculated.”
Letting one step dictate the next, her approach to quilt making is now intuitive and imbues each piece with spontaneity. Her creations explore abstract landscapes, geometry, and repetition, highlighting details that would otherwise be considered flaws. Her personalized pieces emphasize, therefore, the hand of the artist, the result being quilts with uneven seams, raw edges and exposed thread ends. Inadvertently, these marks become the signifiers of reactionary behaviors and moods specific to each piece and its materials.
All of her quilts are designed and made by hand from her studio in Los Angeles using vintage and dead-stock fabrics whose histories are vivified with every limited item made. “I love exploring all sorts of possible outcomes by simply playing around with color, fabric, print, and texture,” says Marañon. “I am inspired most when I’m working, and ideas come in a frenzied rush and I just have to try new ways to lay out shapes, or new ways to mix mediums. Experimentation and fun definitely fuel my quilted projects, and that has to be the reason I’ve fallen in love with it.”
, 20×20"The post The Improvisational Quilts of Lorena Marañon appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post The Soft Sculptures of Hiné Mizushima appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“My work is a bit retro, twisted, fun, colorful, nerdy, and cute (but in questionable taste),” she relayed in an interview with Frankie. “Luckily I usually make what I want. And I hope my work can make people smile!”
Amongst her more notable creations are her soft sculptures (but don’t call them toys!) featuring realistic and imagined creatures. Those have been exhibited in galleries in the US, Australia, and Japan, and are featured in books and magazines, as well as commissioned for Adobe Creative Cloud event in NYC, and a New York Times web campaign.
“It takes a long time to make a needle-felted piece,” Mizushima admits, “especially for me (I’m a slow crafter). It has also crippled me! (Seriously, I have been having a problem in my shoulder and arm for months!)” Some of her felt creations and prints can be found on her Etsy shop.
Other than her sculptures, Mizushima has also been commissioned for many music videos for the band They Might Be Giants, and has made miniature collages for several book covers in Japan. “When I started to work on my second stop-motion music video for They Might Be Giants in 2007, I needed to make needle-felted characters and props for the first time,” she recalled. “That’s when I found out that I really love to make 3D stuff with wool fibre, so I started making more, and then I opened my Etsy shop. If I hadn’t got the video job, I probably wouldn’t have started needle-felting.”
Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below:
みなさん、見に来てね！ . This piece is one of my new soft sculptures, Neon Jellyfish (sold out) for my solo exhibition at Boris Zakkaten @higuchiyuko.tokyo in Tokyo. The show will end next week! 
#octopusday #worldoctopusday #octopus #hinemizushima #handmade #art #craft #蛸の日The post The Soft Sculptures of Hiné Mizushima appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post Colette Bream Makes Wonderful Wooly Friends appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>“My shop started when my daughter was born,” recalled Bream in an interview with the Etsy blog. “I had a desire to rid her room of anything that wasn’t natural (any polyester, plastic, etc.). I was looking for something beautiful in its simplicity and innocence, and I wanted to accentuate that with colorful accessories. With that in mind, and with a nostalgic nod to my own childhood (perhaps in an attempt to bring old, faded memories back to life), Colette Bream was born.”
Nowadays Bream divides her energy between her business and her daughter. “Although she loves being around while I work, being a mom is my priority,” she notes. “Time goes by so fast and I consider myself lucky to be able to be home every day and watch her grow. I cherish taking our daily walks together and seeing the world through her eyes.”
Her daughter also provides an endless source of inspiration, when it comes to her artistic creations. “Imaginative play is such an important part of one’s childhood — that’s why I strive to create things that are inspiring to others,” she says. “For example: a cloud. A whole story can be created around a simple cloud. You can hang it up on your wall and start pretending, making up stories and imagining.”
Nature is also a huge source of inspiration for Bream, as well as her own childhood. “I was always a dreamer as a child and even now children’s aesthetics are very enticing to me as an adult,” she admits.
Ingredients: Lambswool, Mohair, cotton, occasional sequins. #etsy #handmade #knitknit #yum
season. #knitknit #handmade #etsy
What's your favorite color/ flavor?
scarf in use 
The post Colette Bream Makes Wonderful Wooly Friends appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post Kate Jenkins Knits Comfort Food appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>But the journey to being a successful food artist was a long one and demanded patience and grit. “I was around the age of eight when I learned to knit and crochet,” she recalls on her website. “Right from the beginning, I was addicted. I spent many happy hours in my childhood home in Wales totally engrossed in creating ‘things’ with yarn!”
Years later, and her passion for yarn only grew stronger. “It didn’t take me long to realize that I was much better at interpreting an idea by creating it in 3d using wool rather than through painting or drawing,” she admits. This led her to the University of Brighton where she graduated with a BA in Fashion and Textiles in 1995. From then, she built a successful career as a knitwear designer, with her designs used by some of the world’s most famous labels, including Missoni, Donna Karan, and Ralph Lauren.
“I was always looking for different ways to use my love of wool, textile, and color,” writes Jenkins. “And that’s how my art was born.” Fascinated by the every day, and particularly food, she began to reinvent things like fish and chips using only wool. Her intuition proved to be correct, with other people admiring her recreations.
“While my journey has been varied and exciting, one thing never changes,” she writes. “Whatever I create, whether it’s a carton of French fries, a tin of sardines or a box of frogs I always include lots of warmth and a dash of wit. Above all, I want my work to make people smile.”
#katejenkinsstudio #katejenkinsxpanzer’s#bestbagelsinlondon#knittedandcrochetedbsgelbar#celebrating75yearsofanzer’s#
=The post Kate Jenkins Knits Comfort Food appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>The post The Vibrant Painted Gardens of Alexandra Karamallis appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>Her Iranian heritage also plays a central within her work. Identifying as a member of the Baha’i Faith – an oppressed minority in Iran – she explores themes including the oppression of women and minority faiths. Her artistic goal? To make art that is at once thought-provoking and joyful.
Having earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design in 2010, her work includes anything from watercolor gouache paintings and collages to knitting sweaters. “I’m a very whatever I feel inspired to do is what I will do kind of a creative person,” she told Matter of Hand. “I love knitting and painting, but I go through phases with both of them. I will really focus on painting for four or five months and then, often in the fall, I’ll start to feel like I want to knit a sweater.”
Much like her work, Karamallis’ creative process varies from piece to piece. “Typically in the front end of the process I do the research and take notes, then I come to a decision more or less about what I want the content of the painting to be,” she explains. After her visual research, she sits down and paints. “I try to come up with a color story that feels cohesive,” she says. “Oftentimes if I decide on a color that I want to have some kind of movement throughout the piece, I will lay it down in a couple places instead of finishing one area first. I try to look at the whole thing throughout the process. I think that a lot of painters do that to create a larger, cohesive composition. “
Her inspiration includes artists like Matisse, Willem de Kooning, and Gauguin, but also Persian miniature painting, and Persian rugs and gardens. “One of the biggest goals in a Persian garden is to create protected relaxation outdoors with the same level of privacy that you would feel in your own home,” she notes. “That is something that is really interesting to me.”
Enter her painted gardens:
The post The Vibrant Painted Gardens of Alexandra Karamallis appeared first on PlayJunkie.
]]>