Showing posts with label penguin and fish. Show all posts
Showing posts with label penguin and fish. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Penguin and Fish Interview and Plush Exclusive
As soon as I saw the application from Penguin and Fish for last year's Plush You! I knew I found a new favorite. Why had she gone under my radar all these years? Well who cares, we found her and we love her and that's all that should matter right? I am so excited to have her as Schmancy's latest plush exclusive. These adorable pieces will go up for sale the 23rd so be quick like a fox before they are all gone!
S- What was your inspiration behind this exclusive?
p&f- Foxes! I've always connected with the Aesop fable The Fox and the Grapes and have used that as a theme for several art pieces going all the way back to college. I've made a Fox and the Grapes mini screen printed book, handbag and ceramic tiles as well as a crocheted fox toy and embroidery pattern. It only seemed right to introduce little foxes as my newest plush character. I was so excited to start working on them. I always try to learn and experiment a little with each new plush design and for me the foxes were an experiment in adding a little more 3D-ness to my usually 2D faces. It seems like such a simple thing but it took me several tries to figure it out. You can see some of my first attempts on my blog. 
p&f- No Monster Here is going well. It'll be up on Amazon.com soon so it can be purchased there as well as the nomonsterhere.com website. I created an embroidery pattern to accompany it and I'm hoping to get that up on the website soon as well. We're in the writing stage of the next book in the series...I can't wait to start illustrating it! 
S- What was your inspiration behind this exclusive?
S- What have you been up to since our last interview?
p&f- Man, it seems like a million and a half things. I moved into my first house! I love it so much. I have a whole room to myself for my studio and I also pretty much claimed most of the basement as Penguin & Fish headquarters. While I work I get to look out at my cute little yard and watch all the crazy bunnies running around. I have a feeling that after the fox plushes there may be some rabbit ones not too far behind. I also just exhibited in my first trade show: The International Quilt Market. There I got to show my embroidery patterns and kits to potential buyers. It took a serious amount of prep work, but what an amazing experience. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to sell wholesale items. I got to meet so many wonderful people, including several of my Twitter and blog peeps! It was tons fun and can't wait do participate in another one.
S- How has your book been going? Any plans for another one?
S- Any summer plans?
p&f- Besides working? Not really. Pretty pathetic huh. Although, the hubs and I are planning on having an outdoor movie night where we can invite all our friends over to the house, and they can bring their lawn chairs and blankets, then we'll project movies on the side of our garage. I'm pretty excited about that! 
S- Top 5 blogs or websites you have been into these days?
p&f- True Up - http://www.trueup.net/
Desire to Inspire - http://www.desiretoinspire.
Just Something I Made - http://justsomethingimade.
Dear Ada - http://dearada.typepad.com/
Sea of Shoes - http://seaofshoes.typepad.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Penguin and fish Interview
Basically when I opened the package from Penguin and Fish I let out a large gasp. Her work is amazing. Beautiful in fact. It's silly but classy and tailored like no one's business. I can't wait to meet you!!!!! If you aren't in love with her yet, you will be after this.
S- How long have you been making plush? What was the draw?
P&F- I suppose you could say that I've been making plush since I was around 8 years old. But in reality, I had some really great experiences making plush when I was little, and then I went on a hiatus until about four years ago. I've been making things my whole life but have just changed mediums throughout the years. Recently, I'd been doing a lot of illustration work and was feeling the need to get away from flat work and make something 3D and tangible again. So I started translating the little characters I was drawing into plush. I made a few different things at first, but when I landed on my Kitty design I felt that I finally had a good representation of my drawings. So I went with it.
S- It looks like you just completed your first children's book, congrats! Can you tell us anything about it?
P&F- Eeeee! I'm super excited about this! The book is called No Monster Here and is about two brothers who's game of hide and seek becomes a larger search for the monster that lives on their house. I illustrated it and my mother-in-law, Colleen Thomas, who has been a teacher and storyteller all of her life, wrote it. We were just at the printer last week to review the book and it's looking awesome, we're really happy with how it turned out! They're getting bound right now and I'll have actual books by next week. Yay! We are selling them online at http://nomonsterhere.com. On the website you can also see pics from when we were at the printer and you can read the entire book there as well.
S- You also sell embroidery patterns on etsy. How often do you embroider compared to plush making?
P&F- I think I spend a little more time making plush then I do with the embroidery patterns, but not by much. I spend a lot of my time on the computer doing admin type tasks like emails, inventory and marketing. When I'm not on the computer then I'm doing whatever project needs to get done. Over the summer it was working on finishing up No Monster Here illustrations. Now it's embroidery because I want to get through designing the entire alphabet of my alphabet animal patterns before November. I think I have about six letters to go. But really soon I'm going to have to get going on the plush again full steam.
S- Where are your favorite places to find materials?
P&F- The materials for my plush Kitties, Unicorns and Horses are pretty specific. They are made out of woven wool fabric that I felt so the fabric becomes soft and poofy. I basically google "100% wool fabric" and then experiment with the fabric from several stores. I used to use found and reclaimed materials for fabric, but found that I needed the consistency of purchasing yardage. I do still make a lot of plush out of recycled materials. I make pigeons and teddy bears out of reclaimed sweaters, and I love unravelling sweaters to make yarn. It feels like you're making yarn with magic. So much fun!
S- What is the most exciting thing you did this summer?
P&F- That would definitely be finishing No Monster Here. Illustrating a children's book is so much work and takes a while to do so it's been really rewarding just to have finished such a big project. I'm really excited now to get it out into the world. Woo hoo!
S- How long have you been making plush? What was the draw?
P&F- I suppose you could say that I've been making plush since I was around 8 years old. But in reality, I had some really great experiences making plush when I was little, and then I went on a hiatus until about four years ago. I've been making things my whole life but have just changed mediums throughout the years. Recently, I'd been doing a lot of illustration work and was feeling the need to get away from flat work and make something 3D and tangible again. So I started translating the little characters I was drawing into plush. I made a few different things at first, but when I landed on my Kitty design I felt that I finally had a good representation of my drawings. So I went with it.
S- It looks like you just completed your first children's book, congrats! Can you tell us anything about it?
P&F- Eeeee! I'm super excited about this! The book is called No Monster Here and is about two brothers who's game of hide and seek becomes a larger search for the monster that lives on their house. I illustrated it and my mother-in-law, Colleen Thomas, who has been a teacher and storyteller all of her life, wrote it. We were just at the printer last week to review the book and it's looking awesome, we're really happy with how it turned out! They're getting bound right now and I'll have actual books by next week. Yay! We are selling them online at http://nomonsterhere.com. On the website you can also see pics from when we were at the printer and you can read the entire book there as well.
S- You also sell embroidery patterns on etsy. How often do you embroider compared to plush making?
P&F- I think I spend a little more time making plush then I do with the embroidery patterns, but not by much. I spend a lot of my time on the computer doing admin type tasks like emails, inventory and marketing. When I'm not on the computer then I'm doing whatever project needs to get done. Over the summer it was working on finishing up No Monster Here illustrations. Now it's embroidery because I want to get through designing the entire alphabet of my alphabet animal patterns before November. I think I have about six letters to go. But really soon I'm going to have to get going on the plush again full steam.
S- Where are your favorite places to find materials?
P&F- The materials for my plush Kitties, Unicorns and Horses are pretty specific. They are made out of woven wool fabric that I felt so the fabric becomes soft and poofy. I basically google "100% wool fabric" and then experiment with the fabric from several stores. I used to use found and reclaimed materials for fabric, but found that I needed the consistency of purchasing yardage. I do still make a lot of plush out of recycled materials. I make pigeons and teddy bears out of reclaimed sweaters, and I love unravelling sweaters to make yarn. It feels like you're making yarn with magic. So much fun!
S- What is the most exciting thing you did this summer?
P&F- That would definitely be finishing No Monster Here. Illustrating a children's book is so much work and takes a while to do so it's been really rewarding just to have finished such a big project. I'm really excited now to get it out into the world. Woo hoo!
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Penguin and Fish
I found these today looking for something else. I love when things just seem to work out. I love the website and the cute plushies.
The alphabet bears would make a cute addition to a kids room!
I think all of these plush characters would make a great addition to any designer kids room, young or old.
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