Giant Trophy Fox Head Knitting Pattern

Horray! He's finally here! My giant Mr. Fox faux taxidermy head has arrived in kit and pattern form! He's big, soft and best of all didn't used to be alive. Wait ... best of all you can make him yourself and proudly hang him above the fire or in a kids bedroom (they love them!!) 

Mr. Fox can be brought as a pattern here or as a kit here! 

The pattern does require an additional purchase of a hand cut MDF back. These are made by my dad, every animal head I make uses these and it ensures the piece is secure and flat against the wall. You can find these here!

This is my deconstructed fox head, and shows everything that you need/comes in the kit! Including the yarn, toy stuffing, eyes, sewing up and knitting needles, fishing wire, sewing up yarn and the MDF back. The kit even comes in a hand stenciled hessian bag! You can see just how giant Mr. Fox is in the image below next to a standard size matchbox! 

Happy Knitting!!

Knitting Pattern: TIny Explorer Owl

TINY EXPLORER OWL PATTERN

I've recently been working on some new patterns to release on my etsy shop! It's been great fun making them, photographing them and then putting the pattern together. I've got two more which I'll list in the next few days. I've also been working on my fox head kit, so there's lots of lovely new animals joining the gang!

You can find the pattern here!

WHAT I'VE BEEN KNITTING: SUMMER

Once again I've found myself to busy to write a simple blog post, I know its a terrible excuse, but since my last I've moved to London and officially launched my little knitting business, selling my pieces with the fabulous Molly-Meg. But lets not get ahead of ourselves!

Firstly I made some variations on my scarves, a red fox, new monkey, panda and a rather fluffy faux mink stole. I love taking custom orders and working out the pattern, especially when using lovely merino yarns.

Next I've been making lots and lots of animal heads, here's a set I made for a special celebrity client, each piece always has their own personality. Generally I'm making quite a few each month, and I really enjoy spending my time making them.

I was really lucky to actually sell some of my heads to the editor of Tatler, and have been told they're hanging in her office at Condé Nast. With this she also featured Mr. Fox on the Notes to Self page of this months Tatler, which I'm absolutely chuffed about!

Finally I've started working on a new project, mini fox head knitting kits, which will be available once my pattern's been finalised and I've had them tested! I will be on the hunt for UK knitters, so watch this space! 

I'd better get back to working on my fox pattern,

Sincerely,

Louise

xox

WHAT I'VE BEEN KNITTING: CHINESE NEW YEAR

Hello! Its been a little while since my last post, since being featured by the Daily Mail it's been a bit of a whirlwind, with emails, interviews and orders. However at the beginning of January I started planning a dragon for Chinese New Year. Last year I went to an amazing night at the SU which had a beautiful lion and fantastic decoration and when deciding what to make this year a dragon was at the top of my list. 

To make the dragon I used some lovely yarns, such as Sidar's baby bamboo for the red, snowflake chunky for the white, and my favourite Twilleys Goldfingering for the gold. I also used white felt for the teeth and white under the body. Here are a couple of photos of him, one against the black and the other where he is now - hanging over the door frame downstairs. Underneath are some images of my test dragons, the first being the initial head I made and the second testing for the pattern for his body. I do have the pattern for him which I will post soon if people are interested in making one for themselves!

  

Anyway, I have been knitting so much lately, which I will be posting about in the forth coming days. I've had a lot of interest in my wigs, and the patterns. So keep watching this space as there may be one appearing on my blog soon.

Happy New Year!

Louise 

xox

WHAT I'VE BEEN KNITTING: MORE WILDLIFE AND GHIBLI

I recently had an order for one of my fox stoles, with the newly designed thinner face. Instead of using Rowan yarn I decided to venture out in the cold and snow to a new wool shop and found this beautiful foxy orange colour by DROPS. You can find it here! I would definitely recommend it as it feels great and is a superwash yarn. 

If you're local to Essex then you need to check out Yarn Therapy, a wonderful little shop in Great Baddow. What I loved about their shop was that you can't buy acrylic in there, and as I move away from using it, its as place I'll be visiting more and more. Also I prefer supporting these kind of shops rather than going to Hobbycraft, even though I practically live next to it.

I also sold my first soot sprite, which I made in a evening. I'm happier with the eyes on this one as I felt (craft pun) they were a little far apart on the first. All I can do is learn as I go along, and I do really like making these little things. 

Sincerely,

Louise

xox

WHAT I'VE BEEN KNITTING: SPIRITED AWAY NO-FACE PILLOW

As many of my blog reader know I've only recently discovered the magic of Studio Ghibli, down to my boyfriend asking for a Totoro for Christmas. Since then I've watched most of the films and even brought a Totoro onesie that I never seem to take off, meaning nobody wants to be near me as it's beginning to smell. 

Anyway, for his birthday the boyfriend asked for a no-face. I must say out of all of the Ghibli movies I watched over Christmas Spirited Away was my favorite. I love Totoro as a character ever so much, but I spent the whole time watching it absolutely amazed. I was so drawn into it that I didn't even think about knitting throughout it, so being asked to make the odd spirit character was rather pleasant after seeing him knitting away towards the end of the film. He'd asked for one about the same size as his Totoro, but I had different plans. I wanted to make it more of a pillow, so he could give it hugs at night (obviously). 

I had some chunky black and white yarn left over from my other projects, and had been given a lilac colour that I doubled up a few times to match the thickness of the chunky and started knitting away. I have the pattern written down, so I am hoping to share it once its perfected. I used felt for the eyes and a whole bag of stuffing went into him. I was determined to do a life-sized one, however was stopped due to lack of yarn, but maybe thats something to do in the future. 

The botton two photos were taken at his new home, and feature all the knits I've made as presents. I'm not sure whats next, I quite fancy making Calcifer, as he's kinda cute. I'll be posting a pattern really soon for Chinese New Year which I'm working on at the moment so keep your eyes pealed! 

Sincerely,

Louise

xox

Crafty Books

For my dissertation I am working on the arts and craft movement and stumbled upon this book in the library, 'Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design' by Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimerl. One of the first things in the book is this beautiful time line that shares the recent 'New Wave of Craft'. This is something I am more interested in for my essay as it shows the more recent rise in craft, as well as looking at the original art and craft movement. It also helps with my practical project as I need a critical context behind my prop making. This book has answered many of my questions and I wanted to share, and recommend it, to anyone that has not read it. 

What makes the book special is how it has all these different accounts of crafters which you can relate to and understand. I think the 'craft' world is very different to the photography one, it is a lot more supportive. As a photographer you don't really want to share your techniques in fear that somebody will copy you, however as a knitter you are embraced into this world that wants to share with you. Maybe that is a little naive to think as I am looking at two different levels in the industries, top knitwear designers probably don't want to share their patterns with the world? And there are countless photography books showing you 'how to' shoot and edit in a certain way. Is it just a feeling that I have? Am I a little more comfortable in the crafting world? I do think people 'like' Louise the knitter more than Louise the photographer, or maybe learning to knit has taken me out of my shell? 

Schwandtner, S (2008, p26), founder of Knitknit states, "I think handcraft is popular right now as a reaction against a whole new slew of things, including our hyper-fast culture, increasing reliance on digital technology, the proliferation of consumer culture, and even war" and I think that is incredibly true. When I learnt to knit I was becoming slightly uninterested with my photography work, I think the personal issues that surrounded me last year at uni did change my attitude on taking photos. I did however knit away, the first jumper I made I just didn't want to stop, it didn't matter that the crafting wasn't great on it, holes, dropped stitches and deciding to make tiny sleeves so I could finish it faster, I was just proud to make something. My facebook friends enjoyed the photos I'd post as I was making it and I had a slightly odd chunky knit jumper to proudly wear around uni. "People want to see a project through from beginning to end, something they don't get to do in their daily lives" explains Schwandtner, S (2008, p26), which I can definitely see as a real truth. 

Looking through the book made me realise why I want to use knitting in my project, it is what I love. I love taking photos, but as a student you are under constant judgement of your tutors, class mates and most of the people in the industry won't give you a second look because you are a student. My knitting isn't under judgement from any of these people, if I was on a textile degree it would, but its something special to me. The same way I look at people in my class in awe for their still life prop making, use of natural light or documentary style (hello Mikko!). People are always more interested in what you are doing if they can't do it themselves. And crafters love seeing other crafty work, because you know when somebody makes something it is personal to them, even if it is a silly little knitted owl. 

Wagner, A (2008, p1) writes, "Some people want to embrace craft for its essence of craftsmanship - that is, the quality of a piece of work, the time and effort that went into its production. Others are excited by craft because of inherent otherness - that is, its unique ability to set its practitioners outside of mainstream industrial society" which is something you know is true once you have read it. You knew it already but just had to see it to know you were right. There are hundreds, thousands, millions of reasons why people do something and I think I've just started learning why knitting for this project is so important to me. There is so much pressure to make a commercially viable set of photos, the course is so focused to get us ready to enter the industry but maybe thats the part of uni that's putting me off being a photographer. I think using knitting with this project will bring me back into the creative world, image making or textile, whatever happens I know I'll produce something I can be proud of. 

Bibliography 

Levine, Faythe and Herimel, Cortney. (2008). Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press 

Craftdermy

After a trip to the 'Power or Making' at the V&A I discovered Shauna Richardson's work, being new to knitting I had never seen anything like it and couldn't believe she had crocheted the life size bear I saw at the exhibition. This is from the about section of her website:

Shauna Richardson’s background is in conceptual art.
The unique body of work she terms ‘Crochetdermy’ evolved out of the exploration of the theory that  ‘Anything can be art’. She uses crochet to sculpt realistic life-size animals – uncanny taxidermy-like forms. Crochetdermy combines themes such as objects, collecting, craft and realism and experiments with accessibility and audience. Richardson has received much critical acclaim. Her work is receiving worldwide media coverage and selling into collections across the globe. In 2009 Shauna won ‘Artists taking the lead’ part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad with the ‘Lionheart Project’. For two years she has been creating the largest single-handed crochet sculpture in the world. The finished piece will be housed in a mobile glass taxidermy style case and tour throughout 2012. lionheartproject.com

Although I really like her work I think that defining it by saying it came from 'anything can be art' is a bit strange. When you compare it to other conceptual artists such as Damien Hirst it does fit in with taxidermy and the idea of death and also textiles in art is not an uncommon thing. I do think that when you look at the pieces you do see them as real animals, although you know they are hand crafted. Even the materials used are very realistic, it does not look like traditional yarn. Although I was making the foxes when I had seen this it did put into perspective how big taxidermy in craft and fine art is. Should I make my pieces more realistic or stick to the quite animated and cutesy look? Which will look best in an editorial and which one is more me. Although the prop making is a huge part of what I am doing I do really have to consider the photographic style of the work. I know how I would like to produce the images and a rough idea of how the finals will look, so it is just knitting the props to match this. 

After seeing Richardson's website I wanted to look a little further into arts that also use the taxidermy theme in their work. I came across Nathan Vincent who produces crochet sculpture in more of a 'traditional' knitted way. I think because the style is a lot more cuddly it is not as serious as Richardson's work. Not to say it isn't beautifully done, the pieces have a charm to them and the lion is incredible. I think it does go to show that the same idea can be interpreted in different ways and just because something similar has been done before I should not be put off doing it for my project. 

I have also been in contact with Amelia Fever, an AUCB graduate and she sent me a link to her work that is currently being exhibited at Atelier Contemporary Craft Gallery. It looks so incredible just in the photos and I would love to go and see it in person! Hopefully we'll be able to collaborate with this project!