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!!

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

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!