Red camo sheep

"A fire camo sheep. You know, in case the sheep is caught in a deadly fire and has to escape stealthily."
(Shaune Reynolds)

This is a drawing by Shaune's girlfriend, and he wanted to surprise her with a custom made soft toy. How romantic!

I ran around Vancouver looking for red camo fabric, without luck. Then I found it on-line, from a distributor in Los Angeles. It would have cost $50 to ship it to Canada, so I had them deliver it to The Letter Carrier in Point Roberts, WA. It took me (only) 2 hours to drive down in bumper to bumper traffic and pick it up and get back home, where I then had to scramble to get this order finished and shipped out.

How romantic, indeed.

Two More Child's Own Softies

Brenda's Muppet

by Brenda, age 5

Brenda's mom, Nancy, asked me to use my "artistic license" to make this character cute and cuddly. For some reason, I thought of Sesame Street and Jim Henson's puppets. I think it was the little bun of hair on the top of her head. I got the softest pink fabric I could find at the fabric store, and it made the doll so soft and cuddly, that my heart kind of melted while I was setting her up for the photo.

Jill's Sloth

by Jill, age 5

Jill drew this for her aunt while they were at a doctor's office, with a ballpoint pen. No crayons around, her aunt got her to describe the colours and details:

" His body is brown, his spots are purple, his 'blindfold' is black, and he has blue hair."

He looks like a happy, floppy sloth who has a thing for grape jelly.

The Owl and the Pussycat

Cat by Ilaria, age 5

Owl by Marina, age 7

The Owl and the Pussycat

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

Wrapped up in a five pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

And sang to a small guitar,

'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,

What a beautiful Pussy you are,

You are,

You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!'

II

Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!

How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! too long we have tarried:

But what shall we do for a ring?'

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

To the land where the Bong-tree grows

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

With a ring at the end of his nose,

His nose,

His nose,

With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'

So they took it away, and were married next day

By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon,

The moon,

The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

poem by Edward Lear

Are they hands or are they feet?

Peter drew this when he was nine. It's a terrific monster with crooked teeth, hypnotizing eyes, an organic shape and some stripes. Were the limbs hands or feet? His mother who placed the order couldn't ask Peter, now 26 years old, because it was meant to be a surprise. If they were hands, the monster could look like it was reaching out for a hug (or a strangle):

or with the arms folded, it could look bored and unimpressed:

In the end, we decided to keep them the same size as drawn, and they could be feet:

or, they could be hands:

Back from fishing

Whew! I'm glad these little guys are done. And I'm glad to have finally dealt with all the e-mails in my inbox. Hopefully I didn't overlook anyone. These days, Child's Own Studio is still getting a lot of attention and visitors from around the world (cool!) - my bandwidth limit was reached again on Sept. 10th, but my very kind superhost at Cheeky Penguin added some more bandwidth for me - grazie mille George!

I've also been getting a few enquiries from people who send me their own wonderful designs of characters to be made into soft toys or dolls. In the past, I undertook a couple of these projects, and I have found that making a toy from an adult's drawing, which is very detailed and full of specifications, is not as enjoyable and rewarding (for me), in fact, it's usually more labour intensive and stressful, as I strive to make it turn out exactly proportioned as per drawing. A child's drawing leaves me room for my interpretation as well as room for pure whimsy, and that's why I much prefer working from children's drawings. And I also believe that the creations from children's drawings are what most visitors are interested in seeing when they come by my website or this blog.

I have also, in the past(even recently) made a couple of trade-marked characters, which is very likely a legal no-no. While these projects are great learning experiences for me, I have to say that I also feel the same way - I don't enjoy doing them as much. So, why do I do it? Suffice it to say, I have a soft spot for children with special needs.

So, please. Kind people, please send me drawings of original subject matter by your children - children do have great imagination. And together, we can make wonderful things!

hunter green "minky"

I found it in the "roll ends" box at the fabric store; they bundle up the remaining 1 or 2 yards of fabric on the rolls, discount it and throw it into the box where there's a "buy 1, get 2 free" deal. It was about 2 yards of hunter green minky and I took it because I thought: for sure, something will come up for this. That was three years ago.

But something finally did come up. This is Tung," the fantastic frog boy" from the Dex Hamilton series.

in a swamp

I need to call a time-out. I've been getting a lot of enquiries and orders since Reddit found me, which is a good thing, of course, except it's a little overwhelming and I also have those 10 lumpsucker fish for Parks Canada to deal with. So, I'm sorry to say that I won't be taking any more new orders for September. Please check back in October!

Sorry!

His and Her elephants

I kinda like a little friendly competition between mates. Lisa sent me two drawings of elephants, one by her and the other by her boyfriend, using MS Paint. They wanted to see who could draw the better elephant.

I wasn't asked to be the judge, thank goodness. Only to turn them into softies. I didn't even know who drew which elephant. Then I wondered if women/girls would prefer the elephant drawn by Lisa and men/boys would choose the boyfriend's elephant.

What do you think?