Welcome to our first Finished Object Friday! I didn’t think I was going to make it, due to some incidents described in my entry for tomorrow. But I have overcome, and now I’m here to present to you whatever I’ve been messing around with for the last unmentionable span of time.

Let’s start with Sephiroth. (Seriously, until I figure out how to make good thumbnails with WordPress, just click on his picture. He really has a top to his head.) Sephiroth, as any good geek will tell you, is one of the villains from Final Fantasy 7 — arguably the main villain, but I digress. A figure of rage and pathos, he came out quite charmingly as a chibi Tribute Doll and I think my client will be pleased with him. I think he looks much like the original game character with that pleasing roundness and childlike quality of the original character designs. He’s sixteen swinging inches of cute evil. There will be a page with more pictures over at A Page A Day, and eventually I’ll give away his pattern on that blog. I would like to work through the other FF7 characters as well; I think they’d be ADORABLE.

I’m also working on a JENOVA PROJECT of my own… you know, in that COPIOUS FREE TIME I have, and everything. *insert mad cackling laughter here*

Ahem.

So let’s move on to Matt; my client tells me he’s from Deathnote but hell if I know. I have *one* Deathnote manga, and no one in it looks terribly interesting (in a visual character sense) except the shinagami. Now THERE’S a doll I’d love to make. Oh, but I don’t need to look in the direction of my manga shelves for more inspiration — it’d only add to the list of “Things Vox Isn’t Allowed To Make (until she finishes her commissions and her current unfinished projects and has the free time and she’ll probably be dead by that point)”.

But I want to talk about THIS doll. Specifically THE VEST.

LOOK AT THIS VEST. Man, it gave me just about the biggest hooker’s block I’ve ever had. The shape of the vest itself was easy enough. But then I got stuck for at least a week or two not knowing how to do the little lighter parts that mimic the lambswool inside of the jacket at the seams.

First I tried with latch hooked fringe. Yeah. It was so short it just came out when you touched it. *shifty eyes* I swear that wasn’t some sort of innuendo. And then I thought, maybe crochet strips and then brush them with a stiff bristle brush or similar to raise some fuzz but man, that’s like bumping the lamp. It’d be a ton of work, and I wouldn’t even know if it’d look right until I was done with it.

So finally I settled on cross stitch (even though you know I hate the needlework), and I feel that at this size ratio it was the best solution. It gives the right look while being sturdy and not so labor intensive that it made me want to commit hari kiri. So perhaps I just shimmied the lamp a bit. I may eventually put elements of his costume up on A Page A Day… even this freaking vest.

And, at last, my first Crocheted Quilt Square, the Snail Trail. Also not an innuendo. Truthfully, I didn’t know quilting had much to snicker at until I started researching it. But isn’t that beautiful? I love the colors, and it worked up pretty quickly. What you’re seeing is the “non-worked” side; the worked side is almost as pretty. I’ll eventually have this pattern up on A Page A Day.

Alrighty, I think I’m all talked-out for the evening. More tomorrow, and a fun new surprise on Sunday.

Tags: deathnote, Final Fantasy, Finished Object Friday, quilt squares, Sephiroth

I have been crocheting, but you wouldn’t know it from my posting. *wry look* I finished up two doll bodies for my Egyptian Gods series. I have finished 2 crocheted squares and have developed 3 square designs for a theme afghan.

I’ve also done a lot of work on a character from Deathnote, Matt. All he needs now are some finishing touches on his jacket, his glasses, and his gloves. Then he’ll be ready to ship off to the commissioner.

Next, I’ll be finishing up a Pyramid Head doll (from the movie Silent Hill) and a random VERYPINK Fairy Godmother, and so on from there.

My darling husband/webmaster took a TON of pictures last night of some new dolls: my Spider Jerusalem, the crocheted Bowel Disruptor I carried to Dragon*Con, the Dark Queen and Dark Rook from the Fantasy Chess Set I’m developing (you know, in my COPIOUS spare time…), and the Sephiroth I just completed.

I hope to post some pictures of my work soon, and also post more serious content soon. I thought I would have time to develop it, but between work at the RealJob(tm) and various dramas occurring in my sphere I’m lucky to just get the chance to indulge my fixpick up my crochet work every now and again.

Apropos of nothing, I think I’ve lost yet another pair of scissors in my couch. I do most of my work on my couch (since I don’t have a spare room yet for the huge stash of art supplies that owns me), and every week or so I’m losing hooks or other tools down in the cushions. At least this time it wasn’t the Titanium-Coated Shears of Doom.

More on them and everything else later; time to get ready to go to that RealJob(tm) I was talking about…

Tags: bowel disruptor, crochet, Dark Queen, Dark Rook, deathnote, Egyptian Gods, Fantasy Chess Set, life, pyramid head, Sephiroth, Shears of Doom, Spider Jerusalem