Strange Machines

Sometimes I wonder if I am made for the business world at all. I have no urge to put my craftwork out there and sell them.

I feel content just hugging my sweet homemade softies, carrying my homemade bags, and staring for hours at the mini playsets I have been making for Biscuit and Gray and their brethren (yes, the final design for Blue Biscuit is complete! See pic on left).

Yes I even make toys for them! There’s something about creating a stuffed animal that makes me feel all motherly over them. Must be the act of creation!

But the idea of setting up shop has been daunting (especially since my personal time is from 11pm-4am, interrupted, and I spend most of it unwinding by snacking, reading, surfing, then think about crafting and maybe selling - a lot of it has been thinking).

Here’s the legwork:

1. Print business cards.

2. Design a logo and make fabric labels for bags, dolls, etc.

3. Stock up on shipping envelopes.

4. Make fabric bags to store items (for packaging - this seems the most environmentally friendly choice).

5. Plan trips to the post office (with Jack and pram in tow) through blinding heat and roads - at least we can walk there so it isn’t terribly environmentally unfriendly.

6. Making some merchandise that I won’t end up wanting to keep for myself or giving it to the first person who says, oh so nice, or as a present I think a friend whom I’m meeting tomorrow will like.

7. Designing a shopfront banner and crafting the text.

8. Updating the Biscuit & Gray website!

I already bought the weighing scale from Ikea… Ok, maybe I’ll start with #6 first then we’ll get the rest in order.

What do you think? Where’s the best place to start? Ahh!!! *runs away screaming*

Gray looks awed by his tiny brethren, made by the super talented artisan sparklerama.

Biscuit, Gray, Box the owl, and Bone the bone. Box and Bone were made by the very talented Petticoat Pirate.

Biscuit with Big Blue, first rabbit made on my sewing machine.

She’s gone to live with my dear friend Angie who uses her as an eye pillow.

Here’s Gray with Blue Biscuit and Biscuit.

The Porsche Carrera S’s side mirror was poking his back.

Blue Biscuit came back for a week-long visit.

Biscuit & Gray have their own website now! Please excuse the mess while we hang the stuff up. But if you can’t wait, go visit them at Biscuit & Gray dot com.

Here’s a pic of Biscuit and Blue Biscuit, whom I made for Amber, my sister’s daughter for her 8th birthday. As you can tell, Biscuit was thrilled to have another rabbit friend and the two pals enjoyed 5 lovely rabbitty days together. (I think Gray felt a little left out.)

Jack was also ecstatic to have another Biscuit and was sad to let him go in the end. He still asks if I will make another Blue Biscuit and one of these days I will.

Today I brought Jack to town, hoping to snag the latest Aranzi Aronzo book Cute Stuff which is the best starter book for anyone who wants to sew their own bags. After the Kino 20% discount, it was $20.02, way cheaper than Amazon! V, whom I met for coffee today, agreed and mirrored my horror that shipping takes one month!

I have to say the Aranzi Aronzo books provide the best starter for any sewing novice with easy to follow step-by-step pictorial examples. It was easy to make Biscuit and Gray from their instructions, with some modifications to make them mine.

Anyway, I joined Etsy, a great site for buying and selling homemade things and have bought 3 sweet stuffed dolls already. Nothing beats homemade, which is why I stopped buying any stuffed animals for Jack since I read about all the damn toxic crap in our toys. And that sparked the interest in making them. So Biscuit and Gray were born.

Bookmark my Etsy page. I’ll be putting up my cloth bags and some small stuffed animals for sale soon.

Meanwhile I love my Singer. It is almost like driving that car simulator today at Best in Taka. Awesome!

To all those who asked, this is Biscuit (white rabbit) and Gray (gray cat), the two 100% cotton cloth dolls I hand sewed for Jack, inspired by the cute dolls by Aranzi Aronzo.

Now, before Biscuit came into our lives, Jack called all rabbits biscuits. I thought it was the cutest thing and interestingly enough, having Biscuit made the distinction between a “biscuit” and “Biscuit” the name.

Biscuit was made from an old 3 cats t-shirt of mine my Mom gave me. The front was stained with breast milk but the back was okay. So I cut it up and Biscuit was born, sometime late April. 28th I think.

Gray came soon after. 2 days if I recall correctly. April 30th. My fave Victoria’s Secret gray top had stretched beyond decency and its soft material made it perfect for a small gray cat. Victoria seemed rather stiff for a cute cat, so I called him Gray instead.

Biscuit’s pose in the picture was inspired by the bats on the last page of The Gruffalo’s Child. They sleep with us every night and Biscuit reads to Jack every night.

Anyhow, Gray needed a bit of surgery today.

I’d been staring at his uneven forehead for a month now and it kept driving me crazy (yes, Sab, my obsession with alignment even extends to live objects, not just webpages).

So this evening, while Jack obsessed about aligning (appeared to be inherited) his cars properly on his Tomy car park, I deftly took out my crafting bag, removed a needle, black thread, and scissors, and promptly gave Gray a lobotomy. Really, I unpicked the stitches under his right cheek, took out his stuffing, turned him inside out, unpicked the stitches attaching his ear to head, and restitched that part.

Jack turned to look at me some five minutes later, rather puzzled, then a little disturbed. I noticed his stare and told him, Momma is repairing Gray’s head. He glanced at poor Gray’s flattened head. Then reached out for Biscuit, his stuffed rabbit, and stealthily put her behind him.

Luckily his Dad was out of his shower and proceeded to distract him by playing with his cars and reading to him. Perhaps tonight he was too alarmed by Gray’s inside out anatomy that he allowed Dad to help Biscuit read his dinosaur book to him in a dreadful falsetto voice.

Gray’s head is now a beautifully aligned symmetry. I can sleep better now.