meet my new fellow, this little blue whale with boro character. A is a bit disappointed i didn't make him life-size, and maybe i am too. but i struggle to comprehend how much fabric (not to mention sheep to provide the wool stuffing!) i would need to make something longer than three school buses, bigger than a jet plane. did you know that the blue whale is the biggest animal on earth, possible ever? the 18th century minds that gave this whale its latin name had a bit of a sense of humour then, as he is balaenoptera musculus - musculus meaning "little mouse".
still, this blue whale is my biggest creature yet, measuring about 13.5" long. he is stitched from repurposed denim, with an underbody of hand-dyed grey linen stitched carefully with silver thread. (a regal animal such as the blue deserves a bit of fancy accountrements, don't you think?) he also has some boro patches in shades of blue and grey linen on his back to help with his mottled appearance. little blue whale is similar to the humpback whales, but he is bigger, with a slightly different head, fin and tail shape. in real life of course, they are much much larger.
this new pin cushion is something i've had in mind for a bit, inspired by this photo i took on a hiking trip a few summers ago to a remote island off the west coast. these are definitely not my usual go-to colours, but i really like this dreamy gradation of hand-dyed purples against the black wool. the back is a dark purple linen. both the blue whale and this "coast sunset" pin cushion are now in the shop.
if you're interested in learning about more about my process and inspiration, there's an interview with me today over at elizabeth abernathy's blog. thanks so much elizabeth!
5 comments:
Very inspiring interview. I studied marine biology in University so I am very drawn to your subject. Thanks for all the inspiration! My sister used to live in Comox and it was a wonderful little town, you are so lucky to live there (and the thrifting is amazing, there aren't the number of people interested in vintage that there are here in Victoria).
your whale is gorgeous but i am salivating over the pin cushion
you captured the sky so well
Beautiful new work. The pin cushion is so striking! The interview is great as well!
Big Blue is awesome, k. I am looking forward to reading the interview.
What a cute whale. My youngest is very into nature and animals, and he is very fasinated about whales and that they actually are the biggest animal in the world :) I hope he will get the chance to see one in real life some day :) I'm crocheting a whale for him at the moment though.
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