Category: Art

Art

A Son’s Popkes postcard!

Sonja

Painted Christmas card

For a long time I thought about offering the Popkes artworks I made, some as Christmas cards, as postcards. I never actually dared to do it, until now! After many friends and crafters told me I really should give it a try, I decided to have my favourite winter-themed artwork printed as a postcard, how exciting! You can now order ‘A Popkes winter wonderland’ as an A6 postcard in my Etsy shop. I decided to offer a single card ($1,85) and sets of 2, 4, or 6.

The postcards are printed on 350gsm sulfate cardboard. The front is semi-glossy and the back is matte, perfect to write on. They are professionally printed in the Netherlands. On the back in the bottom left corner you’ll find a small graphic and info about the artwork. There is plenty of space to write on.

These cards feel like a classical winter animal tale. They would make a perfect Christmas greeting to send to your loved ones and friends or a lovely wall decoration to brighten up your room! If you are a Popkes fan, you know who’s on this card, but to those of you who don’t know, this postcard features Flam the fox, Finse the rabbit, and Falun the badger. For years it has been a tradition of mine to paint an original Christmas card to send to my family and friends. Before I started Son’s Popkes, I painted funny scenes featuring Santa experiencing bad luck. But when Son’s Popkes became a success, I realised it would be great fun to make the crochet animals the main characters of my Christmas cards. At some point, I even started painting more Popke artworks, where the animals are doing all sorts of things in their natural environment. Who knows what their next adventure will be?

Where to buy?

You can purchase the cards here. Keep in mind that if you order these in December, they will take longer to arrive because of the Christmas rush.

If you have questions or remarks about this postcard, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!

Art, Patterns

Bubbly, crochet otter pattern

Sonja

And here he is, my whimsical looking crochet otter amigurumi called Bubbly.

realistic crochet otter pattern

It felt like I have been working on this pattern for ages. That’s probably because of all the free days we are having this time of year. But that doesn’t spoil the fun of publishing something new, on the contrary, I was looking so much forward to writing this post.

What do you think? Did I manage to capture the thing that make otters the popular and much loved animals as they are? I think I did, I’m so happy with this otter. Bubbly looks like an enthusiastic, funny young otter, who’s up to many tricks. Designing crochet animals and creating a doll that resembles the real animal in a basic way is a challenging thing, and for some animals it is harder than for others.

Otters are the kind of animal that need a bit of extra attention to give the doll the spirit real otters have. For example, my previous otter pattern looked like an otter, there’s no question about that and it is a lovely looking doll, but it missed that extra bit of character. This otter contains the sense of humor I like to add to my designs, his quizzical expression is priceless! I love Bubbly and hope you will love this otter amigurumi too.

Here are some more pictures of this funny looking crochet otter and below them you can find info about and links to buy the pattern.

Info about & links to buy the pattern

Bubbly is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a 100% wool with a lot of fuzziness. He is 6.2 inch/ 15,5 cm tall when made with this yarn. The pattern is written in standard American crochet terms and contains a clear and colour coded description of how to crochet and assemble this animal, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own funny looking crochet otter amigurumi. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings, like the yarn you need etc. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here.

This pattern has a one dollar release discount till Tuesday the 29th of May!

Art, Chit and Chat, Uncategorized

A phase

Sonja

When I look at all the patterns I have made so far, I am quite proud of each and every one of them. Look at them, so many (and I even forgot a few), that is about three years of designing in that picture!

amigurumi patterns

But lately I’ve been so critical about my designs that I am having a hard time finishing them. This must be something every designer goes through every once and a while. Maybe it is just the soggy weather and the grey of winter that makes me judge my work differently.

It started when I was working on my tortoise pattern. I made this gorgeous looking shell, that would be a bit difficult to assemble. And because I couldn’t write it down perfectly scientifically, I had to re-think it so I fooled around with it for a while and did not enjoy it. Then I saw this picture of a gorgeous looking American red squirrel and decided I was going to set aside the tortoise and make a new squirrel that made me all excited. I started all enthusiastic but soon afterwards doubted every part I made. I guess designing the realistic animals got me into this phase. Because now, when I’m designing a doll, I’m not sure anymore how realistic it should look. These crochet animals must look like the real animal for sure, but they also should be a bit more whimsical and playful looking, well you’ve just seen my Popkes. When I look at my sweet little squirrel face, I’m thinking ‘isn’t this looking too complicated?’ or ‘isn’t this head too small, should I make a more round and basic head?’. It’s annoying, I’m doubting my every move, while I can clearly see what I came up with isn’t looking bad at all.

The best thing to do is to just keep working on it. Today I made a very smart looking tail, which doesn’t need pipe cleaners in it to make it look bended. And the body I made has a very formidable looking light belly, so I suppose I am just being a bit too hard on myself. I will just continue working on this sweetie and assemble a prototype. When that is finished I can decide if I find this squirrel whimsical and characteristic enough and if anything needs to be changed.

Yes, that is a good plan. See you when it is finished dear crafters!

Art, Patterns

Crochet clownfish pattern

Sonja

This truly is quite a spontaneous pattern. I fell in love with the beauty of the saddleback clownfish (yellowfin anemone fish) and I had to make a crochet pattern for it right away. Meet my first fish amigurumi, clownfish!

clownfish crochet pattern

During the holidays, we watched BBC’s Blue Planet II, which is such an amazing series about our oceans and the depth of them, literally and figuratively. There are so many amazing and intelligent creatures living in our seas and I believe series like Blue Planet are crucial to make people aware of how important nature is and that we should protect it and value the animals that live there.

saddleback blue planetThe whole series is fabulous but I particularly enjoyed a piece about the saddleback clownfish. I was struck by the sheer beauty and intelligence of this little anemone fish and wanted to ‘have’ one right away. Not a real one of course, but a crochet version. I am so grateful of being able to create realistic looking animals in crochet, because that makes it possible to hold a cuddly fish a week later.

Clownfish are gorgeous fish with their special colours and unusual fins. I’ve always loved the orange version but this saddleback stole my heart. Of course I was going to make a saddleback, but it would be a pity to stop there, so I made a normal clownfish amigurumi pattern too. From a fast perspective, the clownfish and saddleback seem only to differ by their colours. But when you take a closer look, it is not just the colours that are different, but also the shape of the coloured lines. I had to make two different patterns altogether. What make these amigurumi fish extra special, they can stand by themselves. Clownfish have very striking ventral fins, that function perfectly as little arms to balance the crochet clownfish. Look at how they stand all proud in the first picture.

With this crochet clownfish pattern, you can make two about life-size fish, a normal clownfish and a saddleback. They are 4,3 inch /11 cm long, when made with worsted weight yarn and hook E / 3.5. The patterns are written colour coded to make changing colour as easy as possible and contain a clear description of how to assemble the fish, with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own clownfish amigurumis.

All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here. This pattern costs $ 4.99 and has a one dollar release discount till Monday the 21st of Januari, so get your copy for $ 3.99 before it is too late!

Art, Stories

Last post this year featuring your work!

Sonja

What better way to end this blogging year by, than with your fabulous work. Just look at all these gorgeous, funny, mischievous and whimsical looking creatures and how they all seem to have their own personalities.

This was a good year full of Popkejoy!

Have a wonderful new year dear crafters, may the crafty force be with us all in 2018!

Art

I wish you a crafty Christmas!

Sonja

winter snow forest painting

It was a last minute activity to make a Son’s Popkes artwork Christmas card. I used to make one every year but last year I just did not feel like it. Crocheting gives me so much more pleasure and taking off a whole week from crocheting to paint a Christmas illustration was simply not going to happen. This year I did feel like making a Christmas illustration and I had a lovely idea, but still working on  something for a week…

I postponed and postponed till I had a few days before ‘sending time’. I decided to do a water colour illustration instead of acrylic paint on canvas. I had exactly two days to draw, colour, edit, print and write the cards. It was a bit hectic indeed. But also fun and exciting, one change only, could I do it?

I wish you all a merry Christmas dear crafty folks. And a very happy new year full of new crocheting, knitting and crafting endeavours!

Cheers 🦊🐢🦉 🐑🎉

Art, Stories

Badger update

Sonja

Hi crafty folks, I just wanted to give you and update on the progress of the badger. Here is a little teaser image for you.

I have a first badger finished and it is already sitting on my bedside table. Now you probably are thinking ‘what am I supposed to do with that info?’ Well, when a doll is finished, I always bring it with me to the bedroom, because I want to have it close to me. You know, like when you were a kid and put your new shoes next to your bed. Or was that only me?

Anyway, now you probably will understand I love this badger plushy to bits. It wasn’t easy to create this more realistic shaped pattern and I got stuck many times. I will tell all about that when I publish the pattern. What I can say now is that this crochet badger means a lot to me. Badgers are me favourite animals and after seeing one in the wild this summer it is very special to now have a homemade miniature badger next to my bed. I think this badger radiates my love for the animal and will make a very special pattern for all animal and badger lovers out there.

And one more thing. This crochet badger is brushed and to be sure all the proportions are good before I could do the promo and pattern photoshoot, I had to finish a first badger. I also want pictures in the pattern of how you assemble the animal, so I needed an unfinished doll for that purpose. I am happy to say everything turned out good so that means I will have two almost identical badgers. Maybe I will sell one off them. I have to think about that.

See you next week 🦊

Art, Stories

A new one

Sonja

Hi crafters!

It has been a while since my last post. I’ve been making commissioned monkeys (something I am not going to do again) and have thought a lot about a new design. I had some trouble deciding what animal to make to be honest. After that rather realistic monkey, I wanted to go back to something simple. Basically to just a fun looking doll to make.

I asked for your suggestions and got some, but they where of the complicated sort. A kangaroo with a joey is an animal I want to make for sure, but I do want it to be both striking and simple and don’t have an idea for that yet. I also thought about designing a horned lizard pattern or a turtle, but was not sure I could reach my goal of fun and simple with those.

I also felt like making a cat. I have made a cat pattern before, Dandylion, but he isn’t a doll. A cat seemed like the perfect animal to make a fun and basic pattern for, and it also has some other interesting opportunities. So, a cat it was. The pattern for this cat will be simple but flexible. One with the option to make your own cat!

And no worries, the cat’s already finished. All I have to do is find the right moment to take some pictures and finish the pattern.

Art, Stories

A very special project

Sonja

This fresh new year, I am starting with a very special project. I am making the pattern for a fossilised monkey. And it is not even that simple, the monkey I am making is a prosimian or a lemur monkey. The researchers are not completely sure about it. This monkey, called Ida (based on Darwin’s name), died 47 million years ago and was found in Messel, Germany.

monkWhy am I making a fossilised monkey that lived 47 million years ago? To be honest, I’m not really a monkey fan. They just aren’t my kind of animals. I do love some lemurs and prosimians and please don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike monkeys, but they aren’t on my list of cute and cuddly things that make me feel all happy like when I see a guinea pig, fox or squirrel.

But this Ida monkey does! This was the cutest and most beautiful monkey ever. A friend of mine, who is a wildlife and paleo artist, made the most fabulous illustrations for a book about Ida. Because Ida was so very well preserved, Esther could draw her exactly as she looked, except for the colours. They couldn’t see those from the fossil so she had to chose the most likely colours. And how she portraid Ida, I was in love with her from the start! She made the monkey look so gorgeous and exotic.

Ida is a lemur or prosimian monkey and has this specific type of body. I really like the shape of her head and flexible form. She is perfect for the monkey I like to make. The coloured illustration you see is one of the illustrations Esther made for the book. Ida is the baby monkey carried by the mother.

idaEsther has asked me before if I could make an Ida monkey, but I never wanted to because it doesn’t exist anymore and therefor crafters won’t recognise the crochet monkey. But lately I was thinking about making a hanging monkey and got stuck on which type. I asked Ether if she knew an extra cute one and of course she said I should make the Ida monkey. I wasn’t sure about it at first but the more I thought about it, the less unlikely it felt. Why wouldn’t I make a pattern for this type of monkey? Ida is absolutely gorgeous and If I design a hanging Ida monkey, I bet many crocheters would just love it. The colours can easily be replaced for colours of existing monkeys if one prefers so what’s the problem. It was done. I was making a fossilised monkey as first project of the year! Now to think of a suitable name…

 

Art, Patterns

Oakie, crochet armadillo pattern

Sonja

Sitting as promised in my original Popke style, I proudly present to you Oakie the crochet armadillo.

armadillo crochet pattern

Wow, what a process this was. I never expected all the bumps on the road of designing this crochet armadillo pattern. In my previous post I explained about the challenge of making this interesting looking creature. Making an animal that would never, ever even think of sitting on its bottom, sit on its bottom was for starters a classical design issue. But the body armour was so utterly complicated to design that the sitting thing seemed nothing. I wrote about the smooth textured Linen stitch I was planning to use for the armour. When I started everything seemed so jolly well. What a perfect stitch for armadillo armour. But then some in- and decreasing had to be done and how on earth could I do that with this stitch? I googled for info and found nothing, who would have thought about that? People only seem to crochet scarfs and pillowcases with this stitch, not animals. So I had to find a way myself. After testing all sorts of solutions and almost writing a post here begging someone to help me, I found the solution to my problem. Decrease three stitches instead of two. How simple could it be. Not everything was rough on this road. From the start I knew how I was going to design the arms. The legs and feet just fell into place when I made them and the tail looks fabulous because it is worked flat.

I really like the almost reptile looking appearance of Oakie’s face. The smaller eyes, unworked back loops and chain stitches form a perfect whole to create that characteristic armour texture. The rugged Lopi yarn accentuates it even more. Oakie might be unable to roll himself into a ball, but you can easily imaging him to do so. Just look at him! This armadillo is the most special creature I have ever made a crochet pattern for. Below the pictures you can find info about this armadillo amigurumi and the links to buy the pattern.

armadillo-amigurumi

crochet-armadillo-amigurumi

Info about & links to buy the pattern

This very rugged but cuddly crochet armadillo is made with Istex Lett Lopi, a worsted weight wool. He is 14 cm / 5.5 inch when sitting. All the additional information you need to know about this pattern you can find in the shop listings. You can buy this pattern in my shop at Ravelry, Etsy or order it here. It contains a clear and colour coded description of how to crochet and assemble the armadillo with extra illustrations and example pictures at the bottom to help you get everything right. In the pattern you can also find what materials you need, the yarn colour numbers, in short, everything you need to know to make your own ancient looking friend.

And heads up, this pattern has a one dollar release discount till Wednesday the 28th.