More Moths

I found this awesome and somewhat psychedelic moth fabric so I had to make some more "It's not the moths" pillows. There are now four options for the backing fabric.

carving cats in a blizzard

I'm making a custom cat portrait for a customer in Japan. She runs a cat rescue with her husband, because Yokohama doesn't have shelters for strays. This is the lovely Papico, her permanent pet, rather than one of the cats for whom they hope to find new homes.

Meanwhile here in Toronto, we're in the midst of the largest snowfall in five years. The media are having a field day with it, of course, riffing on the fact that this is the meeting of two 'cowboy' weather systems, from Alberta and Texas respectively. Though, really, this is Canada in February and supposed to happen; it's been the lack of snow in recent years which is the real anomaly. It started last night. I shovelled at 6 pm. RJH shoveled at 8 pm. Then this morning, RJH shovelled at 7:30 and by 7:35, I could see a centimeter already on the recently cleared steps. I went out there this afternoon and shovelled again. I'm sure it will need more shovelling by the time he gets home. It is very quiet, despite being a busy street. There are more entrepid pedestrians out there than cars.

I need to make Papico into a pillow, but I am out of stuffing. I've decided that it is entirely reasonable not to try to get a 25 pound bag of stuffing on a day like today. It's an unwieldy sort of item to wrangle on public transit on the best of days.

Pink-nosed cat pillow

A couple of months ago I was commissioned to make a custom portrait of someone's cat. I thought he would make a great pillow.







I contrasted his relaxed pose with some distinctly unrelaxed looking cats fabric.

Legendary White Squirrel of Trinity-Bellwoods

Between spending a day selling my wares in Trinity-Bellwoods, where people visited me all day to tell me about their white squirrel sightings, and finding some amazing purple squirrel fabric, I thought it was high time to make a 'Legendary White Squirrel of Trinity-Bellwoods' pillow:

 

 and then, I made another 'Legendary White Squirrel of Trinity-Bellwoods' pillow:

 

This morning I was pretty amused and pleased to see that the legendary white squirrel himself had tweeted about it.

 

It's Not the Moths Pillow

This one of a kind, handmade pillow features an image of my 'Moths' linocut, printed on a cotton silk blend fabric with a soft sheen. The reverse of the pillow is pin-striped greys and browns with irridescent threads and a beige and turquoise butterfly print cotton. The pillow is about 14.5" by 12" (37 cm by 31 cm). You might recall my explanation of my broadside:

I got no quarrel with the insects. Just because they have six legs and an exoskeleton is no reason to revile 'em. The beasties of the Lepidoptera order are beautiful and multifarious. We take their cousins the butterflies as symbols of the soul. I've personally long maintained that butterflies are the new pirates, with their ever-increasing popularity. I understand that insects will share my habitat - and even my home - as they, after all, were here first. We may even compete for the same resources in our shared environment. It's just the expensive tastes of the moths... they've crossed the line. It's not like I even own very many cashmere items, and the little #$@& went after them all.

So, I had the broadsides printed onto fabric, to make lovely cushions. Surely, the moths are now quaking in their boots. All 6 of them.

Animal Pillows

RJH is kind enough to let me play use his camera, so I've been photographing and relisting all my block printed pillows. He must really love me, cause I don't think (between you, me and the lamp-post) that I could let him borrow the gravitymeter -the differential pressure gauge maybe; that thing is damn near indestructible. Luckily, he would have little to no use for either, and the photogs view cameras as tools to be used which must not be fragile.

p.s. If you would like a new internet habit (hahaha) you can find minouette on Pinterest. Leave a link if you've got one too.

Cloud Classification Pillow

I took my cloud classification block and made a pillow!

A who's who of the clouds in the sky are handprinted in a cloud-like mass of circular diagrams on blue-indigo cotton, in this one of a kind pillow. The clouds represented are shown as they would appear in the sky; the lower altitude clouds are lowest, the mid-altitude clouds in the middle and the high altitude clouds at the top. We have cumulonimbus, stratocumulus and cumulus at the bottom. There are three types of altocumulus and one altostratus in the middle. The top level contains cirrocumulus and two types of cirrus clouds. Each is denoted by its own symbol. The reverse is a cloud-patterned print fabric. The pillow itself is cloud-shaped.

The pillow is roughly 38 cm across, 30 cm high and 7 cm deep (15" x 11" x 3").

The Owl and the Pussycat - pillows

The Owl and the Pussycat are now together in my shop. My namesake cat, Minouette's portrait is blockprinted in mauve on gold silk fabric, and a western screech-owl in is blockprinted in brown on gold silk. The reverse is a wonderful print fabric illustrating their tale. (The set: ocean as turquoise, knit, throw blanket, boat, sky & sun as Japanese washi paper. The Owl is about 22 cm or 8.5 talls and Minouette is 7 inches or 18 cm tall)



RJH photographed Minouette and her mini-me.

cats!

I think the wee little Minouette plushies turned out pretty #%^@ adorable, if I do say so myself. The beige-with crazy contemporary print backing is going to Gasolinequeen in about 10 minutes. Shhh! It's a surprise. I'll put the other two, the purple one and the beige one, with the owl and pussycat backing in the shop soon. O! The little cat toes get me, even if Minouette looks like she's thinking, "Stop what you are doing this instant and feed me, or there will be serious reprocussions. Never underestimate a hungry cat." Minouette uses a lot of polysyllabic words. She's that sort of cat.

The Owl and the Pussycat (pillow)

The owl and the pussycat: The owl, asking, "Who?" is blockprinted in black on purple cotton. The pussycat is a block print of my namesake, Minouette (the cat) and the French slogan, 'Méfiez-vous de la contrefaçon!' Inspired by a peculiar but endearing vintage French ad, you might translate the slogan as 'Accept no substitutes' if you wanted to be snappy, but it is more like, 'Be suspicious of counterfeits!' The front also features a swath of pin-striped burgundy wool and dark blue faux-bois print cotton with an ampersand '&' printed in white with a vintage letterpress letter.

On the reverse, however, the owl and the pussycat appear much more relaxed. The owl serenades the pussycat, as they sail beneath the benign moon, on a very sweet print fabric. This is combined with a stripe of a great, colourful print, block printed with the minouette flowers and tentacles label.

Lion & Lioness Pillow

This pillow features blockprinted fabric, with a portrait of a lion and lioness in the tall grass. I was inspired to carve the lino block by a photograph my mother took in the Ngorongoro conservation area in Tanzania. It is called, "The Watchers, Ngorongoro". The photo gives the strong impression the lions are watching the people back.

The front of the pillow is a patchwork with a contemporary paisley fabric in grass green and teal, with a blue faux-bois print. The reverse is a pale green corduroy with a stripe of vintage floral fabric. The pillow is 15.5" by 11.5" (or 39 cm by 31 cm).

bats, mushrooms & jellyfish - on pillows

As I attempt to convalesce at home (I am a bad sick person), I'm running a little minouette sweatshop. Here are some of my latest pillows (tip o' the hat to Gqueen who suggested a bat pillow):






Block printed bat on cotton with block printed fly agaric mushrooms on silk in a patchwork with wool and cotton fabrics on the front of this pillow. The reverse is a gray printed linen (airplanes, dots, and stripes) with a pin-striped cotton and red tentacle minouette label.





Block printed jellyfish on cotton print, in patchwork with printed and woven (including handwoven Nepalese) fabrics on front of pillow. Reverse is printed city scene and tweed. The pillow is 37 cm by 32 cm (14.6 inches by 12.6 inches).

By the way, I hope everyone is having a fabulous (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Blythechild

I hope you have a wonderful birthday and a happy, healthy, successful and miraculously relaxing new year!



I made her a slightly furry Orbit pillow, just like Orbit (aka Lady Giggleswick) herself.

oudjat

I like to throw in a little something extra with packages, especially for friends and loyal patrons. I sort of forgot to explain this one. For the Gasolinequeen this is a hot/cold pack. It's stuffed with flax seeds, so it makes a good pillow with a little weight. You can heat it in the microwave or cool it in the freezer and use it for any aches and pains. Flax seeds are of course, the environmentally friendly choice.

Euoplocephalus Pillow

Yes, more pillows. Today, we have Late Cretaceous Dinosaurs:


with a vintage quail or pheasant or something.



This pillow features my block printed Euoplocephalus dinosaur in mauve on gold silk. The front side is a patchwork with two other contemporary fabrics, one floral the other like marbled paper. The reverse is a patchwork of handwoven Nepalese fabric (screenprinted with leaves by etsy textile artist tanisalexis) and vintage 'gamebird' fabric in earth tones. The pillow is 14.5 inches (37 cm) wide and 11 inches (28 cm) high.

Girls like dinosaurs too you know.



Euoplocephalus, a tank of a plant-eating, Late Cretaceous Ankylosaur dinosaur, has a name which literally means well-armoured head. He had fused plated protecting back and neck and triangular horns protecting his face, shoulders and tail. His main weapon was a ball of fused bone which acted as a club at the end of his tail. He was 20 feet or 6 m long, had thick legs to carry his heavy weight and likely ambled through woodlands in what is now Alberta and Montana.

This pillow is one of a kind!