I'm doing okay. I don't have time anymore to crochet as often, but it does make me happy when I do, and I could use all the happy I can get. So I'm not exactly off hiatus, and I'll be posting some stuff occasionally.
Here is my Bad Thoughts Block Brigade of Falinks who also make me happy
Fiber arts tumblr is the only place I can say "I'm not selling this for any less than $200" where people are more likely to go "oh. yeah 😔" than just straight up balk at the idea of spending hundreds of dollars on a tiny 5 inch plushie (that has 4 different colors) (handmade without a pattern and nothing else like it on the market) (atypical design) (took at least 6 hours)
FOTH Varoom
Definitely a unique looking Pokemon
March 24, 2018 - 273/300 Pokemon crocheted
Bringing this back because sometimes I forget just how MUCH I’ve done…
Also some more close up pictures in this imgur thing: https://imgur.com/gallery/mfOQJSW
One of my favorite pictures ever of my collection. Now we're up to 643/1025! I was going to do another massive photo like this at the halfway point but I do not have the space for it so they just keep getting added to my ceiling.
everyone should attempt an artisan craft at some point in their life because it would cut down the number of comments questioning why handmade goods like ceramics or textile craft or woodworking are so expensive
and this is an unrealistic expectation, but I think the attempt should include seeing through to the end at least one "finished" item, no matter how clumsy or lumpy your first attempts might be. like to me, there's a huge difference in perspective between attempting to learn how to crochet or throw a pot for a few days, acknowledging that it's harder than it looks and giving up, versus committing to finishing that scarf or clay pot you started and working on it for weeks while you painstakingly learn from your mistakes and grow attached to your project while also simultaneously hating it.
once you finish the latter, your perspective changes from "why does this crocheted blanket cost $200" to "holy shit I can't believe they're charging $200 for this crocheted blanket instead of $2000" because you may have known crocheting is hard, you may have easily agreed with the idea that "handmade goods take time and effort" even before attempting a craft, but now you know firsthand the absolute time sink it takes to make things. like yeah dude, that one item took you 2 months to make and probably wasn't even an ultra complex item if it was the first thing you made, now imagine attaching an hourly wage to that time to calculate the cost (and this is ignoring every nuance of the artistic element and master crafters being able to work faster/charge higher because of their years and years of experience)
anyway this rant has been motivated by a comment I saw on someone else's ceramic post asking why a mug was $60 and they understand it's handmade but $60 just seems overpriced, and bro do you know how long ceramics take to make. that mug probably took at minimum 3 weeks between how long it takes to throw the mug, dry partially, trim the mug, dry fully, bisque fire, wait a day for the kiln to cool, sand and paint and glaze, glaze fire, wait a day for the kiln to cool, take product photography of the mug, write description and list the mug online for sale, im not even including the skill needed to complete all these steps without the mug literally exploding or collapsing while also making it an appealing piece of art, aaaaaaaaaaaaa
my fun fact addendum I'm adding to this is that unlike knitting, crocheting quite literally cannot be replicated by machine, so if you see "mass manufactured" crochet items on retail shelves for retail prices lol. they weren't mass manufactured and someone was underpaid for that
Learning to spin thread and yarn from wild plants has really given me an appreciation for how priceless textiles were for the majority of human history.
Like it requires someone to gather the plants, process them to get the fibers out (could involve retting them and beating them) process the fibers even more so they're workable (beat them even more and comb them out and separate out any debris that's left) spin them into a thread, gather more plants to dye the thread, then keep spinning threads until you have a BUNCH of threads, then you have to arrange the threads on your loom the way you want them and weave the threads together passing the weft back and forth back and forth back and forth until you have a cloth, then you have to turn that cloth into clothes someone can wear, and you know i'm pretty sure that by the time you're done with it that thing has a soul.
FOTH Palafin (Zero Form)
Almost the same dolphin!
But this one has a heart pattern
Take a gander at the happiest Onix ever
Don't they just look SUPER psyched to have their photo taken? 😄
Look at this guy. Wouldn't your day be immensely improved if someone handed you such a happy Onix
I forgot I have to remake an Onix because I somewhat impulse gave it to someone at work
FOTH Finizen
This.. is a dolphin lmao
This reminds me of some little dolphin keychains I got from the bio park when I was a kid. Like this is just a little dolphin fr
There's just something so ?¿? about how I'm only able to actively work on this project when I'm at objectively the lowest points of my life (deepest depression, lonely, unemployed, no income, lot of time) and only because I have family that I can be wholly financially dependent on. All of the work I've done is cool and an accomplishment but also nearly the entire time spent on it I've felt like a failure because I can't do anything else.
But when I'm working full time and even when I love my job and coworkers, I am so tired I can't do any art or anything after work, and then I seemingly out of nowhere have a meltdown and quit. Idk. Something here about needing art to live but not being able to live off making art and the disparate ways art is tied to survival
Very telling that when my old coworkers ask me how am I/what's my new job/what is my plan, and I respond with "eh/nothing!/I'm going to be an artist" (essentially.. remain unemployed but do my art things (like this project, which they don't know about))– their response is always something like Oh, so you're going to donate/get into art galleries!
There's something there about how being an artist doesn't really.. fit into the societal structure we've got now. That the typical career progression for Artist somehow ends up being featured in art galleries or something. Which is a valid path, yeah, but it's not the point of being an artist imo. I'm doing this art for Me and for Fun and for Enjoyment, not as some kind of Job.
The two halves of my updated ceiling display, currently at 600/1010 Pokemon
The first half goes from #001 Bulbasaur to #505 Watchog
The second half goes from #506 Lillipup to #1010 Iron Leaves
Currently I have crocheted way more Pokemon in the first half, so that side looks much fuller. I'm not sure when I'll be up to crocheting anything more, probably not anytime soon, I'm still considering this on hiatus, but I thought it would be nice to share the updated display.
#At first I thought ''man this person has a lot of disposable income'' and then I saw that they were CROCHETED#CROCHETED????????#YOU CROCHETED 606 DISTINCT CREATURES FROM MAINLY 2D SPRITES#YOU HAVE AN HONORARY DEGREE IN TOPOLOGY WHAT IS THIS#CROCHETED??????#crocheted#Anyway#I'm in awe of you op I am a beginner crocheter and I can only aspire to one day be as good as you and make myself a ceiling full of Boys
lol I love this, this is such an interesting comment to me. I looked up what exactly topology was and do you think that if the whole pattern book series thing doesn't work out, I could make some kind of idk Thesis about crochet&topology and get a for real degree about it? That'd be neat
FOTH Bombirdier
Lot of thoughts about this
1) there are lots of standalone bird pokemon this gen huh
2) might use a sharpie on the underside of the tail and feathers because it's hard to do two-tone colors on flat crochet pieces and I know embroidering it is gonna be so Much to get to look right and for some reason it feels less like cheating to use a marker than felt lol
3) wingspans are so hard for me to gauge correctly. Can never tell if the wings are the right proportions or not
4) muttering to self that these are all prototypes they don't gotta be more exact just yet
Without my glasses I thought that was Latios and I didn't know why I placed it with Johto
You know I didn't even realize that Purrloin was a good pick for my booping video because cat paws; it was just the next Pokemon I saw after I gave up trying to pose Reuniclus
I am being booped relentlessly
