GOT MY MOJO WORKING: Yarn Dolls!

I've written about my yarn dolls before. I have to try to keep it cool and not reveal ALL the things I've used these for. Just stay on my side and you'll be OK.

The art of juju

Just a little bit of something I had lying around the house. No, actually I made it. This is my very first functioning juju doll. Though it's hard to see, there are "instructions" wrapped around his waist which are very explicit.

This was an experimental model with its heart outside of its body. The face, however, is completely accurate. It needed accessorizing, so this is also my very first functioning noose. These are surprisingly easy to make. I can do it in my sleep now. Use hemp or sisal or jute twine for these, not yarn. They need a bit of stiffness.

I did not photograph my dolly, but ran it through the scanner, providing weird effects, made even weirder by using photoshop filters such as posterize, saturation, lightness, etc. And darkness.

Some of these came out quite abstract, but I promise you these are the same photos. This doesn't happen often and means the photos have certain properties that are hard to explain.

Invert. Looks almost like those black velvet paintings sold at gas stations in the 1980s.

The Nijinsky of juju dolls! Note his form as he leaps through the air. Almost weightless.

Closeups, so you can see the devil's handiwork.

Be nice to me. Okay?

"You had me at hello"

Visit Margaret's Amazon Author Page!

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001K7NGDA

Halloween: have some GOO!

How much is that gorilla in the window?

Crafts with Caitlin: FAKE CAKE!

Making fake cake with Caitlin was tons of fun, and Ryan was a reluctantly cooperative judge. Now Caitlin wants her own YouTube channel! Caitlin Crafts, Craftygirl, or some-such. Something tells me Grandma will be involved.

They Found Einstein's Head!

This amigurumi stuff. . . it's fascinating. I'm sneaking up on it slowly, doing it the coward's way (knitting rather than crocheting, and NOT in the round). I'm still waiting for my book, Amigurumi Knits, which is full of all sorts of weird and wonderful, and I hope do-able,projects.

This-here is a rubber chicken Elvis impersonator. No kidding. I guess it's the lips.

(PLEASE NOTE: I did not design, nor have I knitted or crocheted, any of these creations. I display them here as they would be displayed on Google, as fascinating examples of an art form I envy but have not mastered. Badda-boom.)

These guys are so cleverly done that they're self-explanatory. I've always wanted to knit Hitler, but didn't know quite where to begin.

I think they did a particularly good job on Geordie LaForge from Star Trek, right down to the visor.

I wonder if they ever got around to doing Einstein's body.

Not good enough to eat, unless you want a mouthful of fluff, but interesting.

I bow to the cleverness, even genius demonstrated here, especially given the way I'm struggling to do a frog.

The Venus of Willendorf. Most unusual.

The entire cast of Star Wars. Who says you can't crochet Yoda?

And - my personal fave - a wild-looking, hippie Jesus who looks like he has an enormous Groucho moustache, holding projectiles which might be loaves and fishes. I'd buy this guy in a heartbeat.

http://margaretgunnng.blogspot.com/2012/01/synopsis-glass-character-novel-by.html

http://members.shaw.ca/margaret_gunning/betterthanlife.htm

Ryan's Fifth

You wouldn't believe how long it takes (and how much experimental printing it requires) to make one of these little "Grandmark" cards ("Made with Love"). I got into it a couple of years ago, and now do it four times a year. Ryan is obsessed with cars. That's all you need to know!

Is this my new diary?

So anyways, I'm back from holidays on a pitiless, brutal dripping Monday, Vancouver at its worst. It won't let up for a couple of days, by the looks of it. I realize with a shock that I never write in my journal any more. It just doesn't occur to me. I've been keeping a journal since I was eight. I have let go of so much in my life that used to be meaningful, so much so that I don't dare tot it all up.

So I'm left with projects that might strike others as pretty weird. I'm always wanting to make something, from Wonder Knitter dolls (no pattern for these, as usual: they evolve in my hands) to unusual installations. I had these ice-like rocks, plastic actually, used for accents or decorations, and I wanted to display them. I put them in a glass bowl and thought, ho-hum. It just didn't work for me. So what sort of container could I come up with that would be completely original?

At the same time, we were cleaning out closets and turfing out things (fall cleaning, I guess) that we didn't need or use. We found what seemed like hundreds of old cassette tapes that we never played, or couldn't play due to oxidation and age. So we had to get rid of them, but I began to look at the clear plastic cases and think, hmmmmm. . .

So I came up with these. I've since used crystal hearts in various colors, and will experiment with other things. But what's the point? I don't sell them. I'm not much of an entrepreneur (or however you spell that - it's Monday). Maybe that's why I can't sell my novel(s) and book(s) of poems. I can make the "product", but can't distribute it.

These might be seen as too odd, but the effect I'm after is: what are these things? They look familiar, and yet. . . Or, maybe people would just look at them and say, cassette tapes. How lame. I don't know. The voice of my older sister, forever undermining my creative spirit with caustic, withering remarks, still echoes in my ears: "You're weird, Margaret." "You're crazy!" (said in a shrugging, completely dismissive way. Jesus, how did I get on to this? Just how much damage did she

do?)

One reason I got turned off with my diary is that it had devolved into one big rant. The dissatisfactions in my life were being amplified, I think. I started tearing up the rants, but nothing much was left.

I have love in my life, and that's supposed to be all you need. I still feel creative. But when I presented my five-year-old granddaughter with the little 3" handmade doll I crafted, with the tiny knitted dress and beaded belt and braids, she threw it back at me. I'm not supposed to be upset, am I?

I look in the mirror, and I swear I can't see the kick-me sign. Is it invisible, but only to me?