Mochi Studios » Inspirations

Plush Team Get Stuffed Book

Rita — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:08:41 +0000

The Plush Team is ecstatic to present to you our first ever Team Annual, containing 120 pages of plushy goodness!

What is in store for you upon opening this marvelous book:

An opening by our team founder, Megan Green, describing how our team came to be.
An insightful, informative, and all-around fascinating account of the history of plush craft by our team co-founder Christina Ward.
42 two-page, full color features of our Plush Team members. Each includes photos of the artist’s work, and text written by the artist explaining motivation, process, and inspiration.
A time line of Plush Team activities through over the years. Profile pages providing a comprehensive list of Plush Team artists, including artist head shots and Etsy shop addresses.
Photos of PT Stitchy, the team mascot, scattered throughout the book in his various incarnations as interpreted by our team members.

The book is full color, professionally printed, and soft cover. It measures 6.75″x6.75″ (or 17 centimeters square). This is volume 1 of our Team Annual, featuring the artists from 2009. Our intent is to make this a yearly publication, updating it each year with our newest members and their incredible work.

Visit the Team Shop today for your copy!

Mochi Studios isn’t in this volume but hopes to be in the next one!

Craft Making Videos

Rita — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:26:06 +0000

I love seeing crafters in action! I’m so thankful for those craftsters who post videos of themselves crafting awesomeness!

The insanely brilliant Love and A Sandwich sewing little Monsters!

And she makes an Antlered Monster! It’s so cool to see her in her plush making zone! Wow!

And look! She sews a Calcifer pillow too! I love Howl’s Moving Castle! I’m tempted to play with furry fabric now!

Amigurumi Flying Usagi Pirate! found via the We Love Amigurumi Live Journal group

Amigurumi Ghost in the Shell Tachikoma! It even has ball joints!

And is anything more awesome than stop motion music video with an Amigurumi bunny and bear!? Love it! U900 -Walk Don’t Run (Isogabamaware)

Featured Artist: Sweet Meats

Rita — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:26:33 +0000

I’m sure you’ve all seen the giant meat plushies by the wonderful and talented Lauren of Sweet Meats! They’re clever and hilarious and eco-friendly! She’s from right here in San Francisco and her Sweet Meats booth is always a fun presence at local craft fairs like the San Mateo Maker Faire. The incredible Lauren even teaches a plush making class at the Workshop SF and partners with the San Francisco Food Bank! I had the happy opportunity to work with her since she was a major part of the planning committee for the San Francisco Bazaar Bizarre Holiday Craft Show!

Sweet Meats, image from Bazaar Bizarre Blog

She is also a small business blogger at her blog Biz Miss, which I just recently discovered, and she writes a ton of super helpful business articles at the Bazaar Bizarre SF blog too! I read each of her super informative articles line by line because they’re so well written and explains business things in simple ways and I can user her advice directly, effectively, and immediately to Mochi Studios.

Lauren is an incredibly huge inspiration to me for her imaginative plush creations, her dedication to environmental and social responsibility, and her support of craft business owners and teaching the plush makers of tomorrow! We kept missing each other at the holiday craft shows last December but I hope to meet Lauren in person one day soon to thank her for all she has done and tell her how much I admire her and want to be like her.

FIXIT Magazine

Rita — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:05:06 +0000

My dear friend Fan’s twin sister Fawn is starting a comic art and illustration magazine and she needs our help! Please help support FIXIT Magazine and Fawn’s innovative and creative approach to zine production and collaboration for comic artists, illustrators, writers, and more! This is Fawn’s dream and in her words “FIXIT is a being developed as a quarterly serialised comic and illustration magazine (issue #1 shipping january 2011) to showcase the talents of many artists that don’t quite have chance to realise their ideas in print simply because there aren’t enough opportunities in the industry.” FIXIT Magazine is set up with Kickstarter.com to gather pledges and support. We can help Fawn realize her vision!

At each level of support, you will receive rewards for your pledge including buttons, miniprints, medium prints, free subscriptions, and more! Here are some samples:

buttons!

miniprints (4×6)!

medium prints (8×11)!

Aren’t they stunning?! For pledges over $200, you’ll get an exclusive handmade tote bag made by me and Fawn! It will be big enough to carry 4 issues of the zine!

Check out her Kickstater page for more information and her video about her vision and goals for her project! Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires or no money changes hands so if FIXIT doesn’t meet its funding goals by May 2nd, her project will not be funded Help support Fawn and FIXIT zine and you’ll find her zine in stores across the country next year!

Featured Artist: Allie of Alliebeans

Rita — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:05:11 +0000

I’m starting a new series of Featured Artists blog posts to feature special craftsters that I have gotten to know online or in person! First up is Allie of Alliebeans!

I was lucky to meet Allie at Bazaar Bizarre last December and she makes the cutest pouches from special Japanese prints and other delightful fabrics! She is such a sweet person and I’m so happy that we’ve kept in touch after the show!

We swapped a Pea Pod and a cute cell phone pouch!

Allie gave the Pea Pod to her sister for Christmas and even made a cute pea pod bag to go with it! How sweet of her!

I really admire her attention to detail and quality in all her pouches and products and they’re all so well designed! Like me, she has a full time job during the day, but she finds the time to run a very successful Etsy shop that’s fully stocked with lots of Alliebeans goodies! She sews pencil cases, pouches, cosmetics bags, cell phone cozies, wristlettes and more!

Allie is an amazing sewer and a very sweet person and I’m thankful to have gotten to know her through Bazaar Bizarre! You can also follow her on Twitter and she has a cool newsletter too! Do check her out and tell her I said Hi!

Quilting Inspiration

Rita — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:32:35 +0000

What does Rita craft outside of sewing plushies? These first few weeks of 2010, I’ve been making some custom plushies but also taking a bit of a break and indulged in some leisure patchwork and quilting! I’ve been bit with the Quilting bug for nearly two years ever since I made a baby quilt for my cousin’s baby boy Jayden and I haven’t stopped since! I’m so enamored with beautiful fabrics, startling color combinations, and the many stunning ways that fabric can be sewn and manipulated into so many patterns and functional works of art! Through my interest in quilting, I’ve met many awesome quilters in the online community! Here are some friends who have really inspired me!

Do check them out! They’re all so talented! I tend to start a lot of quilting projects and then jump to another new and exciting project so I have a lot of unfinished quilts! Here are some quilts that I started last year and I hope to have time to finish this year!

1. Medallion Quilt
2. Cathedral Window
3. SewConnected Quilt
4. “Gingham Dice” nine patch quilt
5. Dresden Plates
6. Six Kaffe Fassett blocks
7. Half hex quilt
8. Spiderweb block quilt
9. Lap Quilt Swap 5 blocks

Some quilts were made from blocks made by others in my quilting groups like SewConnected on Flickr and Lap Quilt Swap on Craftster which I really enjoy being a part of because everyone is so amazingly talented! I’ve been playing catchup on some of my quilting groups so I’ve made a bunch of quilt blocks for other people the last two weeks. And I finished a baby quilt for a coworker’s daughter too!

1. Tinkberbell Quilt for Baby Natasha, 2. SewConnected2 block for Sudi-Laura, 3. SewConnected2 block for Beth, 4. SewConnected block for Bubbachic, 5. SewConnected block for Luckyduckday, 6. LQS5 block for John, 7. SewConnected2 block for Sonja, 8. LQS5 block for chinarockfishakm, 9. LQS5 block for sloth003, 10. LQS5 block for Marmish, 11. LQS5 block for gingerquilts, 12. LQS5 block for SimplySandy, 13. SewConnected block for Audrey

I love everything about sewing! Who knows what I will be obsessed with next! I do have my eye on a bunch of new fabrics like Heather Bailey’s Nicey Jane and Anna Maria Horner’s Little Folks. So many ideas for their beautiful fabrics! I’ll be sewing more Ninja Beans with new Spring fabrics soon too and working on some new plush creations!

Secret Crush: WooWork

Rita — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:13:19 +0000

I confess I have a secret crush… on a guy who crochets really cute amigurumi and has a really playful sense of humor! All of WooWork‘s creations are innovative and just plainly really cool, and, like TADA’s Revolution, he always tells a story with his creations.

And he’s hit my love of mushrooms right on the nose too! Here’s “How the Mushroom Barn Fire Started”:

"How the Mushroom Barn Fire Started" by WooWork

But they’re soooo cute and joyful! I hope the mushrooms survived the fire!

Inspiration: Anna Maria Horner

Rita — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:04:11 +0000

Want bold, colorful, summery fabrics? Turn to the stunning designs by Anna Maria Horner. She’s a fabric designer and also a quilter, sewer, crafter, author and so much more! All her fabrics are so full of summery tones and big bold designs and they’re always an inspiration to me!

She uses her fabrics is such beautiful ways like here at the Fall Quilt Market. I would love a couch covered with her designs!

booth.2 by Anna Maria Horner

Even her studio is full of brightness and floral notes, a perfect space to inspire more lovely creations!

She also inspires me as a quilter. I love seeing how she combines her own fabrics into her quilt designs like in this dresden plate quilt in progress.

back.row.swing by Anna Maria Horner

Love everything about Anna Maria Horner!

TADA’s Revolution

Rita — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:25:38 +0000

I’ve been on a crochet kick lately all because I’ve connected with Susan and her adorable and inspiring crochet critters and stories over at TADA’s Revolution! She and her team of fellow revolutionaries create wonderfully detailed and delightful stories through her crochet characters and whimsical props and backdrops! Aren’t they so adorable! Each of her crochet creations have their own unique and quirky personality and some are even mischievous but they are all so cute and have captured my heart! Please do check out TADA’s Revolution and read and see the full stories!

The Gifted Gardeners at TADA's Revolution

Movie Night at TADA's Revolution

Spring Cleaning at TADA’s Revolution

Susan has inspired me with her crochet world to take better pictures of my own creations and to always tell a story.

And her Diablo Fox is featured on the Whip Up Calendar cover! Congrats Susan!!

Whip Up Calendar Cover - TADAs Revolution

Yarn City Stop-Motion Animation

Rita — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:55:21 +0000

This is wonderful for fiber lovers like myself. Imagine two guys and tons of yarn plus a camera – would you have expected something like this?

And they even made an awesome “making of” video too!

Gives me ideas for my stop motion animation aspirations ^_^

Found Yarn City video via the Craftzine blog.