I have decided to document a few of my works in progress (WIP) every Wednesday on the encouragement of Tami's Amis blog. In addition to Tami's WIPW's There will be a list of other crafters WIPW's linked on her site. You can read the 1st WIPW blog post here! This is a great idea IMO for us to share our progress on various projects within the community and to get feedback, constructive critisiscm, and encouragement from fellow crafters. I think this will also help to personally motivate me to finish any stagnant or stale projects. I know I have a few that have been sitting around a bit longer than they should. So here we go...
Bat Ornaments
I have decided to make a series of bat accessories to sell locally (and maybe online later :)) to commemorate my city's unofficial mascot...the Mexican free-tail bat. The Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, TX is the summer and spring home to some 750,000 - 1.5 million bats making it the largest urban bat colony in North America. Seasonal "bat watching" has become so popular within our city that we have an annual bat festival dedicated to them. You can read a bit more about the Austin colony here. Check out the pic at the end of the post to see the bats in action!!
To start the project off I just made a simple amigurumi head for the "bat body"
 |
"Bat Body" |
I plan on alternating facial expression by using safety eyes vs buttons and might experiment with some eyes made of sculpey or maybe felt. This will offer a variety of expressions and individuality from bat to bat.
For the wings I have adapted a fairly simple wing pattern to attach to the sides of the bat body. See Below:
 |
| Bat body with wing placement |
I have also included a photo of the wing detail up-close.
 |
Bat Wing detail |
I plan on expanding this project to include an entire line of bat ami's to accompany the bat ornament. Plans include necklaces, earrings, and fridge magnets.
Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
In addition to this blog you can also follow my progress on Ravelry!
Image via Wikipedia
So your town has a lot of bats??? That would totally freak me out. LOL! I love the idea of making little bat amigurumis for your town. What an awesome idea! They look totally cute so far. Can't wait to see one completed.
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining WIPW and also linking back to my blog. :)
Whenever I wanted to make batwings or devil like wings it always gave me so much trouble! I think I'm still trying to figure out a good way to do it.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness the bat ornament is gonna look so cute! Thanks for the follow, your blog seems really cool so I am following you too! Have fun with your project :)
ReplyDelete