My “Barbara the Hug Me! Sock Zebra” is featured in this Etsy for Animals: Artists Helping Animals treasury on Etsy. Thanks, Michele! Etsy for Animals, also known a EFA, is an Etsy team that my mom and I joined. They are a group of artists, craftspeople, vintage suppliers, and art and craft suppliers who combine their efforts to help animals in need. Many of the members donate a portion of their Etsy sales to animal charities. To find EFA members on Etsy, you can search the words “team efa“. You can also click here to visit the EFA website where you can read more about the group.
Tag: handmade-sock-dolls
Some hang tag variety
I was printing up hang tags for my original art toys yesterday, and I realized not all my characters had tag designs that went with them. I decided I should add to my hang tag assortment. So I sketched a sock doll, scanned my drawing, and then played around with the color on the computer until it matched my previous hang tags. I think it came out pretty cute.
Once I print this out on some card stock, I’ll glue it, using an acid-free glue stick, to some heavyweight scrapbook paper, punch a hole through the top, and thread ribbon through the hole. I use a little Fray Check on the ends of the ribbon. I’ve done a pile of these so far!
The menagerie continues to grow
There are a lot of critters staring at me around here lately. I’m starting to feel a little self-conscious when I walk into my workroom. I’m glad they look friendly.
And they seem to get along with each other pretty well, at least while I’ve been around.
This is Hilda the hippopotamus’ new friend, “Barbara the Hug Me! Zebra”. Like Hilda, she has hand-embroidered features, and a removable, elastic-waist skirt made from quilting calico cotton.
Barbara also has a pretty cool yarn mohawk,
and a tuft of purple yarn at the end of her tail.
It’s been about 100 degrees here, during the daytime, and our injured duck friend has been staying on the water. He’s only come up the hill just this once, this evening, since we tried to help him before, and again, it’s too late to get to the vet 🙁 If we can get the timing right, hopefully we can catch the duck away from the pond during business hours, when we can catch the vet too. He does seem to be doing better, but I’m sure he’d feel much improved once that hook is out. Here’s hoping.
Hippos and ducklings
Here are some better photos of “Hilda the Hug Me! Hippo”, my sock hippopotamus. You can see her hand-embroidered eyes, nose, and mouth, which I did by winging it with some embroidery floss.
I even gave her some eyelashes, and some tufts on the end of her little tail.
Her posture is pretty funny too. I think I might just keep her!
The ducks showed up with some babies! Two sets, on different occasions, so far.
Their mama likes to talk to me. She will walk right up to me and quack, quack, quack. She’s the same duck who ran into some trouble before, the one we caught in a sheet so I could remove some fishing line from her leg. She seems to know me. Sometimes she will just sit and look at me for a while, tilting her head this way and that. She’s very sweet.
We’ve only seen one duckling today, and we’re hoping the others are hiding down by the pond with the other mama duck. They don’t all leave the pond together lately. Some stay behind. The ducklings in the other set are smaller, and I haven’t seen them myself yet. I’ve only heard about them.
It’s a big trip for them. They will just fall asleep in place while the other ducks are standing nearby. If anyone slows down long enough, it’s nap time.
Update: Just as I was posting this, one of the missing ducks appeared limping badly, unable to make it up the hill. We caught him in a sheet and found he had a long fishing hook stuck in his leg. We couldn’t get it out, but managed to cut it off so it won’t get snagged on anything. We poured some peroxide on the wound, but there is only one avian vet we know of who was willing to help last time, and he isn’t open at this hour. So, we will have to wait and see. Please everyone…pick up your stuff and dispose of it properly when you leave a place. Garbage and leftover fishing hooks and fishing line cause so much suffering.
