The Koala

Koala - A candid shot
Originally uploaded by redmag

I finally finished a design for an Australian animal. I'm not sure why it was important for me to do one - I think it has something to do with wanting to create things for my son which he might actually see one day.

Over Christmas went hired a holiday house and an Echidna made an appearance on Xmas eve. I was clearly more excited than him but it got me thinking that maybe I should leave the softie versions of reindeer and polar bears to those up North and concentrate on things I know. So I did.

For those of you who have looked through my flickr pages you might remember my legless first attempt at a Koala - with his garish recycled curtain body and ears.

This little guy was actually started out completely independent of that one. I'd made a lion based on my cat design and decided that it might look better with a proper body - with big paws. That attempt merged into this one - although this one has a larger bottom as a Koala is slightly more sedentary than a Lion. I think he's pretty cute - He's also a nice size and shape for hugging.

I'm also experimenting with faces - Its subtle but you'll notice his eyes have little white pupils which make him look cheeky rather than the robot-like blank eyes of my previous toys (which is ok coz most of them are robots) I've been perusing old children’s books for ideas.

His name is Casey and is in the shop. I think I might make him some friends...next time I'm going to use more than two different fabrics. Maybe a mother and baby Koala?

But that can wait because we've all been sick in quick succession for the past week and a half and I'm a bit over it....so while I had grand plans for making a load of toys over the long weekend this is all I managed.