Spider Walk

The third year has started. We were told to work harder than hard like every day. Today was the second day of this term and I was supposed to work harder than hard on my animation project. I finally had a starting point after the whole summer of just being obsessed about gender stereotypes and how they are being forced onto kids. Well, subject like that is obviously way too large and I had to simplify my thoughts into something, well very simple. And here it was, Pop, a Swedish child who's parents refuse to tell if Pop is a girl or a boy. World is shocked but I am happy. Pop is a perfect hero for my animation. POP THE GENDER FREE CHILD! Like a superhero Pop CAN DO anything. Pop CAN play dress up and with dolls but Pop CAN also play with guns and monsters. REVOLUTIONARY child indeed!

But then the sun came out and I got bored and the following adventure just happened. 

It is the SPIDER SEASON!

Uuno the Cat

The pattern for Uuno. I started from his face and accidentally he turned out like a famous (and very ugly) Finnish comedy character Uuno Turhapuro.

This is my pride: the ratteling thing to go inside Uuno. Now he is like a real baby toy and makes noices!


Uuno and my brand new bright green sewing machine. To be totally honest the main reason to make Uuno was to test my sewing machine. I am so proud of it.

soft toys for unbalanced kids

My very good friend has 4 month old boy.I haven't seen him yet as I live here in London and they live back home in Finland. To ease my guilt I decided to make him a very special toy. These are my initial sketches. I don't think I can do baby stuff very well. All things pale blue and pink make me nauseous. Luckily my friend shares similar views with me but still I felt that these designs needed to be tone down a bit.

Below is the final design based on the only fabric I happened to have. I thought that it was a rather valid and good starting point. It is a cat as my friend really loves them.

Floating Exhibition on YouTube!

This is the video of our floating exhibition. The editing was the biggest challenge purely because PC and Mac don't seem to like each other at all! AAAARGH.

The Floating Exhibition!

We had exhibition t-shirts as well! They were designed by Hayley.

Rat looked bit sad while being trapped on the bench and waiting for the exhibition to start.

Hayley attaching lots of balloons on her caravan and Sonlali with her poster.

Nearly rady to go!

It wasn't that simple and straight forward to walk with my rat. Often it just went all over the place as the wind changed it's direction!

This is nearly the end just after the biggest challenge which was to cross over London Bridge. It really was windy! Rat nearly escaped...

making of the GIANT rat

Testing of the potential light materials:

above: the net seemed to float but was way too seethrough

below: cheapest and thinnest binbag was the way forward!

The head is ready!

And this is the body floating!

Nearly ready...

It floats but is still missing arms and legs.

The morning of The Floating Exhibition: I had stayed up till very late sewing the fingers etc. Empty rat looks more like a roadkill on our floor.

rat patterns

Above is my first attempt to think about rat shape in 3d. I constructed a rat's dead out of card board.

Below are my final rat pattern calculations!