The Dark Crystal

I first saw The Dark Crystal on the big screen when it came out in 1982. I was 12, and I was instantly enchanted. I loved the characters and the story, but what particularly caught my attention was the world-building, and all the different creatures that inhabited the world of Thra. I really wanted to make my own strange and wonderful creatures, but I wasn't sure how I would achieve that. It wasn't until I realised that crochet could be used to make things in three dimensions that I started to work on my own creations, and I was very much inspired by Brian Froud, the artist who designed the world of the Dark Crystal.

 Various creatures I've made that have had a bit of inspiration from Brian Froud's creativity.

So, you can imagine how excited I was when I heard that Netflix were making a prequel series to the film - The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. A few weeks ago I saw that the magazine SFX was offering readers the chance to go to a talk with Brian Froud at the 'Into Thra' exhibition in London (for free!) and, being lucky enough to live fairly close, I booked it immediately.

Once the show was released I binged it in a few days, so that I would have finished before going to the exhibition. As I started watching I knew that I had to crochet something to take with me, and the obvious choice was Fizzgig, the fuzzy little friend of Kira in the film. His species appears in the prequel, including one with an eyepatch called Baffi. I will write a separate blog post with more details about making him, but suffice to say that I just finished him in time, and so he made the trip up to London with me. My rucksack was rather full, but luckily he's mostly fluff, so he didn't weigh too much!

I had a fun day up in London, visiting the British Library and the National Gallery, and in the early evening I headed to the BFI Southbank. When I arrived I was greeted by sight of the Emperor on his throne, Aughra in a glass case, and staff who were all wearing 'Order of Lesser Service' t-shirts (which I would very much like to have). We all went into a screening room to watch The Crystal Calls, the 'making-of' documentary which is also available on Netflix. I'd already seen it, but it was good to watch it on the big screen. Then Brian Froud came on stage (to loud applause) and was interviewed. He was just as lovely as I'd hoped he'd be, full of lots of interesting information about his work on the film and the show. He joked that after seeing his younger self on the documentary, he was turning into one of his creations!

He talked a little bit about how great it is to create something entirely with puppets, because of the reality they bring. He's not against CGI (and he thought that Jim Henson would have embraced it, as he loved new technology), and said what a useful tool it was on the show, to remove puppeteers in green screen and add more details to the puppets' expressions. However, he did say that CGI characters often lack weight, and that animators would do well to create puppets of their characters to see how they move in the real world.

Lore, an unusally shaped puppet (no spoilers, but if you've seen the show you'll know which character this is) was performed using the Japanese Bunraku style of puppetry, where you can see the puppeteers, but they were removed to give a character with a really unusual way of moving. An interesting mix of an ancient art and modern technology. Brian said that Lore was insprired by the stone tors on Dartmoor, where he lives, and the head was based to some degree on a hamburger!

Brian talked about the fact that Thra has a very different sensibility to our world. Everything is alive - rocks, plant, maybe even clothes. You'll see on the documentary that the people who made the costumes tried to neaten up his designs, not realising that the clothes are supposed to be asymmetrical and organic to a degree. Many of the costumes were made from expensive fabrics, and some of the designers were horrified by the amount of 'aging' he and his wife Wendy were subjecting them to to make them look more like they fit in the world. Luckily the director, Louis Leterrier, was fully behind what they were trying to create or, in this case, destroy.

Brian and Wendy wanted to spend time at the beginning of preparation for the series to make lots of background creatures, which is something they did when they started work on the original film. Unfortunately there wasn't time in the schedule for this and they had to get straight on with the main characters. So they came in at weekends (I think along with their son Toby who also worked on the series) and made little creatures, often out of scraps in the bins, to go in the background of the scenes. However, when Louis saw them he liked some of them enough to put in the foreground!

One fact Brian shared was that when he started designing the Mystics for the original film, Jim Henson suggested he base them on trolls that he drew. The only trouble with this was that any designs he made for the film became the property of the Henson Company, and he didn't want to lose the copyright on creatures he'd already designed, so he gave the Mystics and extra pair of arms, thus making them different enough. The Skeksis also have four arms, but on most of the the second pair has atrophied and is hidden in their clothes, although there's a new Skeksis character in the series that uses all four of his arms.

A question was asked about whether it was his decision for the Gelfling to have a matriarchal society He said that was down to the writers, but that they'd been inspired by the 'Wall of Destiny' he designed for the film which teaches Jen and Kira about the prophecy they are part of. It features a queen figure, which became the All-Maudra in the show. It also inspired the pink Sanctuary Tree which Brian was a bit confused by, until he realised that the image they thought was a tree was actually supposed to be a castle!

All in all Brian talked for about an hour, and he was fascinating to listen to. He mentioned that when people met him, so many said that they had been inspired to do something creative or work in a creative job after watching The Dark Crystal or Labyrinth, and I saw many heads nodding in the theatre. I know it's true for me, and the person I chatted to next to me was working on a stop-motion film, so I think that's very much the case.

 

Various otherworldly beings - over 70 different species were created for the series.

 Brea's journal, paints and paintbrushes.

Brea's journal and another book from the library.

After this, we were able to go and look at the exhibition, which was just crammed with interesting items and puppets from the show. There were displays of various small creatures, props, photos, scale models, and a Podling bottom! Round a corner was the Crystal itself, glowing purple, and then a table set with Skeksis delicacies and with the Chamberlain enjoying them. Round another corner were various tableaux, filled with the plants and animals of Thra, as well as several Podlings, and the  Gelfling stars of the show. It was all a treat for the eyes, and I managed to get a photo of Fizzgig in his natural environment.

 Fizzgig and I enjoying a meal with the Chamberlain. The Gelfling ears were part of the experience!

 Deet

 Brea

 

 Rian

Podlings, and a Podling bottom!

Fizzgig, feeling right at home.

  

Afterwards I picked up a free poster, and a can of Stone-in-the-Wood pale ale! I had a great time that evening, although sadly the exhibition is now over. If you're a fan, and it appears anywhere near you, make sure you go along! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy all the photos, and I'll post more about making Fizzgig in my next post.

Mooncake Amigurumi

Earlier this year I asked my brother for ideas for a birthday present for my nephew (he's in his 20s) and he suggested that I could crochet him something. He sent me a photo of Mooncake, a cute little green alien which appears in the animated series Final Space, which I'd never seen. So, of course, I had to check it out (series one is on Netflix) and really enjoyed it. I fell in love with the little alien that flies around in space making funny noises, and who turns out to be much more powerful than his appearance would suggest.

I thought it would be an easy pattern to design, but in fact it took a lot of tweaking to get the shape and proportions right. As with any amigurumi made up mostly of a large shape, it takes a lot of stuffing, much more than you think. You just have to keep adding the stuffing, a bit at a time, until the it really hold its shape.

If you would like to buy the pattern, it's available on Etsy and Ravelry.

Thistle the Highland Spirit

I recently went on holiday to the Scottish Highlands and I decided that I needed to make a little friend to go with me. Using my Small Spirit pattern I crocheted a Highland Spirit that I named Thistle. He's made using a fuzzy alpaca blend yarn that sadly is no longer available, but which can be brushed to make it nice and furry. I used a colour that was a mix of soft blues and greens, to echo the colours in the Scottish countryside, and gave him horns (using the 'curved horns' part of the pattern) that were reminiscent of Highland Cattle.

We had a great holiday, staying in a cottage by a beautiful and remote loch, and Thistle enjoyed himself visiting various places, including Eilean Donan Castle and Leakey's bookshop in Inverness. We also visited lots of film locations, including several for the Harry Potter films, such as the Glenfinnan Viaduct that the Hogwart's Express travels along, a waterfall that features in Goblet of Fire, and the island that was used for Dumbledore's tomb.

 Eilean Donan Castle, which you might recognise from Highlander.

Leakey's bookshop, which is an amazing space just crammed with secondhand books.

 Glenfinnan Viaduct with the Jacobite Train passing over.

 An island on Loch Eilt, the location for Dumbledore's tomb.

Steall Falls in Glen Nevis, used as background to the dragon challenge in Goblet of Fire.

If you want to make your own Small Spirit, with different elements to suit whatever you prefer, you can find the pattern on Etsy or Ravelry.

Harry Potter Crochet

Big news! I have a new book coming out in October, Harry Potter Crochet. It's produced by the same people who did the previous two Star Wars books and in the same format, so it comes as a kit. There is a book with patterns to make Harry, Ron, Hermione in their school uniforms, with removable robes and scarves; Ginny in her Quidditch uniform and with her broom; Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall, along with the Sorting Hat; Hagrid, Dobby, Norbert the baby dragon and, of course, Hedwig. To complete the line-up we have He Who Must Not Be Named, Voldemort himself.

The kit includes everything you need to make Harry and Dobby - yarn, eyes and, best of all, a hook shaped like Harry's wand!

I'm a massive Harry Potter fan so I was really excited to be asked to work on this book. Because of the range of character sizes I decided to make them a bit differently to the Star Wars characters. The children are about the same size as most of the SW figures, but the adults are larger, with Hagrid obviously being the largest figure. That allowed me to make Dobby and Hedwig pretty much in scale with Harry, though it would have been impossible to do that with Norbert, so he's closer to being life-sized.

I finished designing the patterns and making all the figures back in January, so I've been waiting for a while to even be able to talk about this. Hopefully it won't seem too long to wait for it to come out in October. It's coming out in the US and you find it on Amazon, though it should also be available in other bookshops and craft stores. It's also available on Amazon UK as an import, so that will be the version with US crochet terms.

Mother of Dragons

So, who else is eagerly anticipating the final series of Game of Thrones? All the publicity surrounding it has reminded me quite how much I enjoy this show, and love many of the characters, so I was inspired to design some of them in crochet form.

I started with one of my favourites, Daenerys Targaryen. She has a great look, with her white-blonde hair and dark eyebrows, and I decided to make her with the turquiose-blue dress she wears in season three.

 

Of course, I then had to make her three dragons, when they were about the size of large dogs.

I also thought that the costumes she wore once she got to Westeros were great, so I made a variation of the pattern with her wearing a grey coat and red cloak.

It was a bit of a challenge rendering her complicated hairstyle in crochet, but I think I did her various braids justice.

You can buy the patterns now, with the patterns for Daenerys and her dragons sold separately. You can also buy them together at a reduced price here.

Amigurumi Award Pattern

We're right in the middle of awards season now, so if you've got someone in your life that you think deserves an award, I've got just the pattern for you! Some time ago I was asked if I could design a crocheted award statuette, so I decided to give it a go.

It was an interesting challenge. Normally when I make a human figure, it's very stylised, but I wanted to make this more realistic, with a lot more definition. It's still simplified, a bit like a wooden artist's mannequin, with shaping for the body and joints that bend. In fact, you could just make the figure and adapt it if you want a more realistic-looking amigurumi.

The golden figure holds a sword, but you could change this. The pattern includes details on how to make a laurel wreath instead of a sword, or you could make anything you want for the figure to hold, depending on what you're using it for. Sports equipment for a sports award, a bottle of champagne for a celebration, maybe even a crochet hook and a ball of yarn for an epic crocheter!

The pattern is available now on Etsy and Ravelry.