Saturday 11 January 2014

Jabba's Palace

I have just completed my latest Star Wars characters in crochet form; Jabba the Hutt, Salacious Crumb and Slave Leia; and the patterns are now available in my Etsy shop.


I've been meaning to design more Star Wars crochet patterns for a while now, although I always have a very long list of different patterns I want to create. However, last autumn I decided to start working on some new Star Wars characters. I had quite a few requests for Jabba the Hutt, so he seemed the obvious place to begin. He presented a different challenge to most of the other characters - generally I'm trying to simplify a fairly detailed character so that they're cute but still recognisable. Jabba is already quite a simple shape without much detail, and it's hard to consider him cute in any way! I also had to think about what size he should be; the other figures are not in an exact scale with one another, but Yoda is smaller than the human characters and Chewbacca is larger than all of them. I didn't want to make him too big, but he had to be bigger than the others.



In the end I was very happy with the way he came out - he's a simple shape, but the colour change in his face gives a bit of detail, and giving him a proper expression with the eyelids and facial features keep his character. That said, I definitely find him oddly cute in this miniaturised form!


As I was making Jabba it seemed obvious to consider what other characters from Jabba's Palace it would be fun to make patterns for. I decided that Jabba needed his annoying little pet, Salacious Crumb. However, he's pretty small, and I wasn't sure I would be able to give him enough detail. As he's a sort of lizard/monkey I used similar techniques to those I used to make my Mini Monkeys and that approach seemed to work. He seemed too simple a pattern to sell on his own, so I included him with Jabba.


Leia in the slave bikini costume seemed another obvious choice from the Jabba's Palace sequence - I know my husband kept asking when I was going to make her! The original Princess Leia figure I made was quite small, shorter than all the other human characters, and I found it hard to fit in the details of the bikini costume, so I made her a bit taller (the same as Luke). I also decided to change the way I made her hair, and make it as a separate piece of crochet rather than as part of the head.

 
I spent a while deciding how to make her bikini. Looking at the original, the top consists of a metal framework with grey/green leather underneath. I couldn't get the detail in the small amount of stitches I had to work with, so I just tried to show the metal part. The metal is described as brass, but it looks more like bronze to me - I tried to use a yarn that was brass-coloured, but it seemed too pale against the skin, so I settled on a darker bronze-coloured yarn, which I think works.


I was unsure as to whether the skimpy look of Slave Leia would work in a cute mini version, but I think she's turned out looking quite sassy, and ready to strangle Jabba if he causes any trouble!

The changes I made to the Slave Leia figure made me go back to the original Princess Leia figure in her white dress and tweak that pattern so that it was the same height and had hair made in the same way. If you bought the original Princess Leia pattern and you would like the updated version of that as shown here (Slave Leia is a different, separate pattern), just contact me on Etsy and let me know.


I'm now working on a Lando Calrissian pattern, then I 've got to decide which other characters I'd like to do; let me know any suggestions in the comments!


***Latest news July 2014***

The Jabba and original Princess Leia patterns are no longer available for sale, as they are going to be included in a new Star Wars crochet book, due to be published Spring 2015. Keep an eye out in the future as I may release Salacious Crumb as a free pattern.

26 comments:

HillyT said...

Fab, as always.

Keroro said...

I really love this amigurumi! Especially Jabba the Hutt is well done! You can see how much love you put in making this an this makes me happy ^^.

I hope you will make much more cool stuff like this!

LucyRavenscar said...

Thank you, I'm glad you like them!

Mini Mum said...

My grand daughter loves amigurumi, especially totoros. Your tuto is fantastic !!

Many thanks - good bye +++

(I'am french .....)

LucyRavenscar said...

Merci beaucoup!

cmendes said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
cmendes said...

OMG, I just found your star war patterns by chance on ravelry and I'm in love! I'm so going to make them! (after clearing my queue, that is).
I bet you get asked this all the time, I even did a search on the blog but havn't found anything relating to it, but would you consider making some Star Trek characters? I'd love to have a mini-Spok, and so would many, many trekkers out there <3

Leigh said...

My boys have been pestering me for a Darth Maul if you were looking for a new pattern challenge!

LucyRavenscar said...

Thank you!

cmendes, I'm a big fan of classic Star Trek, so I should probably make a little Enterprise crew, i'll put it on my list!

Leigh, I definitely want to make some characters from the prequels, and Darth Maul would be one of the first I'd try.

cmendes said...

That's so great! Keep up the good work, I'll be here waiting for ST:TOS <3

Anonymous said...

Love this and all your other patterns. I'm recreating my Star Wars figure collection in wool :) I'd love to see a Greedo pattern. Grand Moff Tarkin, Bib Fortuna and maybe an R4 D5 version of the R2 pattern would be great too :)

LucyRavenscar said...

Thanks for all the ideas! R4-D5 should be a fairly easy tweak to the R2-D2 pattern, I definitely want to do Greed, and I really should do a character in Imperial uniform - Moff Tarkin's the obvious choice.

StrawberrySun said...

Lovely new caracters.

Love all your Star wars dolls and have all the patterns included the new dolls.

Would love some Star Trek dolls as well. Mini-Spock would be really nice and Captain Kirk, and..

New much wanted Star Wars dolls:
Darth Maul
Qui-Gon Jinn
Supreme Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious
Queen Amidala/Padme Amidala
Anakin Skywalker
Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus
Mace Windu
Ahsoka Tano
Boss Nass
Greedo
Grand Moff Tarkin
Bib Fortuna
Jar Jar Binks
Watto

LucyRavenscar said...

Thanks, and thanks for all the ideas! Other ones I'd thought of doing were a Gamorrean Guard, the Cantina band, Aayla Secura and Kit Fisto (I love a lot of the interesting looking aliens, especially all the ones that appear in Clone Wars).

Unknown said...

I bought all of your star wars patterns and can't wait to buy these! I think you should do queen amidala and jar jar binks!

LucyRavenscar said...

Thank you! I'll definitely have to do more characters soon.

Unknown said...

Hi lucy. Love the salacious crumb! can you put up a pattern for just him in your etsy shop/on your blog? I made my brother a max rebo (aka the blue elephant) complete with round keyboard a few years ago. Def should do a pattern for him and the band :)

LucyRavenscar said...

Thanks! I may well be putting the Salacious Crumb pattern up for free, watch this space.

BeadPlease said...

Hi Lucy!!

Jabba is not longer available at your etsy shop and I'm dying yo get it!! could you please please please upload it again??

Luv your work, specially your Totoros, best pattern online!!

LucyRavenscar said...

Thanks! I'm not selling the Jabba pattern anymore, as it appears in my new book- here are all the details: http://lucyravenscar.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/star-wars-crochet-kit.html

Jenni said...

Will you be selling the Salacious Crumb pattern anytime soon? I would love to purchase it.

LucyRavenscar said...

I will be putting the Salacious Crumb pattern up for free here on my blog soon. I'm just waiting for the book to become available again.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lucy, my friend is obsessed with kit fisto and I really want to make a kit fisto amigurumi for them. You mentioned earlier that you were thinking about making a pattern, I was wondering if you had done one?

LucyRavenscar said...

I haven't done Kit Fisto I'm afraid - my to do list seems to be getting longer and longer!

Anonymous said...

My name is Linda and I love you're work I have 2 of your books the star war ones .I have been waiting for the free pattern of slave leis and salacious crumb could you please send them to me or are they in your next book My grandson wants me to make him Anican but I haven't seen one yet and also Ja Ja Binks thanks for all your lovly patterns

Unknown said...

Hi Lucy. I have ALOT of your patterns. All the Starwars and Harry Potter. Even adapted the stormtrooper to make a Captain Phasma. Really need an Ashoka pattern to complete my set off.