Giant Crocheted Cupcake

Anyone who lives in the Dundas Street West area of Toronto knows about OMG Baked Goodness and their amazing vegan cupcakes.  Baked with love by owner Lesley Mattina, the cupcakes are teeny bites of  heaven on earth.  I highly recommend the chocolate and red velvet varieties.  Delicious!  

Anyway, back in October, I approached Lesley about doing an installation in her bakery.  The idea, a project brief from my fourth-year design class, was to crochet a giant, stuffed cupcake, take it down to OMG and photograph it.

Not only was Lesley incredibly cool about letting me do this, but she actually offered to display the cupcake for me in her shop when it was finished.  It has now been down at OMG since early November 2011 and, according to Lesley, the response has been great! 

Craft'd Pop-Up Shops at the Gladstone Hotel

Look!  It's my first official craft show of the year!  

Join me and my cohorts in the Material Art and Design department at OCAD University next weekend at the Gladstone Hotel for the "Craf'd Pop-Up Shops" event.  

We are having a one-day sale of everything handmade and awesome!

Come for the brunch, stay for the craft!

Also, don't forget to bring a hand-made item to trade at the Open Hearts, Open Source trading event.  

Heather's Hooters

Two postings in one week? It could be that I'm actually going to follow through on my New Year's resolution to maintain my blog this year. Who knew that 2012 was going to be such a productive year? Now on with the self-congratulatory pontification!

The next thing I want to show you are my Hooters... er, I mean Owls!

It seems that no matter where you look these days, cute owl-themed paraphernalia is everywhere! Not wanting to be left out of the fun (and wanting to capitalize on a HOT trend) I created Heather's Hooters, a project for my Guerilla Entrepreneurship class.

(yes, at art school this is a thing!)

Measuring in at around eight inches high and made from the finest acrylic yarn, these awesome owls will keep even the most crafty plush squirrels and mice away from your crocheted vegetable garden.

If you live in the Toronto area and think you need a plush owl to guard your couch or bookshelf, head on down to Ransack the Universe

(1207 Bloor Street West - in the basement of 69 Vintage Collective)

and pick one up today!

While there, you should also check out their awesome selection of cool crafts (by local Toronto artists) and other vintage-y finds too!

The Big Weenie

I'm admittedly the worst offender when it comes to updating a blog on a regular basis, but I'm going to try to do a better job in 2012. Here's the first posting of the new year, hopefully it will be one among many!

This is the Big Weenie!

He was part of the final project for my Toy Design class from the fall 2011/2012 semester.

In the midst of the semester I became obsessed with creating anthropomorphized food items and I began dreaming about cartoon junk food, hotdogs and Mr. Potato Head.

A dress-up hotdog doll was a natural progression from there (obviously). He's got removable condiments that can be repositioned in various ways and his very own bun backpack!

That's it for now! Hopefully, I'll have another post for you in a week or so.

Get MAAD! Group Show at OCAD's Learning Zone

Join us this Wednesday April 13th, 2011 from 4 - 6 pm
See the work of 3rd year MAAD Students (me included) and eat some baked goods!
Show runs until April 21st, 2011
Click here for more information

The First Craft Show of 2011

"Stuff" by Heather Boulton-Lyons will be at the "Past and Presents" Spring Show and Sale!

Saturday May 7th, 2011

from 10am to 4pm

A great day to come an meet local artisans and crafts people from the Uxbridge area!

See you there!

"Blinky and Clyde"

"Stuff By Heather Boulton-Lyons"
presents...
"8-Bit Pillows!"

now available at "Ransack The Universe"

featuring Pac-Man's archenemies, Blinky and Clyde

made from crocheted acrylic yarn and polyester fiber-fill

"Beaver"

Beaver was made from an old wool blanket that was hand-dyed in a bath made from black walnut hulls. Variations in shade were achieved by dyeing the fabric for differing lengths of time

(longer time in bath = deeper shade of brown).

Beaver is stuffed with polyester fiber-fill.

Facial features and details were hand-embroidered.

This was the final project for my "Fibre: Implementing the History Class"

Paisley Scarf

The first project for my "Fibre: Implementing the History" class was

inspired by Victorian-era printed Paisley shawls.

The scarf is made of 100% linen and hand-dyed using cochineal mordanted with iron.

My original 2 colour design was then screen-printed by hand.

"Ophidian"

Ophidian was another project for my

"Fibre: Implementing the History" class and was inspired by my research into

WWII Trench Art

Materials:

100% wool yarn and fleece

Single crocheted in a continuous spiral

Needle-sculpted head

Embroidery and bead accents

A Red Linen Bag

This red bag was a request from my sister-in-law, who wanted/needed it as a prop for her Fringe Show.

Although it never actually made it onto the stage (she said that she liked it way too much and was worried that it would get wrecked during a scene in which she gets a pie in the face), it did make the rounds of the Fringe Tent almost every night.

Similar in design to (but larger than) my GO Train Bag, it features a long shoulder strap instead of handles.

The outer shell is a luxurious linen-blend in a fabulous tomato-red.

The lining was screen-printed (by hand and by yours truly) and features my original fruit-sticker design.

Stumpits

When my parents sold their house this year (in an effort to downsize), I inherited a box of beautiful, 100%-wool blankets. They were perfectly felted (I assume from years of washing) and ready for a unique sewing project.

It wasn't until this week, however, that an idea about what to do with them came to me.

Meet the Stumpits! Clever little creatures that live in the cracks between the sofa cushions and take secret baths in your kitchen sink while you're away on vacation.

They have hand embroidered faces and safety eyes...

... and fanciful embroidered appliques...

They were stitched together on my trusty Singer, stuffed with polyester fiber-fill and lovingly finished by hand.

Ta-da!

Little Yarn People, Man...

People kept asking me when I was going to make more Little Yarn People, so I spent two whole days watching "Glee" re-runs while stitching up another one...

Again, this doll was crocheted free-form (without a pattern) and based upon

Fisher Price's Little People (circa 1980)...

Made from a combination of wool and acrylic yarns and stuffed with polyester fiber-fill.

(his features are a combination of felt and embroidery floss)...

Pictured below with the original doll on which I based my design.

"Stuff" in stores...

You can now buy selected "Stuff" by Heather merchandise exclusively at:

Ransack the Universe

1207 Bloor Street West, Toronto

(in the basement of 69 Vintage Collective/Buy the Pound)

It's an amazing store featuring the work of many talented local artists and I encourage everyone to check it out.

"Blue Jay"

This is Blue. The final project for my "Explorations in Fibre" class.

He’s a streetwise jay who makes his home in an elm tree at the corner of Broadview and Danforth Avenues in Toronto. Originally from the valley, Blue moved here over a year ago to get away from the noise of the parkway and the rumble of the TTC.

Blue was a fairly involved project. He was created using a combination of wet felting, needle felting and machine embroidery.

Guess who finally finished second-year?

...and after a month of sitting around the house watching re-runs of Glee I think I'm now fully recovered from the experience!!!

It was an intense eight months filled with laughter, tears and thirteen-hour studio days but it all paid off in the end. I just found out yesterday that I won the 2010 George A. Reid Scholarship for second-year Material Art and Design students.

I want to sincerely thank the estate of George A. Reid for this incredible honour and express my profound appreciation for the financial support and opportunity your scholarship has afforded me.

Apparently good grades do matter after all!

Big Breakfast Mitts

These oven mitts are an homage to the

"play food" of my childhood

and my husband's skill in the kitchen.

They feature interchangeable,

snap-on breakfast foods

and are made from 100% cotton.

This was my final project for my drawing class

where we were studying the "body as a narrative".

As a material artist, I naturally focused on the hands.

Lucy

"Lucy" was the final project for my "Intro to Fibre" class.

She's an amalgamation of techniques

that were covered over the course of the semester.

From her block printed sweatshirt

to her coiled Doc Martins,

she's a teen goth with serious attitude!

Monarcle

This is the "Monarcle", the first assignment for my "Intro to Jewelry" class.

We had to chose a bug and design a piece of body adornment that captured its "essence".

I chose the butterfly and designed this costume piece.

I see it being worn on the stage at a performance by Cirque du Soleil, or maybe at Mardi Gras.

It's constructed from hand dyed cotton, wire and acrylic paint.