Saturday, August 1, 2015

A Creature Joins The Family. . .

Dear Friends of The Tearoom,
I welcome you warmly today with hopes that you are enjoying your summer!  I have been spending as many days as possible, sitting on the porch, working on a project I have had planned since last winter!

After having gobbled up this season's episodes of Penny Dreadful like they were some sort of gothic blancmange, Mr. V and I have been amusing ourselves with the transformation of a creature of our own to join our family of Creepy Babies!  I had even tweeted a few teaser pictures with the hashtag #MadameVictorFrankenstein!

Harry Treadaway perfectly portrays
the brilliant but morphine-addicted 
Victor Frankenstein on 
Penny Dreadful.

So, this winter, I found a vintage stuffed animal on Etsy and couldn't tell if I was in love with him or creeped out by him!  So, I took the chance that love would be the stronger emotion and ordered him! He had been described as having probably been a giveaway prize in a carnival and was probably from sometime in the 1940's.  I could see he was not in perfect condition, but ordered him with the intention of somehow fixing him.  I wasn't able to work on him right away due to other projects and life occurrences, so he sat in a box in the studio for a few months.  As soon as I was done with my last blog post, I knew I was ready for some not-so-sweet projects.  I can imagine him coming from a Haunted Carnival, complete with creepy music and Ghost Train complete with ghosts!  

This is the head of The Mouse Creature...

...and his worn body.

When I started to take him apart, I discovered that he
was not stuffed with fabric, but shredded paper
and cardboard!
Oh well, if he was a carnival prize,
he would have been made as cheaply as possible.

So, I took him to the lab and his transformation
was started...
I carefully dismantled The Creature and pinned
all of his pieces to paper.  I then cut them all out
and pinned them to darkest inky black velvet...


I then pinned the pieces of the creature together,
stuffing him with one of Mr. V's worn out
Spy Museum t-shirts, cut into strips.

The head of the creature,
waiting to be given a new body...


Slowly, the transformation commenced...


...until he was nearly completed.


Due to spending too much time at the 
cardiologists myself lately, I became obsessed 
with giving Mr. Mookie a heart.


A creature so dark as Mr. Mookie
required an appropriate heart of darkness.
I made one from printable silk and
attached it inside his stuffing before
sewing him up in the back.


And now,
the creature is transformed...

May I introduce Mr. Mookie,
Fifth Black Velvet Rabbit
of The Apocalypse!

Due to the line of ascension, his services as
Black Velvet Rabbit of The Apocalypse
will not be required for sometime.
So, in the meantime, he practices his
lurking skills by sneaking up on the pansies
on the porch!
They did not seem much phased by
his lurking, so he will continue to practice!

Here he is practicing his lurking again,
this time photobombing me as I take a picture
of the herb garden on the porch!
Oh that critter!

And here's where my own Mr. Victor
found him, practicing lurking on the stairs!
What to do with him?

As we speak, he is finally behaving himself,
napping with Thursday, Baby Hoobert,
Teddy and Brownie McNutt.
He seems to be fitting in well with the
family so far.
They are saving up their energy for my next
project involving them:
A Fashion Show!

And because black hearts seem to be a
common thread in this post tonight,
won't you take a moment to enjoy
the deliciously dark "Black Heart"
by Marc and the Mambas?



(I do so love listening to the perfectly
lovely Marc Almond!)


I had fun coloring some of the pictures I
took on our iPhone with an app called
Afterlight.

Image of Harry Treadaway from my
Penny Dreadful board on Pinterest.
Image of Marc Almond from his
Twitter page.)

I'm slower at getting things accomplished
right now, but I do hope you will keep
checking back as the Babies model
their Goth Lolita and Steampunk
fashions, possibly in a lushly
decadent art gallery!