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!