Well, I've actually started making some toys. I will be a toymaker, and I shall be a toymaker. One day I will be able to introduce myself to people by saying "Hi, I'm Sharon and I'm a toymaker".
I'm starting with a pair of pocket mice.
They are "pocket mice" because I'm making them out of the pockets of a recycled pair of denim shorts. The process has not been without some complications.
I chose to start with a mouse because it's one of the simplest patterns I've found - a simple body with some ears and a tail sewn on. It's supposed to be made out of man-made fur and felt, but I had the denim scraps handy, so denim it is!
I had only intended to make one, but I stuffed up a rather simple step - reversing the pattern to get both sides of the mouse. I had two left sides and no right sides. Fortunately, I may be an idiot but I'm also a thinker, so I just made the same mistake in reverse and decided to make two mice instead of one.
Then there was a slight problem with the tails.
The wool I was going to use to make the tails had been damaged (a storage issue), so I decided to use an old pair of shoe laces I had lying around the place.
As I was tacking the shoelaces in place, it occurred to me that I was actually using a spare pair of laces from my old school shoes - 25+ years after I'd thrown out the shoes in question. A) I still had the laces, b) I knew exactly where they were, and c) I was getting some use out of them. If this had actually worked, I might never be able to throw out anything else ever again.
Fortunately, cheap Chinese shoelaces from the 80s actually are crap. They didn't break on me all the time when I was a kid because I was incredibly strong, they were just rubbish. So I would have been perfectly justified in throwing them out, and should have thrown them out years ago.
Unfortunately, I discovered this when the tale on my first mouse disintegrated as I was turning the body right-side out. Replacing the tale would have required unpicking most of the dang mouse, so I just said "This one's a Manxmouse" and left it sans tail.
That, of course, made me want to reread Paul Gallico's Manxmouse, which has a dear place in my heart. It was one of the first chapter books ever read to me when I was a child - and it was read to me by my aunt when we were on vacation.
I can't remember much about that vacation, but I can remember my aunt reading me this book every night.
I've kept that copy all these years, but I realised that I hadn't actually read it for myself. So now I'm essentially reading it for the first time.
After reading the first few chapters, I had a brief moment of doubt when sewing the ears on my pocket Manxmouse. The blue colour of the denim was actually spot on for a Manxmouse but, by rights, if I was making a Manxmouse I should make the ears long and rabbit shaped with pink insides. My ears were cut out when I thought I was just making a mouse...
I just decided to give it normal ears. Partly because I already had them, and partly because I didn't have anything pink to turn into new ears. If I ever make a Manxmouse on purpose, I'll make sure I get the ears right.
I'm starting with the mice. Then I'm going to try a duck, perhaps. Maybe graduate onto bears at some point. The key is to do it again.
I have a tendency to do something once and then neglect to get around to repeating the effort. If I can make a few mice, I'll get better at the mice. If I can make a few ducks or bears or what have you, then I'll get better at making toys in general.
When I get to the point where I regularly make toys and feel as if I could say to another person "Yes, I will sell you this toy for actual money", then I will feel confident to say I am a toymaker.
Yeah, yeah, pictures are coming. Give me a break - I can't think of everything, you know. Besides I've been too busy taking pictures of the new bike. Post on that coming soon.
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