Thursday, August 6, 2009

Fridge Critter: Chelsea the Chicken


In 2001, I learned to use a pen tablet to colour eight baby animals. I put that drawing on my fridge eight years ago. Last year, I learned to crochet. To celebrate the spirit of learning new things, I spent this summer remaking my drawn animals into crochet critters.


The eighth and last Fridge Critter is the chicken.


For unknown reasons, Chelsea the chicken was never able to lay eggs. She didn't want to raise baby chicks; she just wanted to make her own eggs.

Sometimes she would admire another chicken's egg:


Other times, she would dare to get closer:


She had reoccurring dreams of hatching a carton-full of Grade AA eggs:


But this summer, Chelsea got tired of unfulfilled dreams. So she taught herself to crochet. What was the first thing she made with a crochet hook?

That's right: eggs.


Pop!

She makes eggs all the time now. She's happy when she's creating. At this rate, she'll have made more eggs than all the chickens in the coop.

Congratulations, Chelsea. We hope you continue to learn new things!



This summer, we met each Fridge Critter: Squire the Squirrel, Bleu the Blue Bird, Pandara★♥ the Panda, Darla the Duckling, Sherman the Shark, Turner the Turtle, Piki the Pig and, finally, Chelsea the Chicken.

There are now two photos of the Fridge Critters on my fridge:


To celebrate their completion, my girlfriend recorded me returning the Fridge Critters into the wild. Here's the video:

26 comments:

  1. That video is awesome.
    Great job with the fridge critters! I wish I were half as talented!

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  2. That made me smile - such a good video (especially the little fridges!)... and so glad that Chelsea learnt to crochet her eggs!

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  3. What a briliant ending to the adventures of the fridge critters!

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  4. So cute! Wow your crochet skills are great. Must be fun to make them. :)

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  5. Absolutely awesome! I love the video...

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  6. rofl, I love it! Thanks for helping me start my Friday with a smile :)

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  7. I absolutely adore your collection! I'm begging you to sell some patterns, too. Those are sooooo cute!

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  8. You are so inspiring! Amazing job converting illustrations into crochet.

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  9. Please make more Fridge Critters...they brighten my day, they are so adorable!!!

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  10. Hooray Howie!!! I LOVED the video!!! It is the grand finale to the funnest series ever!!!!!!!! I know all the fridge critters will love the freedom and friends out there in the wild. I am soooo looking forward to your next series!!!! GO HOWIE GO!

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  11. Great video . . . love when the fridge falls out of the tree. :D

    BTW, what yarn is Chelsea made of? She looks particularly soft and fuzzy.

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  12. Completely amazing. This has been so much fun to watch evolve! I want them all to come live with me!

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  13. Heffalump: Thanks! The video was fun to make, despite running in the heat with too-many layers of clothing.

    And I'm sure you are ultra talented!

    PaisleyJade: Yes, it's good that Chelsea is making her own eggs, and I'm amazed that she can hold the crochet hook & yarn with her wings! Thanks ;)

    Amy: Thanks! Yes, at least they're in warmer temperatures now!

    storybookpuppy: Thanks for complimenting my newfound crochet skills, which are always a work in progress! It has been lots of fun seeing their personalities come to life :)

    Julie: I'm glad you liked the video! It was shot over 5 days, and involved more running-in-the-sun than I was prepared for haha

    Rose: Yay, I'm happy to have made today your Fridge Friday :D

    Shorty: Thanks :) I may work on some patterns, though I still find that I'm improvising/fixing mistakes half the time. I actually lost the original Chelsea at the farm before any photos were taken, and this second Chelsea ended up looking very different! :D

    Anna: Thanks! Each time I visited my fridge, the drawn critters would remind me to bring them to crochet-life!

    D-D: hehe I should have drawn more critters back in '01. I'll think of new series ideas though!

    TADA's Revolution: Yay, I could harness the energy from your comments to power a dozen more creations! ;) Yes, the Fridge Critters are probably living it up in the great outdoors, if they managed to leave their mini fridges! Thanks :)

    JenGoPop: There was one shot where the fridge fell out of the tree, bounced on the ground and the fridge door fell into a pond. It was lucky that the door stayed afloat before I fished it out.

    The yarn is Red Heart TLC Amoré (3001 white). It's soft and fluffy but very prone to fraying.

    Kimberly Pye: hehe if you see a fridge floating in a river nearby, I hope you bring the critter within as your new adopted pet! ;)

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  14. Awesome job! I love how you make a back story for everything you make - very inspiring. This kind of makes me want to pick up my crochet hook and make amigurumi dolls again ^.^

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  15. PERFECTO!!!!
    Bravo/Brava!!!!

    I laughed so hard.. perfectly - masterfully done!!!

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  16. I love that she's in a fluffy-ish yarn...she's super cute :)

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  17. Symon Burton: :D Eggs are good for cracking up!

    Nushki: Thanks! The back stories are so fun to write, and it's trippy to see the crochet animals in a new way after their stories are written.

    I hope you pick up the crochet hook soon! Your blog deserves to be decorated with your yarn creations :)

    K4TT: If I wrote an opera, I would love for you to be in the opera hall with your cheers :D Thanks so much! I wish I could have watched your reaction when you were watching the video :D

    Danielle: The original Chelsea was made out of untextured yarn, but I lost her during the farm video shoot. I remade her with some fluffy yarn I found the next day. So it's good to know that good things can happen from amigurumi-abductions! :D

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  18. Greetings from Cape Town.
    I absolutely love this blog! I love the artwork, creativity, skill and of course the characters.
    My blog is also a story about 3 characters, I would like you to take a look when you have a moment.
    Juz
    http://juztick.blogspot.com

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  19. FANTASTIC!!!! What's next? What's next???? ....uh, perhaps the book with all the patterns so we can have our own fridge critters????

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  20. The video WAS the best!! I laughed, I cried...sniff....it was like watching "Born Free" all over again. I'm going to miss those little critters.

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  21. Miss Julep: Your movie review was so kind, thank you! I'm going to watch "Born Free" again because of you :)

    What's next? Hmm, I'm going to venture away from lil animals for a bit. The remaining August blog posts promise to be interesting, at the very least! :D

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  22. What a fantastic ending to the story of the Fridge Critters!

    Absolutely brilliant stuff!

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  23. I wish I lived near you because I would love to get to know you in person. (Tell your girlfriend that I don't mean that in any weird stalker-girl way - you just seem like so much fun!) Your multiple talents, creativity, and sense of humor are just wonderful. I love all the fridge critters and how much they resemble the original drawings! And the movie is fabulous. I loved the surprise twist of them going to live in the "wild" in their little fridges! Tell your gf nice job on the filming, too. :) Yay, Howie!

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  24. sez: Thank you! It's relatively easy to bring out the cuteness in chickens and eggs :D

    Kathryn: I'm glad you liked the ending video! Even though the video was more work than I had planned for MJ or myself, I'll be glad to view it when I'm too elderly to be running along logs :D

    crafty-shanna: Wow, thank you for your overwhelming compliments. I'm happy you see me that way! I'm relatively shy & reclusive in person, so I'm grateful that this blog compels me to interact with the outside world, at least :D Most of all, I love to hear that you're enjoying your visits here! It's so rewarding to know that—despite geographical distances—we can still share our artsy adventures! :) MJ is also a fan of your blog!

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