Japanese Crafts 1: Amigurumi
21 May 2008 dans crochet
According to Wikipedia, Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. It is one of the many crafts that has extended out from its place of origin to be shared by the rest of the world. Japanese crafts, in particular, seem to be embraced by us westerners. There seems to be a Japanese-craze under way: People have been devouring manga, watching anime, learning Japanese, eating and worshipping Japanese food (sushi in particular), mimicking Tokyo street fashion, teaching english in Japan, being tourists, and doing Japanese crafts. While a little overbearing at times, Japan-fever has lovely side effects. Amigurumi is one of them.
Pacman characters, large and small by t0fugirl on Etsy. Her store also includes Super Mario characters and powerups.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles strike back under the power of atsuko’s crochet hooks.
Indiana Jones makes an appearance, perhaps to plug his upcoming movie? (Geek Central Station, who also gives us Darth Vader, complete with helmet. And many many other beloved characters like Boba Fett, pictured below:
Isn’t he cute? I like his gun.
The ever-so-huggable Mythbusters courtesy of i am sapho
And of course, Cthulu, who comes with a free patterns.
And the Fellowship of the Ring, thanks to artoo1121.
One of Cricri57’s many cute creations.
Sites to explore if you like what you see:
* We Love Amigurumi, the lj community
* a japanese craft book resource
* Monster Crochet, for the scarier creations
* Crochetme.com, and their amigurumi feature
* Amigurumikingdom’s photo stream at Flickr
*DIYlife.com’s amigurumi feature
Books on how to make your own little creatures:
Creepy Cute Crochet, by Christen Haden
Amigurumi!: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth Diherty
Kyuuto! Japanese Crafts! Amigurumi! by Chronicle Books