amigurumi

when you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go midtown.
midtown, things’ll be great when you’re
midtown, don’t wait a mitute more,
midtown, everything’s waiting for you.
midtown (midtown), midtown (midtown)
midtown (midtown), midtown (midtown)
(repeat and fade out)

“danger” is my middle name.
don’t confuse me with regular, happy-hopping bunnies.
i don’t hop, i loom…

(click image to view close up)

this is goro-chan. he is an amigurumi dog, but he acts like a lone wolf on wheels. when spencer gets in trouble, he is lucky enough to be helped by goro. goro takes him for a ride in his rollerblade.

i took these photos just outside my apartment building here in saskatoon. students were walking by on their way to university. most of them ignored me.

it was hard to get the action shot of spencer and goro in the rollerblade. there’s a can of coconut milk behind the rollerblade, holding it up. you can see the shadow in the “whee-ee-ee-ee” photo.

thanks, coconut milk.

for the goro superstar closeup, i just held him up against the blue sky with one hand. it’s hard to balance a rollerblade with an amigurumi dog in it, using just one hand and holding it from the wheels.

but i think it’s worth it in the end.

(click the image to view close up)

(click the image to view close up)

(click the image to view close up)

it might be hard to identify, but that thing got stuck in the snow? that’s spencer.

the day i took this photo was sooooooo cooooold — probably around -26c. in february, a super-blue sky in the prairies = super cold. i thought about waiting for a warmer day to take photos, but i didn’t want to miss the chance to capture this gorgeous sky. also, the art book fair (where i showed the spencer book) was only 3 days away.

this was taken in a park across from my apartment building. the snow was fresh and powdery. spencer kept falling over. i had to pile snow up around him to keep him steady. originally i was hoping to capture him standing in the middle of an untouched snow field. so i jumped as far as i could, placed him in the snow, and then jumped back. but the hole i made by jumping was way bigger than the size of spencer. my jumping technique was poor, and i ended up leaving extra footsteps around where i landed. low scores from the olympic judges!

next try, i tiptoed forward, trying not to make much mess, placed spencer carefully, and tiptoed back. i think it turned out pretty good. it looks like he walked that far himself.

there’s probably no way to place an amigurumi in a snowy park without looking stupid. luckily, it was so cold that there weren’t many people walking outside that day. most people tried not to make eye contact. but i did get noticed by one old man passing by:

–”what cha doin’, my dear?”
–”i’m taking glamour shots of my useless toy.”
–”ho, ho, ho-. that’s wonderful.”

i don’t think he heard me. he was wearing earmuffs and a heavy tuque.
in the end, i think spencer did a great job expressing the feeling of “adventure”. well acted, spencer!