Peaceful Bavi

What you see before you is a Peaceful Bavi, bringer of peaceful dreams and soft, slow awakenings. (Also lovers of tummy rubs, in case you'd like to know.) Bavi are dream spirits, more or less; entities from the Great Dreaming who pass into mortal dreams at their whim. In general, they're quite friendly, content with just a hello (though not saying hello after you've recognized one is considered rude, and you may wake up with a numb limb as a consequence), however if you choose to feed one, then they will continue to find you from time to time. They're playful entities, and a little mischievous; though if you are knowingly, directly harmful to one, the consequences will likely be severe. They do protect their own, much as they will protect those who are kind to them.

So I wanted to take a shot at further editing the pattern for the Daydream Bavi. The plan was definitely to come up with one that represented peaceful dreams, so a blue and slightly off-white color scheme seemed appropriate. Beyond that, I just kind of wandered. I knew I wanted something a little "incoherent", dream-like but soft, and I think I managed. The Bavi themself is soft and fuzzy fleece with cotton embroidery floss detailing (further sparkled-up with iridescent blue pigment and fabric paint afterward), the patch of "scales" on their rump smooth beads. The mask is a strengthened and reinforced papier mache-type base, horns left accented but bare, while the rest was coated with handmade paper and then accented with beads and chain.

(For Sale)

Beaded Mask Commission

Coming off a little rest period from the Materia Cuff commission, some very lovely and magnificent person actually asked me if I could do a fantasy beaded mask blending elements of both my (DFMW) Beaded Chainmaile Mask and Submerging.  I could not say “YES” quickly enough.

The basic idea behind the beaded curtain was to hide the eyes while still allowing vision.  To my surprise, it worked!  I mean, er, to my absolute expertise in these matters.  Yes.  Ahem.  Every hanging strand ends in either a single gold delica bead and a crimson-burgundy freshwater pearl drop, or a light gold Swarovski crystal with a red glass drop.  While the front is notably more heavy that the rest, the way the diamond pattern rests against and around the head actually distributes the weight in a way that doesn’t make it feel like your neck is always fighting with it.

All in all, I’m extremely happy with how this came out.  Thank you so much to the commissioner for the opportunity!

Lady Abigail

Lady Abigail (or just Abby to her friends) is still a little new at this.  Oh, she knows how to march, knows every whistle and command, can walk in step or run ahead and around.  It's the whole armor thing that she has yet to get used to.  Her handler thought it might be a good idea to get her started with something custom-made, something unique and personal.  Hey, even chocobos like to feel special.

I'd been thinking about making a fully-wired, completely poseable chocobo for some time now.  I just hadn't actually given in to such insane ideas until now.  The reception to my Desert Bus chocobos was just so good that I felt I should really push myself and rise to the ridiculously complicated challenge.  But I'm glad I did!  The result is lovely Abby with a wired beak, head and neck, legs, toes, wings (all of her primary feathers are also wired) and tail.  And she has claws!  I've been wanting to put claws on a chocobo for years!

And then, after all that, I decided she needed armor.  (Because I'm kind of unsmart.)  So... I went right for some scrap leather I've had for years and started cutting.  Well that was a learning experience, but seeing as how the result makes me extremely happy, it was worth the work.  Stylized forget-me-nots are the flowers that grace Abby's armor, and once I figured out how to firmly secure rhinestones to leather, I couldn't resist having some "flower buds" on her helmet/mask.  Both pieces of armor attach easily with little handmade hook and eye findings and chain, and it's really easier than it looks.

She also needed that lovely blue velvet blanket.  Yes, real silk velvet.  Yes, it attracts light colored fuzzies like crazy, but it's SO SOFT and shimmery and yes.

And of course she's my chocobo, so she needed a touch of bling.  I beaded her a couple of wired "anklets" and then decided her wings needed a little sparkle, so I made her some "wingbands" too.  She seems to like them.

Abby's a big girl.  In her "natural" pose, she stands 12 inches high to the very top of her crest.  With her tail up, she's 6 inches from her chest to her tail, but with her tail extended out that measurement jumps to just over 10 inches.  Fully extended, her wingspan is 15.5 inches.  She can quite solidly support a Square-Enix action figure bareback, and can easily support the lighter ones with full armor on.

She's playful, sweet and loves her greens.  But she won't turn down a slice of cheesecake.  Just so you know.

(Sold.)

DFWM Mask

Okay, up front. "DFWM" stands for Don't F*** With Me. Because it seemed... fitting. It's more of a guard mask than a warrior mask... and it sure isn't a maiden mask.

I suppose you could consider it more of a "headband with a mask", really. I hadn't quite... planned on this one. It was going to be a necklace. What happened? I'd still like to know. It took weeks to complete, possibly because the band is real leather and I was trying not to screw it up. No sewing machine means sewing leather by hand... which means it takes a while.

It's creepy, it's fun, it makes enjoyable clacking noises, and it's easy to see out of, but not so easy for people to see your eyes. It's just a fun little fantasy piece.(Sold.)