Making a Commission Piece
Or how a customer answered some questions and I made something Whedony!
A couple of months ago, at the start of the lock-down in the UK, I came up with an idea for a Mystery Item in my Etsy shop. The idea was that customers could choose their budget, from £5 upwards, and I would then send them a Google Form asking some questions about what type of item they wanted. From these answers and their chosen budget, I could then make an item to suit them but they wouldn’t know what it was until they received the finished item.
The first Mystery order I received was for amigurumi with a Whedony connection – for the uninitiated, this relates to anything created by Joss Whedon, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, Dollhouse, Dr Horrible, etc. I am also a big fan of Joss Whedon so my research in to the subject was minimal, although it did trigger *another* rewatch of Buffy.
My starting point was to look at all of the Whedony productions and decide which would be most suited to amigurumi. I ruled out his work with Marvel because, to me, this isn’t a pure Whedony thing. I also ruled out Dollhouse, as I felt that the characters didn’t have an instantly recognisable look. Dr Horrible and Firefly have one or two instantly recognisable characters, but for the customer’s budget and amigurumi request, my mind went straight to Buffy and to three particular characters in the show who I felt I could take inspiration from and then interpret to suit my own ideas:
- Buffy herself – there are several looks that Buffy had throughout the show, that to fans are instantly recognisable, including the series 1 finale Prom Dress and the black vest/red leather trousers combo from the series 3 finale. It was the latter that I chose to go with.
- Angel – straightaway I think of Angel’s hair! The fact that it is always the same and ‘sticking straight up’ is a joke throughout both Buffy and the spin-off Angel. By emphasizing the hair, it would make him recognisable as Angel.
- Spike – Spike is almost too easy as he so many features – the peroxide blond hair, the long black leather jacket worn over the red shirt and the smirk. But the one thing I really wanted to include was the scar in his eyebrow.
Characters chosen – the next step was to choose the pattern. Generally, I always start my search for a pattern with Ravelry. If you haven’t used it, Ravelry is a community for knitters and crocheters to share patterns, ideas, etc, and to just be with like-minded people. It is fantastic and also free to sign up to and use. Through my search I discovered a fantastically talented creator called Yazmina and her site Minasscrafts on which she has a raft of patterns for creating amigurumi inspired by many pop culture characters. From the vast array, I focused on the pattern for this as I could clearly see the similarity to Buffy. So, I followed the main gist of the pattern and made some minor alterations as I went along.
I was also able to use the same basic pattern for Spike and Angel, with some differences. For Angel it was his hair and for Spike it was his coat. Luckily, I had completed an order for a friend who wanted amigurumi versions of the band BTS for her sister’s birthday present a few years ago and the pattern I used for that (from Kati Galusz on Ravelry) would be ideal for both the hair and the coat, again with some alterations to suit the characters I was creating. Angel’s hair took forever and Spike’s coat had to be redone a few times until I got it just right.
All of the yarn I used in these, were from my own stash collected mainly from LoveCrafts as I love their Paintbox Cotton and DK yarns for doing amigurumi work with.
In the end, I was over the moon with my final interpretation of the characters and so was my customer, who said that she was going to use them to introduce her son to Buffy and the many valuable lessons that can be learnt from the show.
