Featured

Lumi the All-Seeing Eye (Hand Puppet)

Back around 2015, I decided to handcraft a puppet out of everyday materials.

I decided to make character that’s an “All-Seeing Eye” that never notices anything. He’s always tired and uninterested in regular society, let alone the secret ones.

I had this plastic bulb from a nightlight and I took apart one of those clamping loose tea leaf holders (I took the ball part off).

I attached the bulb and the tea holder together with all-purpose wire and on each side of the tea holder I attached “eyelids” made of a cut up yoga mat and more wire. So now, when the tea holder is squeezed, instead of opening a tea ball infuser, the puppet can open and close its eyes.

The yellow buttons give the eyelid wires stability.

I glued a googly eye on the light for a pupil and beads and felt for the iris. It’s just an led inside a plastic bulb from the dollar store for the eye itself.

For the body, I “sewed” together a cut up yoga mat with wire

I was watching “The Dark Crystal”, since I was making a puppet, I thought it would be fitting!

I made the general pyramid shape and inserted the eye

For the “skin” and mouth parts, I bought cheap socks and blankets that felt soft and were colors I liked.

The puppet from the bottom. I can stick my arm in there to move the eyelids, and the mouth.

I cut a slit for the mouth and created a sock-tongue

Finally, I wrapped and glued his skin on, and gave him some folds and wrinkles for aesthetics and personality.

Here he is in action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YsNZ6USyCU&ab_channel=CuddlestheTarantula

And that was how I made a hand puppet out of household materials.

Featured

Spider Plushie (She can web!)

I made this spider plushie based on one of my beloved pet tarantulas. I decided to hide two spools of thread inside compartments in the abdomen, so you can pull the thread out through the spider’s spinnerets!

She has a wire skeleton (she should really have an exoskeleton :p) and she’s filled with polyester pillow stuffing. Her skin is mainly fur from a throw blanket and her eyes are pom poms.

Here she is reading a book about spiders (what else?)

Isopods!!!

1. Isopod Face-Masks for sale!

A woodlouse is a crustacean from the monophyletic suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. Also known as “Pill Bugs” or “Roly-Poly Bugs”! Get the Isopod Face-Mask today!

  1. Isopods & Chips

A trio of isopods inspecting a bag of chips! It’s a pretty common occurrence. Now you can have them on a T-Shirt with the Isopods & Chips T-Shirt

3. Isopods & Plants Face-Mask

Isopods! Scuttling along in your garden, or maybe even straight into your heart (metaphorically)! Display your appreciation for these little detritivores with the Isopods & Plants Face-Mask

Other Common names for “woodlice” include:

“armadillo bug”
“billy baker” (South Somerset)
“boat-builder” (Newfoundland, Canada)
“butcher boy” or “butchy boy” (Australia, mostly around Melbourne
“carpenter” or “cafner” (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada)
“carpet shrimp” (Ryedale)
“cheeselog” (Reading, England)
“cheesy bobs” (Guildford, England)
“cheesy bug” (North West Kent, England)
“cheesey wig”
“chiggy pig” (Devon, England)
“chucky pig” (Devon, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, England)
“chuggy peg” (North Devon)
“crawley baker” (Dorset)
“daddy grampher” (North Somerset)
“damp beetle” (North East England)
“dandy postman” (Essex and East London)
“doodlebug” (also used for the larva of an antlion)
“gramersow” (Cornwall, England)
“granny grey” (South Wales)
“hog-louse”
“horton bug” (Deal, Kent, England)
“menace” (Plymouth, Devon)
“monkey-peas” (Kent, England)
“monk’s louse” (transl. “munkelus”, Norway)
“parson’s pig” (Isle of Man)
“pea bug” or “peasie-bug” (Kent, England)
“piggy wig”
“pill bug” (usually applied only to the genus Armadillidium)
“potato bug”
“roll up bug”
“roly-poly”
“rosary bug” (Turkey)
“slater” (Scotland, Northern Ireland, New Zealand and Australia)
“sow bug”
“wood bug” (British Columbia, Canada)

Handmade Female Tarantula Exterior Ventral View Anatomy Labelling Toy

Finished product (sort of…the dorsal side isn’t done yet, I am going to make something similar on the back)
Bubble labels made of a slip of paper inside pill packet bubbles. Hook Velcro on the back of the bubbles. Soft loop Velcro on the spider body. Lots and lots of glue gunning. Next time I’ll try to sew them
The labels are a bit ill-fitting, but I’m pretty happy with this prototype I made out of stuff around the house. Finally found a use for that bag of teensy pom poms I bought a while back from the dollar store. They’re so cute, how could I not?

Three New T-Shirt Designs

  1. Cute Pocket UFO

This design is inspired by Unsolved Mysteries such as “Where did I put my keys…I just had them in my pocket!?” and “Who shaved a small crop circle into my pet’s fur?”…

Update : It was a tiny UFO! Mystery solved! He can be yours too, with the Cute Pocket UFO T-Shirt

2. Carpenter Bee’s Premium Wood Work

Are you sick and tired of your home’s perfect, hole-free wood? Call Carpenter Bee’s! We’ll BEE drilling bee-sized holes in YOUR wood in the time it takes you to say “Where did these holes in my patio deck come from?!”

Support the Carpenter Bee’s family BEEsiness by wearing the Carpenter Bee’s Premium Wood Work T-Shirt

3. Macaron, Macaroon, Macaroni – Oh My!

A Macaron meets a Macaroon, and a Macaroni shows up! Avoid the confusion once and for all with the Macaron, Macaroon, Macaroni T-Shirt

Spawn a Lumi

Lumi the All-Seeing Eye who never pays attention, is usually sleeping and doesn’t care about your conspiracy theories. I made him.

https://neuralslush.com/2020/08/25/lumi-the-all-seeing-eye-hand-puppet/

Click below to spawn a Lumi

(doesn’t work on mobile idk why but oh well) Your browser does not support the HTML5 canvas tag.

The Tullimonstrum (AKA “Tully Monster”) T-Shirt

The Tullimonstrum AKA “Tully Monster” is an extinct genus of soft-bodied…animal of some kind. They had long proboscises that they used as “nature’s selfie-stick” (of course – this was 100% verified by fossil records and such). Too bad they couldn’t stick around. Truly a creature ahead of it’s time…just like it’s mouth-arm was ahead of the rest of it’s body.

For sale on my TeeSpring store!

T-shirt logo design (without text). The background is an image of a painting I made. The tully monsters were Doodled in Autodesk Sketchbook, and edited in Inkscape (vectored), then edited in GIMP (colors and lighting, effects).

Alternate design for T-Shirt – Doodled in Autodesk Sketchbook, and edited in Inkscape (vectored), then edited in GIMP (colors and lighting, effects)

Kuriboh Fan Art

I made some Kuriboh fan art just because. I played Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links on my phone and bought some cards in pursuit of all the Kuribohs. He’s the thing that made me think maybe Yu-Gi-Oh’s alright.

I was like…“what’s that fuzzy brown thing?”

“Kuriboh…he sucks” was the reply I got.

He’s cute though. That’s why I like him. I mean what even is he? (Apparently he’s a chestnut). And then there’s Sangan, the 3-eyed Kuriboh-looking creature who looks like he’ll snarf your face like a wild boar, eat your wallet and keys right out of your purse, then start screaming into the night.

“That’s a Spicy Kuriboh!” Digital painting made in Gimp & Autodesk Sketchbook
I thought Sangan in the artwork for “Sanwitch” was a hoagie roll. My mistake inspired me to make this “Yummy Sanwitch”.
More Kuriboh cards I made. They’re whatever kind of rare is the rarest.

The Truth About Mothman

Mothman Begins, Mixed media, 2019
The Amazing Mothman, Digital, 2019

Here are some thoughts after reading The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel.

♫ ♪ ♪ Moth-a-man…moth-a-man

sometimes ‘e can ♫ ♪

♪ make lots o’ dust

but it’s he – you surely trust ♪

♫ ♪ ♪ WATCH OUT! wing-flappin Mothman ♫ ♪ ♪

♪ So what’s he do? 

see for yourself ♪

♫ he’ll knock your lamp

right off your shelf ♫

♪ Can he fly high as a jet?

I’d really like to say you bet ♪

♫ ♪ ♪ WHOA THERE! A big ol’ guy – Mothmaaan ♫ ♪ ♪

♫ ♪ ♪♫ ♪ ♪ On a dark august niiiight

there’s lots on his plate ♫ ♪ ♪

♫ ♪ ♪ and hes drawn to the liiight

so that crime-fight’ll hafta wait ♫ ♪ ♪

♫ ♪ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♪ Mothman… ♫ ♪ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♪

♫ ♪ ♪ sometimes he nearly caaan! ♫ ♪ ♪

♫ ♪ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♪ Mothman… ♫ ♪ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♪

♫ ♪ ♪ sometimes he nearly caaan! ♫ ♪ ♪

Baby Good Mimic (Enter the Gungeon) Plushie Chest

Lately I’ve been obsessed with the Nintendo Switch game Enter the Gungeon (also on PC). I wanted to hand craft a Baby Good Mimic – an item from the game that follows the player around like a familiar, helping to attack enemies and being generally adorable.

For the base, I used a small wooden chest I bought from the arts & crafts section of the dollar store. For his rounded top, I glued thick cardboard to the chest (since the shape of the chest was originally just a basic rectangle). I was going to paint it, but decided to make a fuzzy Baby Good Mimic instead.

I used “fur” that I bought in the form of inexpensive blankets that were purchased with the intention to cut them up for making plushies. His eyes are made of felt.

I decided to give him a tongue, even though in the game I’m not entirely sure about his tongue situation. When he chomps around enemies sometimes it looks like he does have one. Also his adult (“not good”) counterparts DO have tongues. The tongue is also made of soft, plush throw blanket material.

This Baby Good Mimic chest is a prototype, and I liked how it turned out – still being a usable little chest, but also having the cute fuzziness of a plushie.

His clasp is a simple metal one that the wooden chest came with, and he doesn’t have a lock on him, therefore he cannot keep secrets. He’ll blurt them out like it’s nobody’s everybody’s business.

I don’t know what I’ll keep inside him (other than his own tongue). He’ll probably be used to nip at any enemies in my living room, dealing a small amount of damage.

Hopefully he grows up well and makes good life decisions.

Mimic (Adult, NOT “Good”) from Enter the Gungeon gameplay (not my screenshot)

Eight Legged Friends ♥

Arachnida is a class of arthropods (within the subphylum Chelicerata) that includes spiders, scorpions and the handful of remaining lesser-known orders that are unique and underappreciated.

The order Solifugae (depicted here eating a slice of pizza) is one of my personal favourite Arachnid orders. Spiders will always be my #1, but Solpugids will always hold a special place in my heart with their prickly nubs and beady little eyes.

Solpugids are also known as :

  • Camel Spiders
  • Wind Scorpions
  • Solifuges
  • Sun Spiders
  • False Spiders
  • Roman Spiders
  • Jerrymanders
  • Children of the Earth
  • Eyambulohungi (the one who breaks the meeting up)
  • Otjibiryanguari (moving without purpose)
  • Vet vretters (fat eaters)
  • Jagspinnekoppe (chasing spiders)
  • Walzenspinnen (road rollers)
  • Haarskeerders (hair cutters)
  • “The Kalahari Ferrari”

Arachnologist Dr. Paula Cushing’s “The Truth About Camel Spiders” not only enlightened me about the many cheeky aliases of the elusive arachnids, but it proved to be a thoroughly fascinating in-depth lecture on these curious little crawlies that deserve some positive attention (for once!).

Steampunk Tardigrade

I drew this steampunk tardigrade for somebody on reddit who wanted a tattoo of a steampunk tardigrade. I never found out if they actually used the design. I’m not sure how it would work as a tattoo, but I came across it in a folder and figured I’d post it to my portfolio. I like how it turned out as a drawing and an example of something I made from someone’s request instead of my own ideas and subject matter.

The Owlfice #1

Note: I have nothing against internet fax solutions, and I seriously respect any owl in an office setting, and I can’t even express the amount of respect I have for a talking owl wearing a cute little tie . But i thought it was funny because the owls might not see too much of a change in their productivity and they didn’t have to implement fictional EZ Fax’s services, they could have just stuck with old-timey fax. But they wanted to be ahead of the game, as owls usually do.

Horseshoe Crab <3 Digital Painting

For this one, the resolution is intentional – it’s stylized to look like an old video game. Digital drawing made in Autodesk Sketchpad and then edited in Gimp
This is the version without the pixelization effect.

Below is a link to my TeeSpring store, where this little guy can be put on a tank top (or other items if you want, let me know)

https://neuralslush.creator-spring.com/listing/horseshoe-crab-cutie

Strubby’s Strawberries

Some people didn’t like how Strubby has jam all over his mouth because it seems like he’s eating his own kind, which is distressing to some. Here’s an earlier version without the jam on his mouth.

I am testing out selling designs on both Teespring and Teepublic to see which has more success and which is better for me overall. Both are linked below.

Teepublic Store:

https://www.teepublic.com/user/krystalwolf

Teespring Store:

https://neuralslush.creator-spring.com/listing/strubby-s-strawberries?product=333

Words Without Friends – Scrabble Diary

I play this Scrabble clone app on my phone a lot, and some “valid words” and “valid word definitions” seem … interesting so I screenshotted them below. Also I took screenshots of some of my invalid words that I think could be a word, along with some definitions I made up. Language itself is made up, therefore everything is valid and everyone’s a winner.

Invalid words that could be real words:

Sneeby adjective To be long snouted, sheepish and intend to avoid being caught licking things. Example sentence: “That sneeby little possum just lapped up the last of my macadamia nut milk!”

Caramelabuseverb To abuse/overuse caramel or carmelized items / noun Items that should not be caramelized. Example sentence: “This double dipped dreamsicle is an example of caramelabuse and general debauchery”

Glomp verb To hurl oneself upon another with an essence of stickiness Example sentence: “Tippy’s pal Molive glomped her in the hallway and she dropped her banana split”

Pouem noun A poem, or prose that is to be enjoyed whilst in the restroom. Example sentence: “He squinted across the room at the framed copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 hanging on the wall of the Taco Bell bathroom”

Goumet noun A high-priced gummy from a Michelin star restaurant. Example sentence: “For the fourth course, a Goumet a la Goomba”

Stepom noun A large footed soft creature that marries into your family. Example sentence: “After the divorce my stepom moved in with us and started shedding everywhere”

Gooty noun A brilliant blue old world tarantula Example sentence: “That Gooty Saphirre Tarantula is so beautiful eh?”

Tooty adjective Describes one who toots frequently. Example sentence: “The tooty gentleman seated next to me on the train put his jar of pickled eggs in the overhead compartment”

(=^・ω・^=) Cats in need of a new home! =^_^=

1. “Beurry” the cat wishes he could ₖᵢₗₗ ₑᵥₑᵣᵧₒₙₑ

None* of them are cursed, they all need loving homes full of living, breathing beings to ????? ?? love

2. SNO /╲IS Such a funny ℮ ℯ ℰ ℱ Ⅎ ℳ
3. “Snᴗm” the cat. Good with all living
4. Alveolarino is oNlYˈ(h)yo͞omən and cat scarf named SCsᴜᴘʀᴇᴍᴇʟʏarf
5. Tobb and cat. Tobb is a humanform
7. Julietta from Europe and her cat named ₤ ₥ ₦ ₧ ₨ ₪ ₫ 
2. Curvy Petey
8. Bootymittens & Best Frend Toenya
8. Cheezbarga after generalized hypoxia due to obstruction of the airflow in the glottis when <a href="url">CHEEZBARGA LOZT IZ MAIND</a>
9. Cats the Musical but the air in the theatre is baths salths
10. H℁ H℁  H℁ H℁  H℁ H℁  H℁ H℁  So ⊥rue cant breethe
11. Timuthi & Sparki (They come together) (they stay 4ever)
12. Help! Need a vet! My cat fell up inside down the stairs Transient ischemic attack inside a deformed spacetime pocket combination of nice brown crust that seals in moisture and satan
13. My aunt Molive and her cat CHORT
14. Pedigree winner & Onlooker from Craigslist
15. Fabricat is 9% polyester 66% Fleísch

https://thesecatsdonotexist.com/

…thankfully