Crafting with a Side of Horror
I don't know if it's just me, but I've been noticing a trend towards the horror side of things in the Craft-o-sphere. Books like Zombie Felties: How to raise 16 gruesome felt creatures from the undead by Nicole Tedman and Sarah Skeate (2010) and Knit Your Own Zombie: Over 1,000 Combinations to Rip'n'Reassemble for Horrifying Results by Fiona Goble (2013) now grace library bookshelves, and the number seems to be steadily growing, which begs the question — should crafting include horror aspects, or should it only be consigned to the cute and cuddly?
The first book mentioned above, Zombie Felties, is an excellent crafting book for people looking to make something a bit more interesting or a bit more ghoulish than what can be found in The Cute Book by Aranzi Aronzo Inc., like Pumpkin Head, Thrilla, and a Zombie Fairy. The directions for each toy are laid out very clearly on the page, and templates for all of the pieces are provided at the beginning of each section. The use of colour pictures and diagrams also helps to give a good sense of how each piece is constructed, and how you can do it yourself.
Knit Your Own Zombie is another interesting take on the zombie theme, this time with knit toys whose limbs can be torn apart (thanks to Velcro and snap fasteners) and then reassembled in multiple different ways. Some of the designs include a Classic Zombie, Frankenstein's Monster, and a Zombie Rock Star. This book is good for those who have a good knowledge of knitting techniques, but for those who are just beginning knitters, everything is shown in colourful diagrams in the book's introduction. Each zombie has also been given its own background story, including images of old movie posters and movie stills, which adds a good amount of depth to each project.
I think that both of these books are great ways to explore how aspects of horror films can be used as crafting mediums, ranging from the creepy-cute to the downright creepy, and that they provide a lot of good instructions for those who would like to try making something completely different.
So, if you were given a choice to make something horrifying from one of these books, which one would you choose? Let me know what you decide.
2 thoughts on “Crafting with a Side of Horror”
I think I’d like to make knit toy that can be torn apart and put back together. It would be really cool to have a teddy bear you can reassemble in different ways.
Arts and crafts should include many different aspects, after all it’s just a creative outlet. People should show their creativity in whatever way they please. I think it’s kind of fun to see something so horrifying turned into something so innocent and cute, it’s a different perspective and I like it.
And something that you can re-assemble would be really cool (although pretty hard to make). It’s a very creative idea, especially to be combined with zombies because the thought of de-ttachable parts for a zombie would make a lot of sense in a plush