Today’s PlanetJune Story comes from Kendra Hoover of Kendra’s Crafty Crafts. Kendra specializes in amigurumi replicas of pets, and I featured her work in The Essential Guide to Amigurumi as an example of how amigurumi patterns can be used to create unique custom pieces.
I intentionally design my crochet patterns with clean, simple lines and structure, so they’re easy to follow and give a realistic, well-shaped result. But you can also use my patterns as a starting point to add your own details and modifications to more closely match a real-life animal.
Kendra does this incredibly well, and I thought you’d enjoy an insight into her journey. I’ll intersperse photos of some of her beautiful work (all based on PlanetJune patterns) together with their real-life counterparts, so you can admire her creations as you read. (Some of them are so realistic you may have to play spot the difference to tell the real pet from the crocheted version!)
Now, over to you, Kendra…
Kendra’s Story and Gallery
Hello, my name is Kendra, owner/creator of the Kendra’s Crafty Crafts amigurumi business.
I taught myself how to crochet as an adult, and I pretty much started with amigurumi. Animals have always been an inspiration to me with every craft I have tried, and crochet is the one that has stuck with me for the longest.
The first crochet animals I ever made were some (very unshapely) guinea pigs. Of course I had to keep practicing so that I could make them look like my own guinea pigs. I shared a picture in a guinea pig Facebook group, and that’s where I learned about Etsy.
After some time making generic guinea pigs, I finally got brave enough to try custom markings. After that, I wanted to expand my pattern collection and try different animals, and that’s when I discovered PlanetJune and all of June’s amazing patterns!
I have since made many of June’s patterns, and played around with different techniques of customizing them to look like people’s pets.
After a lot of research and searching and watching videos on the internet, and more than a little bit of trial and error, I have come up with a lot of different ways to make a crocheted animal look similar to photos of people’s pets.
(Almost all of the techniques I have discovered on my own are in June’s book: The Essential Guide to Amigurumi. Isn’t that convenient?)
Now, 7 years after first learning to crochet, I’ve moved on from Etsy and have my own website where I sell my crocheted animals.
I’ve made hundreds of pet memorials and pet look-alikes in that time, and every year they get better and better!
It’s so much fun to look back and see how much I’ve improved my skills, and that wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t get to make so many unique pets for all of my wonderful customers!
(Back to me, June, again!)
Isn’t Kendra’s work fantastic? I love to see the details she adds to each custom piece, to turn my patterns into true pet replicas.
Thank you so much, Kendra, for sharing your story with us today.
Please leave Kendra a comment if you’ve enjoyed this post!
Links
- How to customize: For guidance on how you can start to incorporate these techniques into your own work, Part 2 of The Essential Guide to Amigurumi is devoted to customizing amigurumi, whether you’re trying to add extra details, make a likeness of a specific person, or recreate your favourite pets in yarn!
- Dog patterns: Kendra’s dogs are all based on mix-and-match versions of various AmiDogs patterns. You can find all 24 AmiDogs crochet patterns in the shop. They’re available individually, or you can choose a value-priced custom set of any 3 breeds so you can mix-and-match pieces to better match your pup.
- Other pet patterns: You’ll also find the patterns Kendra used as the basis for all the other pets pictured here in the Pet Animals category of the PlanetJune shop 🙂
Do you have a PlanetJune Story you’d like to share? I’d love to hear it! Please email your story to june@planetjune.com, together with one or more high quality photos showing what you’ve made from PlanetJune patterns. If I choose your story to feature here on the blog, I’ll send you your choice of pattern from my shop to say thank you!
Deanna Staniforth said
Brilliant work by Kendra. Very life like