prehistoric plush: dunkleosteus

Theodore Roosevelt summed it up best with this quote:
“whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ’em, ‘certainly i can!’ then get busy and find out how to do it.”

a dunkleosteus rendering (source: wikipedia)

Dunkleosteus: a big, old fish.

I think, barring anything incredibly complex, it’s a great philosophy. So when one of my photography friends said, “hey sam, can you make a plush dunkleosteus?” I said, “sure!”

(well, first i said “what is that?!” and he told me it was a giant dinosaur fish thing.)

At first, I was worried. Those teeth, all the layers of bone, all the details and hard edges… what if I couldn’t do it? But it was one of those moments where, as soon as I stopped thinking about it, I could see it perfectly in my head. It’s a plush, right? I can do plush. At that point I gave myself a pep talk, rushed to Joann’s, snagged a ton of gray fleece, and got to work.

This was one of the most complex plush I’ve ever made: he’s got side flippers, a top fin, little tail fins. With all the “bone”/exoskeleton layers, the back of his body is three layers of fleece. And then there are those teeth! Man, those were tricky. Symmetry is always a challenge.

He took longer than expected, because there was a lot of pattern drafting to be done. But I think he was worth the wait. Wanna see?

dunkleosteus (prehistoric fish) handmade plush

dunkleosteus (prehistoric fish) handmade plush, goofy smile and all

dunkleosteus (prehistoric fish) handmade plush

I just love his goofy smile, and the fleece, as always, is just so soft. I also finally broke into the ultimate safety eye stash that I’ve been hoarding for a few years now – it sure is handy to have some of every safety eye lying around!

I just love doing custom plush. It’s always a scary challenge, but they usually come out alright, and that just feels so good! Do you like it?

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7 Responses

  1. Joshua says:

    LOL! I love it. :) Super cute. My mom even thinks it is pretty cool. Keep on sewing! :D

  2. Joshua says:

    A quick question…I went to the fluffyland shop after reading this and it appears to be down. Any particular reason? Thanks! :)

    • Sam says:

      Thanks Joshua! I’m so glad you like “the big fishy”. And yes, I’ve been doing some work on my site… but thanks for alerting me, because part of it IS still up, it’s just harder to get to. I will fix that. The “in the meantime” shop is here: http://fluffyland.bigcartel.com/
      Hopefully I will have everything redone and reorganized by next week!

  3. Truth says:

    It’s freaking adorable! I have just recently stumbled upon your site and i fell in love with your narwhal plushies, But this one is just as cute! I love his smile!

  4. Todd says:

    My wife is a former geologist and has a soft spot in her heart for The Armored Fish of the Devonian.

    Have you made any more of these? Would you consider selling one? if so hit me up on email.

  5. Sisifo says:

    Holy fun-ness! I LOVE custom plushies! I just discovered your blog via Yahoo! (congrats!) and have been wandering through your previous posts. Loving it all so far, but this just flat out deserved a comment. Love it.

  1. November 7, 2013

    […] much about this goofy, giant chicken is because I was asked to make a plush one! Todd, a previous Dunkleosteus customer, has a toddler daughter who absolutely loves the chicken. And who can blame her? Todd […]

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