Werner the Squirrel and his traveling companion Klaus the Acorn have arrived at their new home in New York City!  They now live with Marci.

Werner ("verner") is named after the German director Werner Herzog.  Werner Herzog is so cool that even Henry Rollins (from the punk band Black Flag) thinks he's the shit.  Henry has a show on IFC. Henry was recently interviewed on Nerve:

NERVE: I read recently that one of the people you most wanted to interview was Werner Herzog. Did you get to?

HENRY: I did. He's going to be on the show. It was so cool. He said stuff I'm using now as rhetoric. I said, "As far as Hollywood is concerned, you're kind of an outsider." He just nodded his head and said, [In a German accent] "No. They are the outsiders." Thank you! New tattoo, please! We talked about when he was shot recently. He was doing an interview and someone shot him. [In a German accent] "Yes, but it was a small bullet in the abdomen; it did not perforate the intestine. I finished the interview. It was not a serious bullet." And I'm like, "You know, Werner, there's a lot of people out there, myself included, who think every bullet is a pretty fucking serious bullet!" So he goes into this long story about all the times he's been shot at, and what a rush it is for a guy his age to have someone attempt to kill him and be unsuccessful. I would follow that man anywhere.

I'm not sure why he gets shot at so much, since, from what I can tell, he is a sweet, warm, intelligent, and thoughtful person, but we should all be thankful that no one has been a half-decent shot because Werner makes *incredible* movies.

And then there's Klaus the Acorn, whom Marci christened "Angry Acorn."  He's named after the actor Klaus Kinski.  Werner and Klaus go way back - all the way to their teens.  Their collaboration is quite a crazy story.  This page of quotes from them kind of sums it all up.

The starting point for Werner is a pattern in Palm-sized Stuffies ISBN 4834722449.  I altered the tail so I could attach the marabou feathers and I designed a whole new head.  This is the third head I made.  The first two were rejected by quality control (a.k.a. Andrew).  One head was accused of looking like an walrus!  I used the same dark brown embossed felt as I did for Wim.

Klaus was created in a free-style frenzy of felt.  The big bulbous top is a little much (it's almost as big as the bottom part), but once I noticed the eerie resemblance to the real Klaus' vaguely swollen head and mop of unruly blond hair, I realized it was meant to be.

Wim is named after the excellent German director Wim Wenders ("vim venders").  Then name Wim is short of Wilhelm ("vilhelm"). Wim, the deer, now lives with Isa in Germany. Isa's post about getting the package is very sweet.

Wim was made from a pattern in Palm-sized Stuffies ISBN 4834722449. He is supposed to be made of fabric with seam allowances, but I'm addicted to hand-sewing felt right now so I made some alterations. It was mostly an easy transition, but the one thing that absolutely freaked me out is putting on his ears. It isn't explicit in the instructions (or maybe it is if you read Japanese), but you can see it in the pictures: you must cut slits in the felt head of the deer and insert the ears into his head. After spending lots of time sewing his head, which wasn't easy, I had to CUT SLITS into it. This process took days. First I made the ears and pinned them on the head. As I sewed the rest of the deer I would look at the head, reposition the ears, look at it some more. I wanted to make sure they were where I wanted them to be. Normally, if I sew something up and it's wrong, I just rip out the seam and re-sew it. But I can't un-cut a slit. Luckily, I did it right the first time.

The brown felt is embossed with a swirly stamped-leather type of design. I'd been waiting for the right project to use it. I'm amazed at how wonderful it makes Wim look. His eyelashes are a starburst sequin with some of the "bursts" cut off. Then the rest of the eye is a felt circle, dark blue small sequin, and a pearl bead.

I made a little photo album for the Isa's swap package. I've posted those photos in the next entry. The picture above was taken in the backyard of Independence Hall which is featured on the back of the $100 bill. It's run by the National Park Service. Luckily, I came prepared with scissors to trim the grass because it was so tall it hid half of Wim. I was fully prepared to be tackled by guards for destruction of federal property as I was cutting the lawn.