Plush Monsters Designed by Kids

i love it!

While this is an awesome project, I looked at her website and she charges $250-$350 to make a monster from a drawing. It doesn't say how much she sold them to the parents for, but hopefully on a sliding scale! I cannot imagine a classroom where all parents could even cough up $100. The planning and design aspects were great educational ideas; I would do this in my own classroom (but not hold anyone hostage for money, the kids can just have their animals.)

Keri

I read the same and agree with what you said. Being an artist myself the idea/design is the art. She is just the fabricator. I wonder how may people have actually contacted her to "commission' her?

Yeah, these guys are at many of the local craft shows around Baltimore/DC and are much cooler:

http://cottonmonster.com/

I find this a bit patronizing to the children. A child doesn't do a crappy drawing because he likes the quirky, avant-garde appeal of uneven eyes or a mouth that goes off the face or whatever. He draws that way because he can't draw any better, he's still learning, he's too young. This project basically amounts to saying "ha ha, look at the crazy nonsense these doepy children made! Look at how bizarre it looks when their illogical designs are carried into the third dimension!"

My children have made similair plush monster toys on their own. They were inspired by the popular "Ugly Dolls" that are selling in all kinds of toy/gift stores. Ms. Karten and her student's "designs", though colorful, are hardly original.

Of course you can find many other plush monsters, some are nice and some are not. You decide for yourself. If you don't like these particular guys, so what?

The important fact is to teach kids how to design things. If you look at the drawings you see that the kids had the actual products in mind. They have added scales and production hints and such. I think that is the important story. The outcome is pretty neat and I guess they would sell on the market, too. I think they look more original than the streamlined ”cottonmonsters“ and quite a few people would buy them (if the price would be reasonable).

@DrewDerby Of course it is nice to let the kids actually make them on their own, but sewing is a skill most kids learn after they have learned drawing. I would consider that to be step 2… :)