miffle, originally uploaded by pentagonaster.

norbert, originally uploaded by pentagonaster.

i think i first became aware of moomin valley when i was in japan. i bought a planner at a toy store there that was covered with moomin valley characters throughout. i had no idea what they were, only that i loved them at first sight. now i wish i had known to stock up on moomin merch while i was over there, because it’s pretty hard to come by in the states, or at least where i live.

even the books themselves can be somewhat tricky to track down, as anyone who’s tried may know. after reading the review of “Who Will Comfort Toffle?” over at Book By It’s Cover, i had to get it of course. i managed to find a dealer in the UK through alibris who had a copy in good condition, and even with air mail it only cost about $25 altogether. it was totally worth it too. to me, this book really lets jansson’s amazing and idiosyncratic style shine, even more so than the collected moomin valley strips that D & Q has released.

i bought some shrinky dinks last summer fully intending to make glorious shrunken artifacts, but break-ups and moving and things kinda got in the way.. being reinspired by these katamari magnets, i really wanted to give the shrinking a go, but what to make? digging around in my books, i thought of my favorite scene from the toffle book - oh that amazing hair! a shrinky dink it was! a natural conclusion any sane person would come to of course.

it was really easy; using the entire sheet, i just placed it over the page and copied it out with permanent marker. nice way to spend some time on a sunday afternoon. coloring has a very calming effect, even if it’s not my own drawing…

i had some scraps left over from some test shrinking i did last night, so i copied out ol’norbert there from a kids poetry book i thrifted a couple years ago too, and popped them in the oven for 3 minutes and voilà!

miffle came out a little bit warped (i still haven’t got the flattening before they cool thing quite down yet), but she’s still really pretty. i made sure to punch holes in the top before baking (at least i got that part down) and tied on some string and up she went! against the light she has kind of a stained glass look. i think it would look neat as a night light cover also, though i’m not sure how safe that is, as far as fire hazards and plastic go.. and norbert is now my new fantastic cell phone charm, har har.

anyhow, now miffle can not only comfort toffle, but she’s brightening up my kitchen window too!