Meet the Artist

The human behind the Beasties

My name is Cristina, and I made my first plushie in 2013. It was a giant Totoro created from a free pattern I found online.

I needed the pattern to be much bigger, so I drew it onto a piece of glass and used a flashlight to project it onto a wall. I then traced the enlarged pattern onto the fabric. It was an unusual solution, but it worked — and it was the beginning of something that kept returning to me.

Around 2019, I needle-felted some early Beastie prototypes. In 2022, I made my first amigurumi bear.

I have always had a knack for crafty things, but it was only during the past year, following my late autism diagnosis, that I began to understand how deeply I love making plushies. I realised that I could simply make them for the joy of it and share them with other people — many of whom may connect with these creatures in the same way I do.

How a Beastie appears

Usually, I begin by knitting a basic shape. I do not always know exactly what it will become. As I work, the creature slowly takes form and begins to reveal its personality.

Inspiration can come from films, books, art, collaborations with other creators or completely ordinary things I encounter in everyday life.

Made by hand

I love disappearing into the making process and getting completely lost in it. There is something special about giving a ball of yarn a life, finally holding the finished plushie and imagining it being cuddled or displayed in someone else's home.

Every Beastie is put together by hand. I do not make the yarn myself, but everything that turns the materials into a creature is done by me.

The time, care and small decisions involved in creating each one are what separate a Wee Beastie from something mass-produced.