Rune is a multi-talented crafter: she knits fan-related clothing, knits Rogue dolls, and builds countless characters out of paper (also known as ‘papercraft’). She’s a Rogues and Flash fan and has made many of them in various forms, as well as creations of other DC characters and other fandoms like Doctor Who.

You can see more of her papercraft and knitted works at her DeviantArt gallery, and her Ravelry knitting account is here (unfortunately it seems you need a Ravelry account of your own to view the site). And she’s taking commissions, which you can find out about here!

I asked her about how she makes these items, and she graciously gave an interview.

SF: How did you decide to create these?

A: For the papercraft Rogues, I just saw a few Hetalia paperdolls and decided on a whim to build one or two myself, surely it couldn’t be that difficult. And it wasn’t – it was easy. And once you have built one, you understand how it works, and then you can use Photoshop to modify pre-existing templates or create your own. Since I love the Rogues, I decided to create my own little army. And that’s how I wound up with a lot of paper-Rogues.

As for knitting, well, one day it just was very cold and I didn’t have a scarf. I watched a YouTube video on how to knit – we had to learn that in elementary school, but I was horrible at it – and I thought to myself “Come on, you can do that”. And I could! And when you can knit any kind of stuff you want, why not put the characters you love on it?

SF: What kinds of materials and tools are needed?

A: For the paperdolls, you need at minimum a paper with the template printed on it, a pair of scissors, and some glue. In general, papercrafters advise you to get thicker paper, but with such little dolls, it’s unnecessary. If you want to go all expert, you can buy a cutting pad, x-acto knives and colored pencils to re-color the edges, but you don’t need to. What I personally suggest though is to get a few of those little index cards so you have something to glue your paperdolls onto.
And a standard paperdoll like this takes you only about 20 minutes when you’ve had a little practice.

Knitting: Simply put, needles and yarn.
There are 3 kinds of needles you can buy – straight needles for flat things like scarves, circular needles for hats, and double pointed needles for things like armwarmers or socks. What you need depends on what you want to make with them. I suggest size 3.5 mm since that works for most standard yarns.
And speaking of yarn, if you want to start out, go with 100% polyacryl – it’s cheap, non-organic (a surprising amount of people are allergic to wool and all that), comes in a lot of colors, is available everywhere where yarn is sold, and is easy to care for; you can put most of them in a washer or dryer without ruining them.

And you need a pattern. See question #3 for that.

SF: Did you follow any patterns from somewhere? If so, where can other people find them?

A: For papercraft, I modified existing templates, and you can find all of my paperdoll templates here (it has more DC characters, comic characters, and Doctor Who).

Knitting:
For my Flash stuff, I used this pattern to get the chart.
For the plushies, I used this pattern as the basis and heavily modified it.
Yes, you read that correctly, it’s a pattern for a snowman, I just got a little creative with it.

SF: Are there any other types of crafts you’re interested in?

A: I did experiment with clay once – but when the only shapes you can make are stones or balls, you’re a bit limited.

I also did advanced papercraft once, but I seem to have lost my mojo for that for now. In case you folks are interested, it can be found here.

Also, do yourself a favor and stay the hell away from Cubecraft. It’s a pet peeve, but those figures are ugly as hell.

SF: Are you going to make more? And now that you’re taking commissions, did you want to say anything about that?

A: Absolutely!
I have several more templates for paperdolls on my computer, I just lack the time to test them out.

And for knitting – of course.
On the list of my next projects is a Hero Afghan with DC heroes’ logos, for example. And I’m going to make a lot of plushies!

As mentioned, I’m taking commissions right now. If you want a plushie, message me at lapiccolavolpina@gmail.com or at my sites on Livejournal, DeviantArt, or Tumblr. (Or a hat or whatever – talk to me and we can figure something out). My stuff comes from a pet-free, non-smoker’s home, it’s non-organic (if you do want organic wool, I can use that, after all you’re paying for it) and if the Customs laws of your country haven’t banned knitted stuff, I can ship worldwide. I use PayPal and have so far 100% happy customers.

SF: Any tips for people interested in making their own?

A: For papercraft:
If you want a tutorial, look here.
If you want tips about papercraft in general visit here, and go check out the site itself, there are a lot of great patterns.
Papercrafting isn’t really difficult, you just need to get your courage up and just try.
And you can always contact me if you have any questions.

Knitting:
Patience, little grasshopper. As much as we all love speed here, take your time. The cool thing about knitting is that it’s binary – there are just 0s and 1s – when you can do these, you can do anything.
It’s not a hobby for grannies, knitting is cool. You can have something unique that no one else in the whole world has – and you can make it yourself. Check out a basics video on YouTube or don’t be afraid to just ask someone in a yarn shop or the yarn section in a department store. You’d be surprised how many young people and men shop there.
Once you get started, it’s easy – I made my own charts and patterns about two weeks after I learned knitting.

SF: Anything else you’d like to add?

A: Remember, I’m doing commissions 😀

I’ve made tons of comics-related stuff, so if you decide that red and yellow are not your colors, check out my other stuff.

And if you’re interested in seeing a paperdoll of your favorite character, just ask – odds are I already made the template or I can make one for you real quick.

I think that’s everything!

Thank you very much for your time and expertise, Rune! So, are any readers interested in giving something like this a try?

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