[Groop] New Groo Sculpture!

[Tone]

Hey fellow Groopies!
	I know it has been quite a while since I wrote to the Groop, but
other things have been taking precedence in my life... mainly concerns
about trying to buy our first house. It has just been taking a while!
	I have admittedly been lurking and reading every post in the
Groop though, but I just have not been writing anything back. OK, so I
confess I also got sucked into the video game Halo 3. :) By the way, my
apologies to any fellow Groopie-Xboxers. I know a couple of you on this
list have sent me messages and invites on Xbox Live, but I did not
respond. I get focused on what I am doing in a game and sometimes have
that habit. For that I apologize, but it does not mean I will not be up
for gaming in the future... just keep bugging me if you want me to play
with you and I promise I will never get annoyed. :)

	Anyway... all of this chit-chat is not what I am writing about
today. For a couple of weeks now I have been keeping my mouth shut even
though I have been witnessing something be created, which I know you
guys will love. I just did not want to tease everyone with it, but now
it is finished so I want to share it with you all.
	About two months ago my wife got into a new crafting hobby
called "Felting." Basically it involves using an unusual multi-faceted
barbed sewing needle in a repeated poking motion against felt and/or
wool. Think of it like tattooing, but instead of ink a person drives
colored strands and fibers of felt or wool into/against sheets of fabric
or fabric forms. The result can be pretty cool, in that a person can
actually "dense" together balls of felt or wool to create various 3-D
forms because felt and wool fibers are not smooth and they stick
together. The barbs on the felting needle just catch a few fibers at a
time and drive them into whatever other fabric a person happens to be
poking into.
	Ever since my wife got into this hobby, she has made a number of
cutesy miniature soft-sculpture figures... like our pet bunny rabbits, a
garden gnome for her indoor planter, an albino squirrel holding a nut
(she only had white felt at the time), her childhood pet dog, and two
human figures that look suspiciously like my wife and I.
	Having little fuzzy figurines is definitely not something I am
into, unless I was to get back into stop-motion animation or something.
However, when my wife kept bugging me to have her make a
felt-soft-sculpture I became rather annoyed with her until I came up
with the perfect thought. That thought of course was Groo! Ironic isn't
it... a perfect thought actually being Groo for a change?
	Anyway, I hope you guys do not get too jealous because without
further delay here are some direct photo-links I posted on my website:
http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/FeltGroo-Rside.jpg
http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/FeltGroo-Front.jpg
http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/FeltGroo-Lside.jpg
http://www.moon-shine.net/groo/FeltGroo-Back.jpg

	From the last photo (Back) you might notice Groo's swords
actually can be slid in and out of his sword sheaths! However the little
utility knife on Groo's belt is static. Still, I think it is all pretty
impressive. My wife borrowed several Groo comic doubles I had to get it
as accurate as possible. Notice, she even got the strap colors correct
on the handles of Groo swords. After so many years of reading Groo I had
actually never even noticed the handles on his swords differed. One
handle is black with yellow/gold wrapping while the other is gold with
black wrapping grip!
	The Felt soft sculpture is completely made out of "densed" felt,
except the swords, Groo, and Rufferto do have some pipe-cleaners as a
very basic structural skeleton. Everything else is all felt though. On
top of the skeletal structure the major mass of the form is made up of
white felt forms, then on top of that is all the colored felt on the
surface. When "felting" the more you poke a ball of felt with the needle
the tighter or "denser" the ball of felt will become, so people can get
some really detailed forms.

	By the way, I think I have mentioned I might be selling just a
few pieces of my Groo collection once I finally get a house and can move
my entire collection into it from New York, but for those of you
actually thinking of making an offer on my wife's felt Groo sculpture...
don't! :)
	As a joke I asked her what she would be willing to let me sell
it for, and she said $2000! Then she actually said she would just make
another set for me because she wants me to have a Groo from her, but she
is not stupid about turning down two grand! After all she has not been
as mentally damaged from all the years of reading Groo like us Groopies
have. :)
	Either way, I would never consider selling my wife's Groo
sculpture unless Sergio/Mark authorized it and they got their rightful
share. I kind of doubt my wife would actually want Sergio or Mark to
hash out a deal with her to sell them... it takes her a LONG time to
make these things and she inevitably ends up poking herself with the
needle several times. Heck, I even poked myself with the needle when I
was simply picking up the sculpture! :)

	Well, sorry this e-mail has been long, but it has been a while
since I posted anything and I consider this big news. :) I suppose I
could have broken up this message into a butt-load of teaser e-mails and
separated the image links in multiple messages. Maybe that would have
made up for my drop in the post-count competition. :)
	Speaking of "butt-loads" my wife even made Groo fairly
anatomically correct by referencing some comics were his big rump was
exposed. The felt-Groo looks pretty amusing without the orange tunic on.
:) I do not think you guys will get to see he underside of his tunic
though... this is a PG oriented Groop after all. ;)
	Take care everyone! And again, for all those on Xbox Live please
do not hesitate to message me or whatever (Tone 8). Lately I have been
playing Halo 3 mostly, but yesterday I actually bought Call of Duty &
GTA 4. I have yet to even put the discs into my 360! :) I just really
wanted to finally share the news about this Groo sculpture I have been
keeping under wraps. :)
_TONE_