New Year, New Ideas, New Projects

A pink and white unicorn poses next to the words "Art by Arlo Updates."

Happy New Year!

Phew! Christmas is over, and I finally have time to share all the projects I worked on over the past few weeks.

It was a mad dash to the finish, and many things didn’t go quite as planned. However, I learned a lot, found new inspiration, and I created some really cool art to gift to friends and family.

I put this newsletter together on the last day of the month, which deviates from my original plan to send these updates at the beginning of the month. In the future, I will continue to send these updates in the last couple of weeks of each month.

A thin banner wrapped around and hanging from an iron bar reads "September 2025."

A felted moth mounted in the center of a gilded frame.

New Inspiration: Moths

One significant change in my plans concerned the Christmas tree topper dolls. Unfortunately, numerous mishaps and setbacks made it impossible for the dolls to work out as Christmas gifts. It's my philosophy that if a creative project isn’t working out, you can't force it to succeed. Instead, it’s a sign that there may be a better alternative to the original plan. You should shift gears and allow the art to develop into its best version by working with it, not against it. So, I decided to shift gears and create different gifts instead. Looking ahead to next year, I plan to start Christmas-themed decor projects much earlier. I’m already drafting ideas for the holiday decor in my apartment!

One of the gifts I made, instead of a tree topper, turned out to be a massive source of inspiration for future projects. One of my sisters has a gothic, alternative aesthetic, so I made her a faux preserved moth by sewing, felting, and beading a moth that I mounted on felt in a whimsical picture frame. This project was incredibly fun to complete, and it turned out exactly as I had hoped. She loved it, and I found it to be a great source of inspiration.

From this project, I’ve come up with two new ideas. First, I want to create more of these moths in various sizes, shapes, and colors. My bedroom is an ongoing project with a vibe that blends whimsy goth with a playful mix of mid-century modern and boho styles. I’ve been gradually collecting and making art to fill the walls, and I believe these moths will be a perfect addition to the room!

The second idea is to add a new character theme to my doll projects. So far, the dolls I’ve been working on have sheep-like features. After completing the moth project, I’ve been inspired to design new moth-themed dolls! I can’t wait to share more about this in the coming months. Oh! And speaking of new characters, I’ll also be introducing some unicorns! If you want to hear me discuss the history and significance of unicorns in art and why I am so captivated by them, be sure to listen to the "No Longer Subtext" Bonus Episode dropping tomorrow. This episode includes a fun crossover element in which I talk about how the themes in the novels we read overlap with the work I’m doing.

A beanie with felted applications to make it look like a cow's head, complete with horns, ears, nose, bead eyes, and a septum ring.

I created a cute cow beanie for my sister who loves cows! I purchased a brown hat and an 8g septum ring, made some ears, horns, and a nose, and sewed everything together for this custom winter hat.

A doll is sitting posed on top of a stack of books.

A Very Unique, Custom Doll

This is the Christmas gift doll project that went as planned! This year, Pa Ying and I completed The Disabled Tyrant's Beloved Pet Fish for our podcast, and it has become one of our favorites. Pa Ying collects art related to various danmei stories she enjoys, including figures. Unfortunately, this particular series doesn't have much available art, certainly not any figures, so I decided to make one for her!

For this project, I designed a sculpture intended to sit on the edge of a bookshelf alongside the novels that inspired it. I created panjama-like clothing that incorporates fish-themed elements to connect with the character's fish form from the book. Additionally, I sewed together a black koi fish plushie for him, meant to resemble the fish form of his husband. (This makes more sense if you've read the book. 😅)

The most challenging parts of this project included creating his very full head of hair and sewing the doll into the clothes. Because this doll is the first to be entirely sculpted from clay and frozen in a single pose, I had to design and sew the clothes to be sewn directly onto it. This doll is also the first to feature synthetic, human-like hair rather than just a wool-felted head covering. Unfortunately, there were some setbacks, including accidentally snapping off his hands and head. However, I recovered and completed the doll as planned.

I learned that these issues can be particularly problematic and inevitable if I keep making the dolls frozen in one pose. Moving forward, to address this and elevate the dolls, I plan to articulate them. This will be a substantial undertaking and will come with its own challenges, but I’m really excited to work towards this goal!

This doll head is leftover from one of the tree topper projects I stopped working on. The challenge with that project was that I loved this face, but I didn't feel the rest of the design matched it well. I plan to use this doll head in a future articulated doll project to bring her to life.

A doll head featuring dramatic makeup, a curly wool head covering, and horns, surrounded by floating doodled stars.

“No Longer Subtext” Holiday Special

But that's not all I worked on for the holidays! Pa Ying and I also did a Holiday Special for No Longer Subtext. This month, our regularly planned episode dropped on Christmas Day. That episode featured our discussion of Legend of Exorcism Volume 3. When we got together to record the episode, we agreed that all we had to say was just too much for one episode. So, we made it a two-episode special! The second episode is set to drop tomorrow, completing our two-episode series across two holidays.