You know that we love a bit of cheeky humour at Whale & Bird and we LOVE that the Nudinits are a staple of our greeting cards collection! 

Our Nudinits collection created by the team at Woolly Vision follows the villagers of Woolly Bush, Barbara and Bernard and their friends. All made by hand these cheeky knitted characters are full of innuendos and gentle humour. 

We had a chat with Sarah Simi, one of the founders of Woolly Vision, and got a peek into the behind the scenes of the hilarious designs!

Tell us a little bit about your business...

I run a stop motion animation called Woolly Vision in London with animator Ed Hartwell. We have made several films with the characters of nudinits which have been shown at film festivals all over the world as well as winning a couple of awards. From that success, nudinits have their own following online and we have subsequently sold the license for greeting cards to Whale & Bird as well as for calendars and have had four nudinit books published. 

As Woolly Vision we are commissioned to make animations and have our own children’s channel on various platforms specialising in nursery rhymes.

What is your background? 

I have always worked creatively, in design, writing and acted a while back

When did you set up your creative business? 

We have been running Woolly Vision for about 5 years now.

Why did you decide to set up your creative business?

I came up with the idea for nudinits and got together with Ed to make our first film together. From that we realised we worked really well together and decided to set up Woolly Vision. We specialise in making animation with wool, fabric and felt so our animation has a very specific look.

Describe your brand in three words.

Nudinits are Knitted, Naked and Naughty

What inspires your work?

For nudinits, Carry On films, rude seaside postcards, Viz, that kind of thing - I just love innuendo, it’s such British humour!

Looking Forward To A Stiff One Greeting Card by Nudinits

Who are you inspired by? 

For animation then obviously Nick Park is god, for humour I loved Victoria Wood and for just glorious art would be David Hockney.

What does a typical work day in your business look like? 

It depends what we’re working on, but I could be writing scripts, building sets, making puppets, photographing Nudinit sets with Ed and trying to sell Nudinits in new ways. We also like to set time aside to come up with new ideas and we have recently been making lots of nursery rhymes for our children’s channel, Little Woolly Vision.

What is the best piece of advice you have been given and / or the best piece of advice you can share with artists starting out?

Be true to your own vision, don’t get bogged down in other people’s opinions - you can’t please all the people all the time.

What do you love about your job / business?

Being creative and making things that people respond to and love.

What do you dislike about your job / business?

Boring old admin obviously!

Aside from your creative work, what else do you like to get up to?

I’ve recently started making animal sculptures and I love travelling, especially to see animals in the wild.

Do you have a favourite design of yours sold on Whale & Bird? 

Barbara had got snow all over her muff never fails to make me laugh even now!

Barbara Had Got Snow All Over Her Muff Greeting Card by Nudinits

You can find the Nudinits over on their website and Instagram.