While having a clear-out at home, I came across these three funny characters. I made them a few years ago when I did an MA in Illustration and Animation at Kingston University – they were part of a project about synaesthesia, a strange medical condition in which senses get mysteriously connected, so that people taste shapes, feel flavours, hear colours or any other crazy permutations.

Each of these three has a zip for a mouth, and when you unzip them you can turn them inside out so that they turn into a different character – each one represents a sense so that they are connected, and can also ‘play’ with each other.

Here’s ‘Feely’: (linked to taste)

And this one’s the hearing one, with his listening trumpet:

When you turn him inside out, he becomes ‘sight’, with lots of eyes on curly silver feelers:

Then there’s smell, who comes with a hankie ready to use – there he is, on the right hand side:

As there are only 5 senses but they needed to be in pairs, I had a problem – the inspiration struck – the final one is, naturally, the Sixth Sense, who I named Mr Six. He’s a bit special with a green silk bow tie and crazy antennae, and six velvety toes:

I haven’t looked at these creatures for years, but it’s been great fun getting them out again.