Monday, May 18, 2009

Ingrid, Quadropode and Reginald Custom

Hellooooo!


I think maybe I should start sharing toys on my blog first and then everywhere else! Otherwise I'm always playing catch up. Like now... Here are some toys!


Ingrid Unicorn:



With Ingrid I really wanted to do something different. I wanted to include some sort of texture, instead of just lots of smooth huggable fleece. Her scales turned out real well I think. Sewing two pieces of fleece together, one on top of the other to make the scales puff out a bit. It actually made her body stiff enough to keep it's shape without any stuffing!


She's also got some silly teeth huh? I like them!


Quadropode:



The Quadropode is actually based on one of my earlier toys from way back in the beginning... check it:



This blue one was sewn completely by hand and much smaller than the new green one.


I have plans to create more Quadropodes in different colors, with slightly different expressions in the future, yes I do! A Quadropode is about 17 inches tall and completely sewn on the machine. That saves me time and encourages me to give it a much more affordable price tag. Check him out on my Etsy shop.


Finally.... here is Reginald. He is a custom order for a friend who's developing a top secret board game. So shhh....



He's a roach. He's got a sort of beatnik look going on with his button glasses and cigarettes. I could certainly go into a bit of detail about how difficult it was to get the size of his body right and the ridges on his bottom half... and good golly it was tough!


Custom orders are always much more difficult than working from my own designs. With Reginald I had a couple reference pictures but it still took me a couple tries to keep all his parts in proportion. Let's not even get into his accessories! But let's.


His glasses are suppose to be buttons and I had some crazy plans involving vinyl and other materials... but those ideas never really panned out. However just sticking with black fleece and running some wire through them worked pretty well I think! His clothes took a couple tries too, but I absolutely love how his sweater turned out!


Alright that's all for now.... Although I suppose I could announce this little tidbit...


I'll be participating in the Plush You show in Seattle in October. That's right! Big fancy plush toy show and they accepted my application! More on that soon enough!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Happy Birthday Victor!

Yes, it's my birthday! But there are more interesting things to share!

I finally got around to finishing Humphrey Sextapus! You'll see him in the little Etsy window to the side.




"Single purple male Cephalopod ISO fun loving six armed creature of the sea. Raised in captivity. Nearly 17 inches wide and 15 inches tall.

I enjoy long crawls up the side of the tank, clam bakes and spooking the occasional passerby with a cloud of purple ink.

My perfect match would be a little wild, possibly from the Pacific, sweet and is capable of communicating using their chromatophore skin cells.

While unable to relocate from the aquarium, neighboring tanks include Japanese spider crabs and jellyfish. They're good company. Meals arrive promptly at 8pm and then we can party the night away.

My picture is included please send yours with your reply.

Longing for love under the sea....
Humphrey."



I like him!

I'd also like to share that I've been accepted to participate in this year's Plush You toy show! It takes place in Seattle in the fall and I've got some great stuff planned! Just be patient and let me get my work done!

Finally, a quick little bit about another recent project I finished for college. We could pretty much do anything we wanted to do as long as it involved... time... I suppose... Anyway, I made a cartoon. I had tried to draw animations a couple years ago, before I started making toys. Now I'm doing it again! Wonderful!

I'm not an animation student, so it's not perfect, but it turned out pretty wonderful!



"Fish eat Fish" 2009 Remake. 275 drawings, that were done in pencil, then each of them inked, and photographed. I even managed to finish it in about a week! I'm impressed! Since I'm not studying animation I have slightly different learning curve... but I'm hoping to finish a few more cartoons by the end of the summer!

Bye bye All! It's time for meee birthday!