Petrupo

"Petrupo" It means pocket mouth (in my made up toy language). Sure, toys with mouths full of teeth are awesome and toys with silly lips are fun too! But there's something real precious about a monster with a pocket mouth!

This is Jorriee!

He's a snacker and a hugger. He may be attempting both those things in that last picture...

Hey! I haven't posted Bat pictures?!

There we go.

I've also emptied out my Etsy shop and I've FINALLY sent toys to the Made gallery in New Orleans. I'm awful at getting things done on time. But that'll have to change! There's so much happening nowadays!

Not only have I gotten started on my next shipment to the gallery, but I've also got to finish... my toys for the Plush You show, then I also want to get into the next issue of Stuffed! A toy magazine!

So much to do! Bye bye bye! See you all a bit later!

fwah!

A month in between blog posts?! That means a month since I've made anything new and wonderful! blah!

June has made me fat and lazy. Back to the toys.

Update soon.

Note: Post on Blog more often.

So what's new?! Not much!

I don't have anything clever to say at this particular moment so I will just share some pictures.

GREEEN BUNNNNIES. Now available on Etsy!

and some new Quadropode friends.


That is all for now. UNTIL NEXT TIME! CAPES ON!

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!

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!

To the Gallery!

So you probably thought I was sleeping this whole time right? Not making any toys, right?!

Well, you're wrong. Look at what I made!

2 morbishims, 1 morbisham, 8 bunnies and three new monsters! What a fun colorful bunch! Those bunnies are a gallery exclusive! Cause I do prefer to keep them white, makes things much much easier for me.

"Shreeby"
both valiant and humble. He can even stand on his own! What a guy!

"Meezles"
Four eyes... the better to see you with! and six legs... the better to steal all your nachos with!

"Nonunka"
looking sweet no matter how it's standing!

They're all going to the Made Gallery at:

2124 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA 70130

If you're around, go see them! Buy them! So I can make more toys for you to buy!



But it wasn't all work... I was even persuaded into making a Nannerpus:



It's not as good as a real banana, and I don't like making trademarked things! (Nannerpus might not be trademarked... it's about the principle!) But she wouldn't stop asking! Plus she has pretty eyes. What could I do?!

Finished at 3am... I was sleepy.

His eyes aren't even right! Where are my cupcakes?!?!

WARSINGTON!

Soon after seeing all those wonderful contest entires, I realized I really like the uncompromisingly simple, very huggable, gentle giant of a toy I call Warsington that I had made a long while ago.


The original sits on my couch, guarding it from evil spirits. I've decided I want to make more. He's around three and a half feet tall and I think everybody should have a giant plushie to hug every now and then. Especially in these tough economic times. However with a slight redesign and a bit of clean up I'd like to start selling them at your price.

That's right! I'm looking to gauge interest from people, who actually wants a Warsington and how much they'd be willing to pay. Then I'll pick the most popular price and that'll be the forever standard price of Warsington.

Of course, there are some things to keep in mind! He's pretty big which means the cost of materials (almost three lbs of stuffing) is about $20. I can't afford to give him away! So no less than 20 bucks, preferably... much more than 20 bucks...

Next, he's big and heavy. That means shipping especially outside of the USA may be kind of crazy.

Third, for a toy design, he's not complicated. Straight seams means less working time, which is one of the biggest reasons for me deciding on selling Warsington this way. It's the reason I'm willing to take a paycut!

Finally I can't do this all the time, for now this is a one shot. Every other toy in my shop in the future will only become more and more expensive (like crazy expensive!). But really, how often does an opportunity like this come along?!

$40? $60? $80? $175?? (ahaha, if only!)

In the end, I love toys. For all those people who share or will someday share that passion, I think you can certainly understand why I'm doing this. Toys help us explore our imaginations. They bring out the boundless enthusiasm we all have inside of us! So for this one time, it's not about the money, let's just have fun.

So tell me what you think. That was a lot to read, thanks!

Leave your price suggestions in the comments!