Sneaky Snowball

So it's the 1st of December, the first day of Advent and the Sneaky Snowball opening is all over.  The opening last night was a huge success and I am proud to be a part of Sneaky Raccoon's collection of  Festive inspired Kidrobot Munnyworld custom toys.  If you're near London get yourself down to the Kidrobot store for a festive treat as this show is running over the weekend.

 "Hissy Fit"  is a very angry little girl. She never gets what she wants, especially at Christmas time.  A custom Rooz.

"Oh Deer!" is the second of my pieces in the show. 

A very special little Reindeer that showed so much promise, plucked too early from the world, who knows who he could have grown up to be.

Toys that weren't snapped up last night are still available and you can contact Kidrobot London for details.

(The writing of this blog post took at least 20 Polly Pocket clothes changes with my 5 yr old sat next to me)

Added on some WIP photos:

Used the Rooz ears for the bow.

Bones

"Bones" is my piece for Project QiQi. 

 

Chris Alexander of Creo Design is showcasing around 35 international artists interpretations of Ziqi Wu's original toy at ToyconUK next year in April.

I loved working on this toy, it's sculptural form gave me endless ideas, but I had to pick one! I reinterpreted the little shape on the top of Ziqi Wu's original design as the tip of a bone, and cut it away to create a housing for a full length resin shaped bone pendant/necklace, which is worn on an oxidised silver chain and and stows away in the figure's head at the end of the day.

Below is the film I made to illustrate how it functions.  My brother-in-law Peter Lockhart AKA Mindflare produced the music that themes Bones.

For those about to rock.....

We salute you!

Monskey

Just wanted to share a photo from Monskey HongKong.  The goofy looking "Sidekick" on the far right is my design!  Monskey HK are producing these toy speakers which are amongst some of their products they are promoting at a trade show in Hong Kong this year for worldwide buyers.
This is really all the information that I have on it, but it's exciting to see a design I produced on paper being realised into a 3-d product.

Art For A Cure

I was invited to take part in the Mattia 2012 Series, a custom series of PigQee's donated by Toy2R to be customised to raise money for research and raise awarenes for the Mattia Fagnoni Association.  I have donated work before to this cause which is run by Francesco and Simona, based in Italy who are the parents of 5 year old Mattia who has “Sandhoff Syndrome”, a genetic, degenerative and lethal disease.
I have a child the same age as Mattia and this charity is one that has particularly touched me and it is an honour to take part in another one of their shows with artists from all over the world.

"Bloom" is my contribution and one of the first custom toys that I have incorported jewellery in.  With my Applied Arts background I have been producing one off and limited edition figures with jewellery components for quite a number of years now.  I am excited to begin to bring my 2 worlds of jewellery and toys together. 

                  

The idea for me is quite simple, jewellery is a form of wearable art, but what do you do with it when you're not wearing it?  Jewellery is sculptural and can be displayed and enjoyed as part of the character and I enjoy the aspect that part of a character has a secret function and when you are wearing the necklace you know it is part of a bigger picture.

The necklace is hand made resin pendant on an oxidised silver chain, the chain can be adjusted to be worn on two different lengths. The chain of the necklace drops down into a slot in the head and the pendant sits on a resin post.
This will be available at the show later this year in Italy.

 

Thanks for reading!

Episode One: Flash Back 1999

I am on my annual holiday in Canada with our family over here and in somewhat of a reflective mood.
Being so new to the designer toy scene I feel the need to look back to where I started, for myself but also to share with people who might wonder who on earth I am. This isn't going to be long winded, so please don't stop reading now.
I am going to start 13 years ago with work from my Degree Show at Edinburgh College of Art, I graduated in 1999 in Applied Arts and I'll say with a bit of a brag, (but I'm proud) a 1st Class Honours Degree.  I am so very proud of this, partly for the reason that I had the courage to do my own thing.  And 'my own thing' confused my tutors a great deal.

Although my department of Jewellery and Silversmithing was a pretty open minded one, I stretched them a bit with my abstract characters which were made up of shapes that also performed as brooches.
The thing was, that even in my first year designing functional jewellery forms, I just couldn't pull myself away from the powerful desire to create otherwordly creatures, and it's still what drives me today.  But I also have a designer in me and I like a bit of function with my form!

 "A Wa Wa What..?"  Was inspired by my painting above and I stayed pretty true to it!

The main figure splits into 2 brooches and stands on a base diameter approx  60cm. The theme is confusion and indecision.  The little clones with trumpet heads symbolise all the options and possibilities being shouted out, and the poor soul in the spotlight doesn't know what to listen to or which way to turn.
Mixed media, Limewood, silver and enamel.

Not the most practical of jewellery I know.
 

"Laugh Your Head Off" is my genius punn, as the head of the character came off to be worn as a brooch. 

I used a spring for one of the eyes to give it some bounce and add to the fun element of the theme. Truly mixed media, I used Plaster, Limewood, Oxidised silver, copper, enamel and a touch of gold on this baby.

"Televisions For Heads" stood on a meter long base (please excuse the poor photograph) I guess it was about being lost and unable to tune in.  Both the characters roaming the barron landscape have no signal in their tv heads which also double as tv brooches.  They had an image of the static tv embedded in resin and polished to look like an old fashioned glass television.

All my little installations each had a story to tell and were enhanced with sound effects specific to each one.  I think you can maybe now imagine how different this was standing in a room full of, albeit very contemporary and boundary pushing in form and materials jewellery but nonetheless it was jewellery.  But my weird mind was well received.
I can't believe that this is 13 years ago now.
To be continued...

Complementary Opposites

"Yin And Yang"

"All things in the universe have both a yin and yang aspect, each side of the coin required to sustain the other: light cannot exist without darkness, heat without cold, masculine without feminine.  The girl Yin and the dragon Yang are opposites which complement one another, interacting as part of a greater good."

 
I wanted this piece to capture the same feel of escapism, celebration and joy as the Chinese dragon dance costumes and performers do with such bounce and vitality.

All of the original Kracka is there except for the ears and arms. 

I wanted to stretch the figure out to accommodate a humanesque body, so I extended the legs and added feet.  I cut the torso in half and made it longer, keeping the original shoulders and neck so that the girl's head, which is sculpted onto the original fitting, could still turn.  Even the original tail was used as the tip.  The Dragon's mask is lined with felt, so it sits comfortably on Yin's head.

Here are some working shots from along the way.

                   

I made a little contribution of some stickers to go in the show's goodie bags...

You will be able to preview all the customs on The Sho Gallery's Website for 3 weeks prior to the show, which opens at 6pm on the 18th August, when the pieces will be available to buy there and then.  If you can't make it in person you can contact the gallery directly on the night to make a purchase, or thereafter on their website.

Keep up to date with the show at Dragons.

QiQi

I am very lucky to be one of 50 artists who've been asked to customise an exclusive DIY of the wonderfull QiQi figure from Ziqi and Creo Design.  This is going to be an International affair and the customs will be available to purchase once all 50 are completed. I'm looking forward to finding out who the other artists involved are.

I love this character and as a blank it offers a lot of possibilities for redesign and I can't wait to get my teeth stuck into it!

The first edition of QiQi is very limited, it comes in 3 styles Original Matte Red - 450pcs World Wide, Limited Gloss Red - 200pcs World Wide and Limited Gloss Black - 200pcs World Wide.

Each QiQi comes in a lovely hand-numbered box and you can find them here

QiQi is the brainchild of Ziqi Wu who's wonderful character design you can see at  monsterlittle.com or on follow on Facebook
Creo is a creative design, development and production company based in the Scotland, (hooray!  I live there too!) founded by Chris Alexander.  You can follow Creo Design on Twitter and Facebook and their Blog.