early morning meow

Last Friday, me and couple of cool cats decided to do a little photo shoot in Trafalgar Square on our wait to work. It was bloomin' cold, but being true artists the cats bared it all with a stoic spirit (please, don't call RSPCA, I defrosted them and my fingers later on) 

These were made for a commission that nearly took the best of me, but first, let me explain a little bit about why I started making toys so that you can understand my initial reticence towards this project.

I am a really fortunate person as I have the privilege to work on something that I love, not many people can say the same. However, just like any creative job where your working for someone else, I spent most of my day creating someone else's idea of perfection and it can be a bit frustrating. Ask most artists that work with me and you'll find a lot of ways to vent off after a long day at work. Some make their own movies, others play instruments, rock climbing, play games, etc, etc... I on the other hand make toys.

At home in my little corner, I'm a little toy dictator. I make what I want when I want and no one can say otherwise (even when I ask for an opinion). It's a bit silly but, it is what keeps me sane some days! 

Usually, I am really lucky when I get commissions, most times people have seen my work and are glad to give me pretty much, free reigns.

But, this time it was different, the person that asked me to make these cats was really really specific,  down to the difference in the size of the cats' eyes, fur tone and spot shapes amongst other things.  

My ickle brain fused! It was almost like I had brought work home and for weeks I had a creative block like I hadn't had in years and just to make matters worst I got an email asking me if I couldn't lower the price by making them smaller!!

Oh the cheek!

For weeks I was completely stuck until a little light switched on in my brain and decided to go completely in the opposite direction... I retained a bare minimum of his suggestions and made something extremely stylized. I didn't care any more if he liked it or not, this was a matter of pride, how could someone ever make me feel so creatively frustrated to the point that I didn't even want to make a cat soft toy?!?

... guess what? It worked! He loved it and even payed more that I asked for :)

So, the moral of the story is... When in doubt follow you instincts because, at the end of the day you have to be able to live with yourself :)   

hello duck!

I finished this little duckling on Saturday. It was a bit of a challenge, as I was specifically asked to make a mallard duckling instead of the normal run of the mill, bog standard yellow duckling. I threw me in a bit of a loop of awhile as it is harder to put my stamp on something, when it is this specific. 

I guess that in a way I just had to relax into it and go back to basics, like looking at photos and thinking about what make a mallard duckling identifiable and came up with a (deceptively) simple two tone design. Most of it ended up being hand stitched, which I think adds to its charm ;)

 

Just to add to the cuteness, I decided to add a little tear duct and line under the eyes.

 

Awhile ago I ordered some personalized labels from the internet, but never really liked them. They felt so big and impersonal. It was like it was going against the my ethos of highly personalized and unique toys!

So, for this little duckling I decided to add something special, my own logo. This one is completely hand sewn and impractical but, I have a couple of ideas to make it more manageable, yet still homemade. For the people that know me well, there is a bit of an inside joke and for others?... 

Well, I just think that it is mighty cute! Isn't that enough? :)

 

   

this little piggy

The second commission that I got was to make a little piggy for someone who's pig crazy. I had an idea to make something like this for awhile so I was really happy to start working on this project.

The piggy is nearly all hand stitched and just to make it even more special, I knitted a little pink vest for it.

I apologize for the crumminess of the photos, but it's winter and I need to ask father Christmas for one of these.

princess faily ballerina...

... phew, that's a looooong title and it's the name of the next toy that I'm going to show you.

Awhile ago I decided to throw caution to the wind and sent an email with some shameless self promotion to all of the people at the studio where I work. I thought "What the hell! What's the worst that can happen? No one liking my toys... Impossible!" :P 

Surprisingly enough, I got some orders! Hurrah!

... An here's the very first one I made, a princess faily ballerina.

 To the people that read my blog regularly (if there's anyone in the world that does that... I am a fan of yours), you might have noticed that I'm not much of a doll person. Maybe it's because I only had a couple of them in my childhood or my auntie's freakish collection of porcelain dolls, I've never really been attracted to them. So, this was a bit of a challenge for me.

When I was first asked to make this doll, it was meant to be a ballerina for a little girl who loves ballet, then it evolved to a fairy ballerina and finally I thought that I might as well make her a princess, just in case that was the next request. It was a bit of a bummer not being asked to add on lion tamer, trapeze artist and doctor as I think that it would have made the doll cooler :)

My Hugsy eats... Flowers!

I apologize for the crummy picture, but, if you're like me you'll understand... I just cannot help myself, as soon as I finished this cutey (or any other softy) all I want to do was to take is to the person that commissioned from me, just to see the look on his/her face :D
This little cow is part of a collection named "My hugsy eats..." and was made for a tiny baby called Inez (by the way the name on the back was hand embroidered and glows in the dark how totally awesome is that?)

This cute chap was also commissioned by the same person, for his 3 year old son, who's totally obsessed with penguins.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post some photos of the happy customers pretty soon!