Subscribers to my newsletter got a little sneak of this a couple of weeks ago, if you want to preview my available work before anyone else please subscribe to my monthly newsletter. I have created these three pieces for the Persona exhibition at the Sho gallery, which opens this Friday May 25th.
The Forest Dweller (Mixed media with faux fur)
Forest Dwellers are peaceful, kind creatures who balance the woodland energy. They live long, quiet, lives spending their days tending the landscape and keeping a watchful eye on the creatures of the forest, aided by the Tree Sprites, who tell them if anything is amiss with the harmony of their surroundings. These gentle beasts prefer to stay out of sight and are rarely seen by humans.
Tree Sprites (Mixed media)
Tree Sprites are playful, inquisitive little beings. They have been observed in a wide variety of breeds, though their purpose is always the same; to keep a watchful eye on the forest and assist the Forest Dwellers on maintaining the harmony of the landscape. Blending into their environment, listening out with their large ears and communicating what they have observed back to the Forest Dwellers. Tree Sprites are regarded fondly by the Forest Dwellers, who view them as both a friend and a pet.
Please email if you are interested in purchasing these pieces.
Persona is an exhibition celebrating the art of character design; the creation of a visual personality with a strong and interesting identity. A unique collection of work from selected contemporary artists and designers including:
A little stranger, Dan Chernett, Dominic Mayer, Ed & Flo, HollowShells, Huw Barrett, Ian Watson, Jimbob Isaac, Mr Go Nathan Miller, Philip Morgan, Ross Cocker and more…
Show Runs May 25 – July 4th. Opening Preview Evening Friday 25th May from 7pm – 10pm.
The SHO Gallery and Shop, The Coach House, 1a Inverness Place, Roath, Cardiff, CF24 4RU. http://www.thesho.co.uk/
Urban Vinyl Daily have kindly made me featured artist of the month, thank you Ben for the great interview questions! Head on over now to read about how i got into the toy biz, upcoming plans for Cavey, my influences, customs and more…
Phew! It’s been a crazy few months which has left my online shop a little neglected as things seem to fly out of shows before i can get them up online. So i’ve been putting my free time over Christmas to good use and updated the A Little Stranger Shop.
A great big sort out of all my stock following all the live events and custom shows i’ve done this year has left me with two customs and half a dozen Bunny Brooches to add to the shop! Visit alittlestranger.bigcartel.com for a browse.
I can’t believe its almost a year since we last crossed the pond over to the US for SDCC! After a little teaser last week, here they are; the first images of the SDCC exclusive Cavey – Super Duper Caped Cavey! There are 30 of each colourway, and to keep things simple all the Caped Caveys will be available on all the booths from the start of Comic Con (Thursday morning). The only exception is the pink and white Caped Cavey, which is limited to just 10 pieces and is only available by finding me at Comic Con. Last year you found me by spotting my pink Cavey ears, but this year to make it even easier to find me, I will be doing signings on the following booths over the weekend:
- October Toys Booth #4838 Thursday July 21st. 12 noon – 1pm
- Dragatomi Booth #4935 Friday July 22nd. 12 noon – 1pm
- DKE Booth #4728 Saturday 23rd July. 12 noon – 1pm
Holly x
I can’t believe Cavey’s Birthday Party is finally here! Months of planning and countless hours stitching away on all of the one-of-a-kind artist designed Caveys (they finish tonight, 26 May, 20111 9:55 BST on eBay) i’ve never planned anything like this before- my usual idea of a party is to send a text round and put out a bowl of bombay mix, so cross all your fingers and toes i pull it off tonight. Me and Vicky spent last night making Cavey cupcakes, and my stockpile of Cavey party stuff has exploded out of the studio; there’s Caveys all over my sofa, the bedroom. It’s 6:45am now and i’ve been up for ages cos i was too excited to sleep.
Cavey’s birthday Party is tonight May 26th. 7-10pm Fleet River Bakery, Holborn, WC2A 3JF, London, United Kingdom. Come join us for some birthday cake, see some unique Caveys and meet the artists!
The lovely Andy of Toysrevil just posted an interview we did over on Toysrevil.com. Thanks andy!
Remember my custom Lunatrik Mini Tea, Monster Brew? Here’s some snaps (and a little video) of him on display amongst the other wonderful customs at Pictoplasma. Over 70 custom Mini Tea’s were on display, and the different ideas everyone had come up with for their custom was staggering. The custom cuppa’s are now on their way to the next stop of the Tea Tour, in Vienna. More about the Tea Tour on Lunartik.com. Enjoy!
We treated ourselves to a long weekend away last week for the bi-annual Pictoplasma character design, art and animation festival in Berlin. I must’ve taken 237459643875463 pictures, and had a real struggle to pare them down to what you see here – the festival was fantastic! It was my first time going to Pictoplasma and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and if you’ve never been i would definitely recommend it. It gave me the same kind of vibe as being back at uni, all day there were lectures and film screenings, then at night parties and DJ’s playing. Rosa Luxembourg Platz was transformed into a Character Walk, following a map you can walk around the city discovering little galleries with beautiful exhibitions on by established and upcoming artists. The festival came at a time when i’m feeling pretty burnt out from work and the long weekend of arty friendy lovliness was much needed, I came home feeling totally inspired.
I had my tarot cards read (Which was, um, fun but slightly scary!) drank green beer, danced with a Yeti on stage, fell in love with Mochimochi knitted adorableness, watched the funniest film i’ve ever seen, went to an art exhibition/gig in a squat, had a great time with my friends and made some new ones
Jeremyville
Mcbess
MochiMochi Land. I took so many pictures of this exhibition, Anna had suspended knitted planets from the ceiling so you were walking around a kawaii solar system. Depressingly (but not unsurprisingly) all her pieces were already sold when we got there. Anna’s knitting talent makes me sick with envy. Just kidding, i’m her new biggest fan! 
Bee Kingdom.Blown glass sculptures. I’ve been saying for years that I’d love to do glass blowing, and maybe one day I’ll get on the case of having some classes. These glass sculptures were just gorgeous and captured the light so beautifully.
Video: A small frightened robot hiding in a cardboard box by Tordal, and Beatbot by Beatbots. Both of which were completely adorable, i love robots! The Beatbot i had seen online before and didnt imagine he would be so big in real life, the way he moved made him seem really alive. The Beatbot could be controlled by sound, or by a wii remote which was pretty fun to have a go on and made the little guy spin around, wheeeeeee!
Character Totem (InkyGoodness). An art collective that celebrates and brings to the spotlight emerging talent in the creative scene. Each artists decorated a blank totem, and they all went on display together in Berlin. Another exhibition where i took a bazillion photos.
Doppeldenk. I applied for the Pictoplasma residency this year and was a bit gutted that i didn’t get it, and now i see who they picked i can see why – Doppeldenk’s exhibit smashed it. You walked in to a room of UV posters light by a blacklight, the second room had these giant painting (i want one in my house so bad!) and at the end was a life size statue of a bright green alien eating a light up rainbow.
Her Idea. Beautiful artwork by Rilla Alexander. I really loved the sleeping bear sculpture made out of scrunched up paper. Plus, she’s adorable. Rilla has herself a new fan!
Canis Mortuus Familiaris by Jeremy Dower. Hands down the creepiest exhibition we saw. He gave a really interesting lecture where he described the idea behind the work as ‘what happens to a character once they die?’. The images are of characters who are in a transition state as the pass into non-existence. Most surprisingly he explained his work is not done using 3D software, these are digitally illustrated pieces. Amazing.
3 Moments in the Life of Kaluk by Ben and Julia. Insane french artists. I loved their lecture and thought their video pieces were wonderful. If i’m totally honest i didn’t dig their exhibit nearly as much as their video’s.
Matt JOnes’ Plastic Surgery workshop. Matt took two classes over the weekend, teaching silicone mould making and resin classes. We turned up at the end to have a nosey (and round up everyone for the pub!) and caught Jonesy doing this pretty epic Jesus impression 
Pictures of Matts Mini Tea exhibition soon!
Mark Jenkins. Mark places clothed human dummies in unexpected places, photographing peoples reactions. These looked so real, there were no exhibition signs up, of course, so i did a proper double-take before realizing this was the exhibition. Good job Mark, you got me!
Woodcut printing workshop.
“Holly”
Sex Kino, heeeeay
Tummy Time!
Luc and Jonjo while we were out and about on the Character Walk
Corbett Feeding time
This pretty much sums up Berlin; colourful graff and bikes everywhere!
Kitty, Me, Bunny
The Missing Link Show. On the last night there was a huge show in the big second exhibition hall, featuring music, yeti’s, a VDJ, and more yetis’. I was a bit unimpressed at the first half of the show, but the second half blew my socks off. Disco dancing Yetis (who came up into the crowd) and the audience got invited up onstage to dance, run around and play games. Pure joyous fun, it was like being a little kid again. I was so excited about running up on stage i didn’t take my camera, but I’ve been promised a video of me in the dance competition, and of all of us cuddling the yeti’s
Hey Tahir!
After the missing link party a gang of us headed to an art exhibition/gig/market in a squat. Every inch of the place was covered in graffiti, with a band playing outside around a bonfire, a floor or art, then go up a couple more stories and there were bands playing. Completely surreal and really really fun. You just don’t get shit like this in England
A few more picture on the Cavey blog; Check out what Cavey got up to in Berlin.
Hello there! I’ve been without my computer/camera/printer/everything (eep!) for a few weeks but i’ve been beavering away behind the scenes on new customs, some plush, sprucing up my studio (hello new shelves, deskspace and all round organisation!) all on top of my actual work. But i’ve still found time to get my Halloween costume ready and i’m super excited for the spookiest weekend of the year. And now I have my camera back, i can even take picture whee!! I’ve also started up a facebook page for my custom work, i’d be well happy if you’d ‘like‘ it. Happy Halloween
I got a lovely surprise package in the post a couple of weeks ago from the equally lovely Eric of Thunderpanda.com. Inside was 3 mini Lemis (squee!) a tee, magnets, badges, a bottle opener and a really nice multi-purpose bag (which i believe comes with all the tshirts on his site) Biggest of ups to you Eric, you really made my day!
The Lemis have had lots of fun tearing round the house with the Caveys and getting up to all kinds of mischeif, they’re very cute and fun to take photos of. I’ve had the blue one in my bag the last week and everyone who meets him says how cute he is. A Cavey/Thunderpanda collab is on the cards, watch this space! www.thunderpanda.com
I get asked a lot what my toy collections like so I wanted to share pictures of all the toys we brought home from our SDCC/LA trip. Between Comi-con spree and generous friends we ended up with sooo many cool new toys to bring home. On our way there we were way under the weight limit on our bags, but on the way home we were properly over and had to start hauling gifts and heavy things out of our bags and into our hand luggage, much to the amusement of the girl at check in
It was lots of fun sorting out the toy shelves and putting up the new things alongside the stuff that was already there, I definitely don’t have the biggest toy collection in the world but i love every single piece of it, and everything come with a memory and a story to tell.
Rosie Lee Lunartik in a cup of tea, Hello Maggot (thanks Dov!), Sherman, Sock Monkey, Tokidoki bag danglers. 2010 Dunnys: Triclops(thanks lads!) Amanda Visell, Travis Cain (thanks Dan!), Esther Kim, Michelle Valligura, Sneaky Raccoon, Damarask the Destroyer.
Sherman came just before i went to the US, naughty me for only just getting around to posting a picture! Awesome plush monster by MonstersEtc, brainchild of monster makers Ruti and Noa from Israel. Sherman is so well made and came super quickly with a cute little letter, birth certificate and a monstery magnet. I can’t recommend their shop highly enough, check out their lovely etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/MonstersEtc
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Waaa Tokidoki hat, look at the foody faces! Fanks Ben!
The little pink plushie at the bottom came with a cute shirt i got in JapanLA
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Black Petit Astrolapin, GID qee, Friends with You, Cayas Creations bear, Triclops Winston Stitch (thanks Clopses!), Super 7 Ice cream guy, Paul Kaiju, Buff Monster orange icecream, Russian dolls (from russia!)
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Super 7 Ice cream, Paul Kaiju monster (thanks paul!) and buss monster ice cream.
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SDCC Treesons, i got all of them apart from the white moustached one who was sold out. My favourite is the tiger, grrrr!
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Petit Astrolapin and GID boxhead Qee (thanks toybreak!)
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Couldn’t resist a case of GID Ulgydoll Kaiju
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From Disney Land! I was so excited in the gift shop and wittering on about how great Disney Land is the lady went “awww” and gave me the “1st visit” badge
The second week in LA was even busier than the first (Pictures of San Diego Comic-Con and the first half of our trip here.) We spent Saturday night at the Magic Castle which was just insane, a zillion times better than i thought it was going to be, and I anticipated it being fantastic! I should have taken a picture of us dressed up all pretty, but I was so excited to get inside and watch from magic that I forgot. I also ate a steak as big as my face That weekend we also had a great night with with Scott Tolleson & family and George and Ayleen and filmed an episode of Toy Break while we were there (watch it here)
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Universal Studios: We had a super efficient day and managed to do all the rides without queuing more than 30 minutes for anything. My favorite ride was definitely the Jurassic Park one, I was buzzing just looking at all the dinosaurs, it really felt like you’re in the film. We were right at the front of the boat and came off absolutely soaked, i literally had to pour the water out of my shoes! The bus tour of all the studios was a lot of fun, i especially loved getting to see Whoville from The Grinch (complete with snow!) and the Bates Motel; Norman Bates came out with a body wrapped in a sheet, saw the tour bus, went inside to get a knife and chased the bus up the hill, i was totally geeking out! They had a haunted house/horror maze thing too which i was totally in love with. You get to meet (Meet = get jumped out and terrorfied by) all the monsters from horror films of the last 50 years. The absolute best bit was where they’d done it up like a meat packing freezer, complete with bodies wrapped and hanging from the ceiling that you have to bump past, then Leatherface jumps out at you wielding a chainsaw.
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Disney Land: One of the Last things we did before we had to go home was visit Disney Land. Disney Land is like nothing else ever, its literally the best place in the world and i want to live there! (Preferably in the Haunted Mansion, please!) We were there from 10 – 11pm and still didn’t manage to do everything, so next year another trip is definitely in order. The show and fireworks at the end of the day reduced me to tears, that place is seriously magical. Thanks Scott for hooking us up, you’re the best!!
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We did so much while we were away that it took a week of being home to calm down again. And i’m already making a mental list of stuff to do next year! So thats’ it for my USA trip pictures, hopefully soon i’ll get time to share pictures of all the fantastic toys i snagged while i was away.
If you’re in London tonight come along to the Kidrobot 2010 Dunny party, at the Kidrobot store in Seven Dials. I’m particularly hoping for the Travis Chan, CW, Huck Gee and the most bestest one of all – the Triclops one with removable brain, waa! Big ups to all the artists on this series, its an awesome collection, you can see how much love has gone into each one and i love that lots of the figures have a little accessory or sculpt flair, almost like a little custom collection. Hope to see you there!
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Also tonight is opening of the lovely Phil Corbetts Scary Mary Hairy Beary Fairy Tales show. (Best name for a show ever?!) I wish i could be in two places at once because i would love to go to this too. If you’re in the Manchester area head on down and give Phil a cuddle.
Top Gun bar: While were in San Diego we went to the Top Gun bar with Rob & his lovely girlfriend. Rob had told me about this place before we left and it sounded like a lot of fun – its right near the train tracks and every time a train comes past the whole bar shouts “Night Train!!” and they give you these shots of ropey cherry brandy (??) stuff. Many pitchers of beer, hot wings and lots of fun, and probably the best night of Jonjo’s life because he got to sit at he actual piano from Topgun.
After a few days in San Diego for Comic-con we drove up the coast to LA. We spent out first week there relaxing and hanging out on the beach and doing touristy stuff around Hollywood. The vibe in LA was so different to San Diego, which was a really bohemian chilled out town, just going that hour or so up the coast and LA much busier and what i had imagined America to look like.
Chinese Theatre: We had a fun day doing all the touristy stuff in Hollywood, the Chinese Theater, Walk of Fame, checking out El Capitan etc. It was fun putting your hands and feet in the celebrity pavement things. No way are Robert Downey Jr’s feet this big though, isn’t he really small? He’s still dreamy though, even if he does wear high heels
The Getty: We spent a gloriously sunny afternoon having lunch at the Getty and walking round the beautiful ground there. The gardens outside were especially gorgeous, with so many different types of flowers and this pretty water maze in the middle.
Venice Beach: Venice beach reminded me of a sunny version of Camden, London – lots of interesting art along the parade, lots of really bad art, too
Pictures from the second week of our trip here!
This popped up in my flickr photostream this morning! Photo by Pjalau.
Here’s a few quick pictures from Comic-Con. I was so busy chatting to everyone and looking at all the cool stuff that i didn’t get too many pictures at SDCC (i did take lots of pictures of Cavey though), and most of them are me like “ooh take a photo of me with this!” “take a photo of my with that!” so for your viewing pleasure here’s me posing with some stuff…
“please do not touch” you can’t tell me what to do Hasbro! Badass
You get the idea, i won’t bore you with the rest. There’s lots of pictures of Cavey at Comic-Con over on his blog. I’ve got to get back to work, more pictures next week!
Comic-con, generous friends + LA toy shops = lots o’ new stuff to play with
Hello i’m baaaaaack! We got home at 11pm yesterday, and had a good old sleep after a loooooong flight. Today is all about unpacking, catching up with emails, drinking tea, seeing friends and getting photos printed. I’ll be packing up all shop orders placed while i was away and getting them sent this week. I’ll do a post later this week about all the fun stuff we got up to while we were away (and all the neat stuff i got!) until then, did you see the announcement about new Caveys while i was away? There will be new Caveys on August 12th, Unicorns and Ninjas!
We’re off to Comic-con today, our flight leaves in just a few hours! The shop will take orders as normal, but shipping will resume when we get back. I’m not sure if i’ll be updating the blog while we’re gone, but will post some pictures to my flickr if i can. See you soon!
I am very excited to announce Super Duper Caped Cavey, a SDCC exclusive. If you want one, find me at Comicon on the Sunday (July 25th, i’ll no doubt be hanging around the toy booths) and he’s yours to buy! They’re a limited run of 10 so you’ll have to be quick. Super Duper Caped Cavey is $20 including a drawstring bag to keep him safe, stickers and a badge. There’s a picture of me at the bottom so if you didn’t know what i look like, now you know who to look for Even if you’re not after a Cavey, come say Hi!
Cavey on youtube
If you see pink hair and Cavey ears, thats me, Holly!
Sunday was the Watford Race for Life 5k, I ran it in half an hour which i was really pleased with as it was the hottest, most humid day of the year so far! It was a really great day, and a very moving experience to run and to see who people were racing for written on their backs. I was waiting at the finish line for Vicky to finish and saw ladies breaking down in tears, finishing the race that meant to much to them, i started crying too! This picture is me and Vicky (who walked it with a big gang of work friends, they raised £thousands for Cancer research – go team Carphone Warehouse!) just after we finished, i wore my medal all day! I will definitely do it again next year.
I raised £145 for Cancer Research. Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored me, i hope i’ve done you proud
A couple of weekends ago we had a video games themed dress up party. I think it deserves its own picture post because of all the awesome costumes everyone, so much effort went into it! The theme was 16 Bit, you had to come as a character from 16bit (or prior) game. Prepare to geek out
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