The day of the Sketchbot 2 show at Munky King LA is finally upon us! If like me you’ve been checking out the sneak previews over the last few weeks on Steves blog today is your chance to see all the great customs in the vinyl-y flesh! Sketchbot 2 7:00pm – 10:00pm Munky King, 7308 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA.
The Navigator started life as a blank Sketchbot vinyl toy, i cut off his head (eep!) and painted his body with acrylic paint before sealing with lacquer. To really make the paint job pop i used a metallic flake in the pink-coloured parts before giving him a thick full gloss coat all over. The Navigator himself is a tiny plush in his own right, i sculpted his face from sculpey, painted with acrylic paint and pastels and sealed with matte lacquer. His body, including his ears, has a tiny metal armature inside to let him keep his pose. All finished off with a heart shaped nose and teeny eyepatch.
Edit: Now available for purchase in the Munky King Online Store.
I had a little free time last week and decided to work a little more on my submission for The Gnome Project by Happy Panda Toys. I submitted my initial design for it in August and wanted to flesh it out a bit, partly because i didn’t think my initial sketch and sculpt put across how i imagined the character in my head, and partly to refresh myself on sculpting a whole figure as i only seem to sculpt faces lately. This little bear is sculpted from sculpey, is currently being smoothed and sanded ready for casting, and is awaiting a plush hat and a fishing rod. More pictures soon ^__^
The Gnome project will be Happy Panda Toys first blindboxed mini series, featuring 3″ gnomes. Unlike other blindboxed toys such as Dunny or Qee there will not be one platform across the series, rather a totally different sculpt for each artist, and even ratios across the series. The artists haven’t been confirmed yet, so if you like my design and would like to see it put into production let the guys at Happy Panda know 
Initial Drawing
Initial, very rough, sculpt.
I just finished up a custom plush last week, and now i’ve got my camera back i can share some pictures here. Her name is Melek, the client wanted a gift for their goddaughter and requested a plush that embraces my take on an angel. I thought this was an interesting brief for a custom and really liked the idea of making an angel but putting my own twist on it. Usually my work focuses around animals of some kind, so of course i still managed to make her look quite bunnyish
The first image that popped into my mind when i think of an angel is that of big wings and a halo and i was sure very early on that this wasn’t the aesthetic i was going for. So i spent some time thinking about what is an angel. I am not spiritual at all, my view of an angel is a guardian offering protection and guidance. My initial sketches revolved around owl-like bird creatures, capturing an elegance, grace, and sagacious. After bouncing some ideas around with the client we settled on a more mammal-like creature, the idea being that she was a familiar of sorts, keeping a watchful eye on things.
I started by sculpting her face from scratch using sculpey, no moulds were used or taken during the entire process. The client liked a previous plush i had created that had a little girls face and requested something similar. I decided to use slightly translucent sculpey to mimic skin and give depth of skin tone, and used glass eyes for realism. Following the angel theme, for the face sculpt I wanted to create child-like innocence and capture a thoughtful, tranquil expression. After i was happy with her face i added the hair in a translucent white polymer clay. Once the whole face was baked and sanded smooth i painted it using thin layers of acrylic paint, matted it off with UV protective lacquer and glossed the lips and eyelids.
The colour palette for the whole piece was kept muted and pale, with the body being completed in various textures and types of faux fur fabric. The main body from a ever so slightly off-white fur with a varying pile, a pure white long fur section on the tummy, and white bobbly fleece under the arms, she has weighted feet and paws and can stand unassisted. I then graduated the fur in various places to stop her looking like a big fluff ball. Finally I chose the name Melek, which is Turkish for angel.
A sneak peek of my custom, The Navigator, for the upcoming Sketchbot 2 Custom Show at Munky King, LA. Theres not much else to say about this little bunny for now, it’s all hush hush until the morning of the show – full reveal on November 19th. The Navigator will be onsale at the show, If you’re interested in buying The Navigator please get in touch with Steve who is putting together a private preview list as we speak…
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
A cross-post from www.heycavey.com:
A quick reminder to get your bids in for the special Renmen Caveys up on eBay, bidding finishes tomorrow! (15 Oct, 201012:02:11 BST) The Renmen Caveys are special because they’re limited to only two pieces but more importantly because 100% of the sale price goes to the Unicef Haiti appeal. Renmen means ‘love’ in Haitian and inspired by this the Renmen Caveys feature a heart design and are a mirror image of one another, ahhhhh
www.renmen.com
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’ve just added some new plush art to my shop, a series of 5 unique toys for Halloween ive called Zombie Bunnies. Each Zombie Bunny has a hand cast resin face painted with acrylics and sealed with layers of protective matte laquer. The bodies are made from various high quality faux furs in tones of black and white and are weighted to stand unassisted. Each one has then been given a liberal splashing of glossy acrylic ‘blood’, zombie bunnies may be cute but they’re still zombies!
There are three 10″ zombie bunnies at £40 a piece, and two 7″ ones at £37. Once they’re gone they’re gone. Click here to visit the shop.
After giving you a little teaser last week i’m really excited to show you proper pictures of my latest custom, The Space Dragon. Space Dragon started life as a brand new 8″ Munny and was customised with glow-in-the-dark polymer clay, hama beads, acrylic paint, taxidermy eyes, faux fur and sealed with many layers of UV protective matte varnish. The Space Dragon looks great in daylight but really comes alive at night or under a UV light (or blacklight) when his whole body, fur and horns glow brightly.
He is up for grabs on eBay, bidding starts at £1.
A sneak peek of my latest custom, an 8″ glow-in-the-dark Munny. I’m just waiting on a UV bulb to get some good photos – more next week
I have had such a fantastic week! Another batch of Caveys were up for grabs (all 22 sold in 2 minutes!) Biggest of thank you’s to everyone who snapped ne up, more on the way! I got a new bike, and a new baby guinea pig! I’m going to be naughty though and make you wait for photos of them, this post is getting a big giant already.
We kicked off last weekend with a gang of us heading to Camden to see White Lightning play. They’re such a fun band to see live and i always have a great time at their shows. I have the biggest girl crush on the female guitarist, i’m sure she sees me oggling her and thinks i’m a crazy stalker bitch, but i can’t help it, girls in bands are just too hot! I always wanted to be the in a band, its a shame i have no musical ability whatsoever!
Forcing Vicky to rock out!
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Which reminds me; I wanted to big up Louis’s new skate video he posted on youtube. Skating, boys doing silly stuff, the usual shenanigans. Funny and really nicely put together and with a great soundtrack – David Bowie ‘Lets Dance’, yes please! Lots more fun videos on Louis’s youtube channel.
Midsomer Edit. http://www.youtube.com/user/britishskater54
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On Saturday we went to see Dj Yoda. Before we went to the gig we headed to a champagne reception in the viewing gallery of the tallest building in London (how fancy!), there are windows the whole way round so you can see the whole of the city from up there. We went there for a posh brunch a few months ago but everything looked so different at night time,it was beautiful to see the city all lit up.
So to even out the fancyness of that we headed to see Dj Yoda play the Bloomsbury Lanes, here-on known as Londons sweatiest gig venue. The place was rammed, and i mean rammed, they oversold the venue and were turning away people who’d bought advance tickets; we went outside for a fag and had to kick up a right fuss to be allowed back it – worst organised venue ever. On the upside Yoda was brilliant and the drinks were cheap, i danced up bum off and lost half a stone through pure sweatyness. I actually took a picture of the crowd but left it out of this post because it was just too disgusting, imagine 234726843 sweaty people crammed into a foil lined boxall rubbing their sweaty backs on you , you get the idea. Also edited out of this post is the ikkiest sweatiest photo of me and Jonjo ever, i may have to delete it off my computer it’s so unbelievably gross. Or,maybe one day ill do a really sexy blog post of all the photos i’ve taken of us sweating our nuts off at gigs and raves.
Day 232 of my Flickr 365 project
Tom acting natural
Dj Yoda in action
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Other highlights of the last couple of weeks: the usual Sunday mega cook-off at Jez’s house, getting new blank toys in the post for customs, seeing friends, getting rained out of Camden, going to the cinema to see Scott Pilgrim (awesome – want to see it again!) getting a big box of surprises from Friends with You, having the house to myself for a horror movie marathon, girly nights round mine, and meeting this GIANT GUINEA PIG!
Day 233 of my Flickr 365 project
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
I didn’t have time to put together a week in pictures this week, so to atone for my naughtiness heres a video we made of Louis doing a Gordon Ramsey. When I say “we” what i really mean is Jonjo and Louis did all the work while me and Vicky sat giggling on the sofa. In fairness i did do the wig – an old Hannah Montanna wig I cut short. Louis’ youtube Channel
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.
Wow what a week! it’s been Cavey-crazy chez Holly this week, you can’t see my sofa for strawberry Caveys! And Earlier this week the Toy Break gang uploaded the video we shot while i was out in LA, i was quite emotional watchign it back and remembering what a lovely time i had with everyone
Dunny Party: Thursday was the Kidrobot 2010 Dunny launch party with Triclops signing. The que to get stuff signed by them was insane and by the time they came met us at the pub after both had sharpie claws. Fun times, and nice to catch up with friends and make new ones I was happy to leave with the Travis Cain Balloon Dunny (thanks Dan!!) I wanted so badly and we got two of the Sneaky Raccoon one, so if anyone wants to do a sneaky trade let me know.
Tado Loot: Biggest of ups to Tado for this awesome package! This arrived just before i went to the states, so apologies for taking so long to post a picture! Needless to say my bag is now covered in dangly plushes, and my newest sketchbook adorned with stickers. Thanks Tado‘s! <3
Iphone app: And i leave you with some random snaps I pinched off Vickys iPhone, she has this polaroid app which takes really nice pictures – i’m thinking of cheating on my Blackberry more and more each day
Sexy girls
Chuck “i’m so grumpy”
Toystory boots (thanks Louis!)
Cross post from heycavey.com
Episode 132 of Toy Break features me Ayleen, George and Scott talking about toys from SDCC. Scott’s talks us through his Comic-con haul and I’m talking Cavey, including some soon never before seen Caveys! I also pick the winner for the Toy Break forum Cavey contest!
This video is following a lovely evening and delicious dinner at the Counter with Ayleen, George and the Tolleson family, which was seriously the best burger i’ve ever eaten! I need to go back to LA as soon as possible just so i can eat there again Biggest of ups to Toy Break for having me on the show and letting me snoop through their toy collection!!
Toy Break: Toy Break.com, Ayleen on Twitter, George on twitter,
Scott Tolleson: Blog, twitter
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.
I haven’t been making the time recently to be creative. I’ve been letting Cavey, ‘real work’ and working out munch up all my time and not been making time for myself to be creative. Going away for a couple of weeks really cleared my head and gave me time to get working on my sketchbook! I came back with lots of ideas for characters, paintings and plushes
Sock Monkey! He was a lot of fun to make, and i have a lot of socks left so almost everyone i know will be getting one for Christmas! Pictures of the finished article soon!
I’m not sure what these are, but i like how they came out!
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!
Cavey is a plush series from A Little Stranger. Each Cavey is lovingly handmade in the UK. 
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