BIg Blue Monster Goes to the Store

I just finished a new creature and we decided to take him on a trip to the store. Don't worry, he behaved himself!

He found a chair that was just his size!

"Such a good boy!"

"No sweetie, we don't need batteries. We're just here to weird out the other customers!"

What a big boy!

"We can't get it now, but maybe for Christmas?  (Unless someone buys you first...)"

Fingers crossed!
Cammi

The Bigfoots Are Finished!!!!!!!!

It was raining out so they had to play inside.

No one knows what to do when Carl plays dead.

Family portrait!

Oh and I made an octopus beanie:

Finally!
Cammi

Circus Sideshow Nesting Dolls

These are a set of sideshow nesting dolls that I just finished painting. I used acrylic paint and then coated them with crystal clear. They were really fun to paint and now I want to paint more! It's so much easier to buy and paint the wooden ones than to sculpt my own!

I've always been fascinated with circus sideshows, but not necessarily circus related things in general. The fact that humans were on display like they were monsters horrifies me. It's definitely appalling but what fascinates me is all the reasons that those people did that. Sure, some were sold to the circus against their will, but so many loved that they found a place where they were not only accepted but exalted for what made them different. There were even people willingly doing things to themselves to become "freaks".

Not that I could possibly understand what some of these lifestyles would and can be like but a small part of me can relate. As a child I had very light blonde eyebrows, eyelashes and hair (which has not darkened as much as I'd hoped it would) so a lot of  kids in school often asked me if I was an albino, or they would tell me that I was. And I wasn't so sure that I wasn't:

I've never been the epitome of grace. Why did they let me pose my hands like that?!!

If I was around in the late 1800s and had any musical talent then maybe I could have been in this albino sideshow act band:

A girl can dream.
Cammi

Easily Amused

When we're not making these weird creatures we're playing with them! The hoofed guy is the new one that Max made and as soon as I posted him on our etsy page I regretted it. He should stay here :(

Ok, back to playing!
Cammi

Some Things

How did this guy get so weird? I added shoes and ears to him and then he felt complete but gosh darnit, he's a strange beast.

This is where I'm at with the sasquatches that I'm making. Now I have to sew 32 arms and legs and finish painting 32 hands and feet. These guys are a lot of work!

This is the start of the next comedian doll that I'm going to be making, but that might be happening after the big foots and also after another set of matroshkas that I started painting. I carved this head shape in blue foam with razors and sandpapers.

Oh and Max made a really great-looking new guy that will be photographed shortly. All we need is a place for it to graze?

I feel like I'm always writing a lot but never really saying anything. Writing about creating visuals is funny. I wonder what it would have been like if famous artists from the past had blogs. "Worked on the Sistine Chapel again today. My back hurts but at least I finished painting God."

I don't know,

Cammi

What the heck are you wearing?

I love how much a face can change with the way that it's painted. We like to reuse a lot of the faces we sculpt, and try to really get that mileage out of them? For this guy I loved the idea of giving him really red youthful lips and a blank expression, like he has no idea what to do with that big body. Better pictures coming soon!

Okay now.
Cammi

A whole bunch of things!

Max made this amazing creature for our etsy shop! He's so adorable. Oh man, I guess I use the word adorable now :(

I found this amazing giraffe vinyl fabric at Mood in NY and really wanted to use it so I started making this guy. I might give him some ears and maybe some clothes. He feels naked. Well, he looks naked. He feels naked too.

As for what has been taking up a huge chunk of my time outside of food, work and sleep, I was commissioned to make 8 of these guys:

So I've been trying to paint all the faces at once:

And sew all the bodies at once:

And then all that's left to do is a thousand other things!!

It's all good!
Cammi

Steven Wright

My dad exposed us to comedy when my siblings and I were little. We were watching Jon Belushi and Gilda Radner on SNL and old tapes of stand-up comics like Steven Wright. I was a pretty weird child and used to sit on the bathroom counter making faces in the mirror until my sister would yell, "Cammi!!! What are you doing in there?!!?!"

My favorite things to make are also the most ridiculous. I'll get a dumb idea and then think, "oh, this has to exist now!" A case in point is my new Steven Wright doll that I've spent hours and hours working on over the last couple weeks, for absolutely no reason other than to laugh at it.

Good Evening!
Cammi

Sometimes You Need to Double Down

Even though I'm a poker player and not a blackjack player, the term doubling down seemed appropriate. Max began creating a character that would sit in a robotic chair. He wanted him to be lazy and fat. He ended up being too fat to fit in the chair so Max decided to sell him separately and make a tinier guy for the chair. Here's the new guy and his amazing chair:

And another guy that Max made with a face that I sculpted:

I'm a bit overwhelmed with a commissioned project that I'm working on but still finding time to satisfy my recent painting urges. Here is a painting I finished last week of the comic, Lenny Bruce:

 

At the moment I'm also working on one of the most ridiculous things I've ever created; a doll of the comedian Steven Wright. I'm a big comedy nerd. Pictures of progress on that soon!!

From,

Cammi

New Progress Picture!

Oh man I'm so excited that it's October!! There are so many things about this month that I love! Max is working on a really interesting new character. I can't wait to see this guy finished!!

Good morrow!

Cammi

Better Pictures!

Here are better pictures of my birdhouse, since my camera phone wasn't doing it justice!

I love fall!!
Cammi

Spooky Birdhouse!!!

 

Stupid bird-brains!

Cammi

Without you, today's emotions would be the scurf of yesterday's.

Yesterday I did this. Today I'm going to make a little sign to hang on that perch, make him some hands, put him inside and add some bloody feathers. It's shaping up to be a lovely Sunday.

You can stop wishing me luck now, I appreciate it but now I have too much.
Cammi

Spooky Birdhouse

I was asked to make a spooky birdhouse for a charity auction. My idea is to have a monster wearing the birdhouse so that he could eat the birds as they flew in. The project deadline is October 1st, so I'm going to see how much work I can get accomplished today!

Wish me luck!
Cammi

The Return of the Internet!

After two weeks we finally have all the internet we can handle at our new place! It's nice but what was even nicer was how little it was missed. I was all, "Make it 3 weeks, see if I care!!"

A new friend for the yeti.

A new set of Monsteroshkas, with a more stylized paint job.

The internet rules!
Cammi

Times they are a changing.

We are all moved in to our new place. The only fully furnished room is our craft room! I'm pretty sure that's the only room I really need. I can't wait to make so many things! Halloween is coming up and that means I have to start my costume! 

And these are some things that I'm about to put up for sale on our etsy page:

Be excellent.
Cammi

In living color.

Sometimes you just gotta paint your monster themed nesting dolls in Basil Gogos' style, know what I mean? These were fun to do, and might be the only set I paint this way. Frankenstein's Monster ended up looking more Strange than Karloff but that's okay.

Farewell,
Cammi

Forenoon or Afternoon?

Today I looked at stats for this blog and the vast majority of views (6), came from Russia. That's pretty cool. I wonder if it's because of the nesting dolls.

Max and I went to Joann Fabric today and sat at the pattern viewing table and looked at Stuffed Magazine together. We wanted to submit something but missed the deadline.
 
Here is the yeti! He may or may not be going up on Etsy. He hasn't decided yeti.

"He beat me... Straight up. Pay him. Pay that man his money." -John Malkovich as Teddy KGB in the movie Rounders.

до свидания,
Cammi

Progress and Process

Here's a photo of me working at my desk in the model shop.

Photo by my friend Tony P. Chen.

Here is the latest on the yeti creature that I'm making. He's really really skinny!

Things are good!
Cammi

What's up with you?

 Yesterday I went to see a screening of the film I worked on, ParaNorman. It was nice to be so proud to have been part of something that good!

Today I cast up the face and hands of my newest yeti project:

I also did a Basil Gogos style paint test on Drac:

See ya later!
Cammi