Plush Beginnings (Part 3)

After learning to sculpt at make-up effects school 6 years ago, I thought it would be interesting to blend sculpture with my plush dolls. These are the result:

Someone looks guilty...

Oh deer!

For such a goofy person, I sure make a lot of sad looking things. It's really fun to explore different materials and processes. Right now, my favorite thing has to be collaborating with Max, we come up with things I never would have thought of alone! I LOVE PROJECTS!!!!!!!!!!

Namaste?
Cammi

Plush Beginnings! (part 2)

 I was looking through some old files and found close-ups of these monsters that I hadn't seen in years! Some of the pictures are not of the best quality.

Well, all my photographs, even to this day, are not of the best quality, but most of these ones are pixelated, blurry, destroyed by flash and have all around horrible lighting. But there is something neat about documenting this.

After not having seen these first creatures in almost 10 years, it's sort of fun to look at what I was doing.

I started selling a couple of these online through livejournal.com craft communities and it picked up as my skills got better and I learned things like how to actually hide seams!

Ok, bye!
Cammi

Plush Beginnings! (part 1)

I started making plush monsters way back in 2003, b.f. (before facebook). This is one of the first ones I made for my then newborn niece, Ramona:

And of course Ramona has a standing deal with me consisting of unlimited free monsters/creatures for life.

Once I started making these first crudely-made plush monsters I couldn't stop. Pretty soon I had made a gaggle of these things, for no apparent reason. Here is an old group photo of the pioneers:

The great thing about them was that I could bring my fabric and sewing supplies anywhere and unlike a painting or sculpture, it wasn't such a messy thing to be doing.

Stay tuned!
Cammi

The Artist and the Tree Dweller

After we put one of our monsters in a great habitat it can be difficult to know what's real and what's not. It's like right after waking up from dreaming about your rear tires being chocolate cake and thinking, "Damnit! I'm late for work and my tires are cake!!"

We told him that he began as a quick little drawing, right when this picture was taken:

Sincerely,
Cammi

Stifling Sentimentality

I think there's a part of me that has to indulge my sentimental side a little bit in the fear that stifling it completely would cause it to take over. I'm terrified of becoming the person that cries when they see baby shoes. So, one way to reconcile this is to allow myself to anthropomorphize the things that Max and I make.

We just sold the first thing we made as "Gravlax?" He is going to a great home and I'm really happy that he knows he's wanted now. The strange thing to me is that I can't possibly think of him as an "it." He is not a product or a manufactured item. When I was going through our etsy page I saw his picture with the words SOLD OUT across the top and thought it was really funny. He is such a sell out.

Goodbye and good luck, Mr. Gravlax! (We accidentally named him)

You can call me crazy now. I know you're thinking it!!!
I love you!
Cammi

Things that inspire things.

As far as inspiration goes it could really be anything that inspires us. Sometimes it's a feeling. Sometimes it's a color combination. And sometimes it's a photograph of Boris Karloff dressed as Frankenstein's Monster happily cutting cake.

"You guys, I thought of something hysterical, let's have Boris cut the cake!"

When I get a time machine, this is where you can find me:

Here are a couple pictures of my desk with some unfinished body parts:

And here are a couple from our last photoshoot in Seattle:

Good talk.
Cammi

Buttons of Mass Destruction!!!

Here at "Gravlax?" Corporation we try to focus on the little things like team building, morale and synergy? Also buttons. I lived in NY for 4 months over the fall/winter and noticed that I was one of the only personages without a trench coat.

So I bought one and once I got it home I impulsively removed all of the crappy plastic buttons, and felt a little remorseful, since I wanted to wear it that day. So I started sculpting my own buttons to each look like a different famous monster from my favorite movies. This is one of those buttons:

This button was our first sale and that was so exciting. We've sold three of them so far.

This guy is going to be part of a series of skeleton characters in fancy attire.

This one is my favorite of the three. When Max showed me it blew my mind. It blew up my mind!!!

We want to start taking process pictures to post here, because it seems lame to post the pictures from etsy, but we didn't know we were doing a blog until people said it was good to do!! And we want to do a good blog!! So from now on we promise to do our best about that stuff, are you reading this, Max?! Actually you may be the only one, and that's okay. Look at how cool your work is!!!!

Ok, have a good night!
Cammi