Garden Slugs and Beyond!

Rubber molds for the world of Garden Slugs is fully in the works. More cutesy and hilarious characters are being developed and here is one of them…  Mayor Toad isn’t really the mayor of Slug Garden, but everyone is afraid to tell him.  Look at him! He’s huge! He could sit on a three slugs while having two more for dinner!  …The big bully.  Maybe some day little Garden Slugs can have a revolution.  But right now they’re waiting to be cast in plastic and come to life.

Mayor Toad is currently covered in liquid latex and waiting to be popped out and replaced with resin.
YAY for toys!

I can’t wait to see how these babies all come out.

FAUN is HERE!

Hello, Wild, Wild Web of the World!

I’m here to announce that the silent, walk-about character “FAUN” is finally ready and eager to work!

From another dimension (possibly from out of a wardrobe), a stunned, mythological warrior fauna has stumbled into our world.  A warrior princess in her own universe, she must now come to grips with all the strange wonders of this modern planet earth.

Email Rachel for full details about booking Faun for your events — Corporate and festival!

This news and updates can be viewed on my “Performance” page.

VIDEO!!

An Exercise in Tiny Molds

I’m making slugs.  Little garden slugs will silly faces who are as collectable as Smurfs and probably a billion times cooler.

I’m going to take a huge leap into the unknown soon by casting molds to try to produce plastic Garden Slug figurines.

So far the look like this:

Chuckles

Franky

Party Hardy

Zombi

UFO Sighting (AKA: Mulder)

Love Slugs

Baby-Face Nelson (He’s not really a baby.  He has a disease.)

Here’s the trick to sculpting well with Sculpey…

First, Super Sculpey is much nicer to carve and sand after its been cooked.  It’s got more plasticity to its feel and sculpts nicer.  I’ve combined the two for some of these guys.  Regular and Super.  I had purchased the regular thinking “Super” was just a marketing gimmick, but it really is better.  the combination was an attempt at stretching my supply.

Sculpt the way you would sculpt with clay, but instead of letting your clay dry, you’ll have to cook it.

So, begin with basic structure (for a figure bone and muscle, but in my case a squirmy slug body).  I took in mind to have a gaping mouth hole for open smiles and sticks in place for the eyes.  Cook it and let it cool.  Carve away what you need to with a sharp exacto and continue to add clay for detail.  I ended up putting these little guys through the oven about 6 times each, if not more when things chip or need extra smoothing.

I think too many people struggle with small sculpture because they try to hold on to soft and squishy material while trying to detail.  That’s when it ends up looking like a rolled up Play Dough cinnamon bun.

Carve out wrinkles and details, sand it down with sand paper and then varnish.  The varnish should do away with the last little scratches and microscopic lumps that sanding didn’t take care of.

I’m hoping to be able to make a sensible mold and create a series of plastic (resin) slugs using a system like this one:

I haven’t made a mold in a couple of decades, so it’s still a mystery as to how the project will end up in the end.  My tiny little guys may need to be cast in three pieces.  It’s their wiggly slug bottom that’s throwing my brain for a loop.

But plastic slugs are what I want.  Just like smurfs.  Only cooler.

drawings

Hello, all you internets out there.  I’ve just updated drawings to my “design” page and my “figure drawing” page.  Go check them out and look for drawings you haven’t seen before.  Some of them date many years back, but I got lazy in my updating.

I’ve also added some more sold Franken Toys to the Toy Design gallery.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,
Lazy Pants Peters

Rachel and a Bus Trailer - Cute, Concise and Catchy

Why did I not post this video two years ago, when it was a little more relevant?

Probably because I was a lazy-arsed slacker, that’s why.

If anyone out there at Discovery, TLC or PBS wants to make this into a real series with me, just say the word and a beautifully polished proposal is in your mail box, ready for shinier, bigger adventures.

See the series here (minus the end shorts that got filmed but lost).

Dear World,

Dear World Wide Web,

It’s been far too long since I’ve paid any attention to my website.

It’s been a long time of settling in to new work, new direction, and a new city.  I’m still feeling a bit of a creative lull since all of the upheaval of the last chapter, but I’m counting on it being the creative equivalent of a long, REM nap — the kind you wake up from, feeling like Jello and thinking, “Wow, I must have reeeeally needed that.”  (And a creative lull for me means that I’m only working on one project at a time, not 7.)

I’ve rented out my cozy Hamilton home and moved to the capital of this great country, Ottawa Ontario, Canada.  For the last six months I’ve been an Animation Supervisor for one of the very best kids’ shows on television today (Sure, I’m a little biased, but ratings don’t lie either!)
Wild Kratts is the animated series by Chris and Martin Kratt -”The Kratt Brothers”- who are more widely known for their success in creating, “Zoboomafoo”, “Kratt’s Creatures” and “Be The Creature”.  Their in-house presence in the studio really brings a great life to the work place, along with an amazing and wise-beyond-his-years director, Simon Paquette, and so many other open and caring crew members.  It’s a creative environment you don’t often come across in the work place — the the sort of personality that SHOULD be present in every art studio.  I’ve always said that the personality of leadership trickles down through any organization, and this place happens to be caring, wise, quick to laugh, and slow to anger.  That says a lot to me about the individuals.

On another note, we have studio pets:
Meet two of the three lobby Turtles, Tortuga and Tortilla:

I’m still working on getting together my new street performance project, Faunus, which, while becoming more and more realistic looking and coming together as a character, still has a long way to go in functional reverse-stilt construction.  I’ve had to pass that job on to a real stilt-maker.  While that gets dreamed up better, a fellow Animation Supervisor in the cubical next to mine, artist, Jason Hall, is working on real Warrior Princess armour for Faunus.  She is going to be a strong matriarch of wherever it is she comes from.

On the Franken Toy front, I’ve temporarily pulled the plug on them.  I have some serious carpal tunnel syndrom and complex tendinitis (also the reason I’ve switched gears in street performance, from chalk art to Faunus).  And although the toys have been my best viral works of art to date, I can’t justify the strain they put on me and on my chances of healing.
I may get back into them when I’m not already doing so much with my arms, but until then they’ll just be a lovely bunch of photographs for people to blog about.  And maybe the occasional personal gift.

That said, it is official that the Kratt Brothers love Franken Toys:

So much so that Chris (seen above with a gifted Wild Kratts Franken Creature) bought Robo Reggie for one of his sons.

So… I suppose that’s all I’ve got to post for today.  I’ve finally gotten another great job, I’ve managed to keep my house and my two cats, and in one month I’ll be moving into a cute, little apartment right in the heart of down town Ottawa where I look forward to being able to paint again.  I`ve still got goals and plans, but I refuse to have expectations.  Six months ago I did not see myself here.  But being here now - it`s a good thing.

PS: I`ve also started taking roller derby lessons with the Capital City Derby Dolls.  So don`t mess with me.  I`ll crap you up good!

More PHranken Toys in Foto Album… wait. strike that. reverse it.

More Prints Available!

There are more prints available!

Order one of the following 8.5×11″ prints for yourself or a loved one.
$25 per order, shipping included within North America.  Add $10 for overseas shipping.
And by all means, larger donations are welcome!

“Great Beyond 1″          “Great Beyond 2″          “CBC 1″

“Chair”          “Day:1″          “Safe”
Send orders to retch10@hotmail.com via Paypal with a message stating your name, mailing address and which print(s) you’d like.
Also, it would be ideal to let me know if your paypal email address is not your contact email address, just in case of questions or delays.

As I heal, look for a job that doesn’t require my arms, each order I receive helps me out.

Thank you so much to everyone who’s already donated and ordered from me.  I truly appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Rachel.

Faun-tastic

I haven’t updated my site in ages.  There are far too many reasons to explain.  One of those reasons (and one of the reasons I don’t care to take the time to explain) is the first of two carpal tunnel surgeries.  I shouldn’t really be typing. …Oh, and I’m not.  Right, right.  I’m pounding my face against the keyboard and it’s just pure Shakespearean-chimps-at-typewriter chance that words and coherent sentences are the result.  It’s really creepy.

Anyway, I want to share at least a peak at what’s developing in my world of busking.  Pavement art is getting progressively hard on my body… So, I’ve decided to start building an other-worldly walk-about character who will surely help me ruin the remaining parts of my body left undmanged by chalk.  So far, I call her “Faunus”.

I’ll let the photos do the typing now, but stay tuned for a finished, full body faun, late in 2011…

Just in Time For Winter Holiday Fun Gift Celebration Turkey Time!

Ok, I celebrate Christmas.  Let’s just get that out there.  But whatever YOU celebrate, don’t let the occasion go by without seriously considering which Franken Toy you’d like to adopt!

They’re getting all sorts of blog famous, so you should really find your special guy before they all get Christmas’d up!  (snatched up. …at Christmas time, I mean.)  I’m sorry, I’ve had one sip of wine and I don’t hold my booze very well.  Bear with me.)

Remember also that new Franken toys go up to the shop every week or so.  If you don’t see the right one for you, keep coming back!  It’s virtually a toy factory over here at my house, with adorable limbs, torsos and severed puppy heads everywhere!  It’s just a matter of time before your perfect pal shows up, ready to be adopted.

So, get ready for Christmas with Franken Toys for the family!
(They’re lonely here.  They cry at night, asking where their Mommies and Daddies are.)

Go check out http://www.etsy.com/shop/frankentoys right away!

NOW!#%$@!!!

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