My tiny horde of monsters, washed and ready for paint. This is a double cast toy, so after I paint them, they’ll get embedded in translucent resin. They have tiny clear hands in their future.
The first drop of this toy will be at the Kaiju Cult show 4/20 7pm-midnight at Little Tree Studios. I’ll be posting more sneak peeks as I get ready!
Save the date! I’ll have new work for sale at the Kaiju Cult art toy show, 4/20 7pm-midnight at Little Tree Art Studios. 🦇 The last show was awesome. Can’t wait to see what everyone’s making! Don’t miss it.
🕸You can find the Facebook event page here.
Just finished casting all the core forms for this double cast toy. Colorways will be pink and purple, with lots of sparkles. Stay tuned!
Getting ready for a coat of airbrushed glitter Normally I do my masking with tape, but for tiny things like this, clay works better. Can’t get glitter on those monster teeth! 😬
Sneak peek of what I’m working on at the Center for Puppetry Arts. Sculpted in monster clay, molded in plaster, cast in neoprene.
The core form will get embedded in translucent resin. After I do a few successful prototypes, I’ll start trying out colors!
Alternative process photography is the perfect blend of precision and chance. These cyanotypes (also called sun prints) are from a series I did in college, created from x-rays and biopsy slides. This set is made from the same x-ray, printed with varying techniques to explore distortion.
The first one is 15 x 22 inches, printed on a smooth heavily sized paper. There’s very little distortion, and you can see all the soft details of the original x-ray.
The next one is 10 x 15 inches, printed on a paper I made myself. It’s thin, textured, toned blue, and heavily sized. I coated this one with a combination of cyanotype and van dyke chemistry, which created the blue/ brown mottling. It’s crazy how the same image can look so different!
The last cyanotype is 30 x 40 inches, printed on a smooth unsized paper. Sizing is used to keep paper from immediately absorbing liquids, instead allowing inks and paints to dry on the surface. The unsized paper showed all my brushstrokes because of how quickly it absorbed the chemistry. It abstracted the skull in an organic, lovely way that I didn’t expect.
This one is about 2” long, with little 1/8 inch berries. It’s needle felted wool, made with love for one of my favorite people while I was living in Chicago. She’s one of the best bakers I know!
Performing surgery on a new mold. I created registration keys by cutting a zigzag into the outer edges. This helps the two parts line up more accurately for casting. I used a weitlaner retractor to hold the silicone open while I cut towards the inside, straightening out the seam as I got closer to the sculpt. It can be a bit tricky. The key is knowing where the edges of the sculpt are so that I’m not cutting totally blind. I usually take a picture of the mold set up before pouring so I have something to reference when I cut. I get better at it each time!
A few years ago I made this tiny Nautilus for a production of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at the Georgia Aquarium, designed by Ninja Puppet Productions and Brandon Ross Productions. It’s always fun working with those guys! This is a scaled down version of the full sized set piece. It was used as a rod puppet to show the Nautilus at a distance. Swipe to check out the process. I made the pattern out of paper, and then recreated it in L200 foam. The big windows are mylar and the tiny round windows are glass cabochons. The last photo shows the full sized Nautilus it’s based on, an impressive beast that was a group effort.️
Pouring the second half of a mold. I mix the silicone twice, transferring it into a clean cup to get a thorough mix. Not pictured, I use a vacuum chamber to pull air out of the silicone before pouring. I’ll be pressure casting later, so this step is important. Casting under pressure crushes trapped air, forcing resin into tiny details, allowing clear resin to cure bubble free. If any bubbles are left in the mold, pressure casting will cause it to deform wherever there are voids. Science magic!
I’m digging the holographic paper. I’m a sucker for things that sparkle These spacey miniatures are from the Mega Galactic Void sculpture I made earlier this year ☄️
I took these photos in high school with an old metal Minolta, the first machine I ever loved. I was lucky to have a great photography teacher who taught us more than just the basics. Learning this weird mix of science/art was the first taste I had of process-based art, my favorite thing ever.
These first two are of a friend covered in red body paint.
I took this b&w of my dad while he practiced spinning his revolver.
The color distortion in the toy photos was achieved through cross-processed slide film.
After I finish the details, I’ll add a holographic sparkle coat and high gloss varnish to make the colors really pop. It’s all about creating depth through layering.
Current set up for cloudy day painting 🖌️ In the background: resin casts of tree bark, big sun glasses, a tiny dinosaur, and a mannequin hand holding a heart model 🖐️