I know I’ve said this dozens of times, but Scott Radke’s work just amazes me. It’s curious, emotive, delicate and beautiful. For me, it promotes a feeling of peace and balance and if I had to choose only one sculpture to grace my work space, it’d be my Radke.
With that said, if you’ve been waiting to add a Radke sprite to your creative space, now’s your chance. New to Scott’s shop for August is “Untitled” (pink) and “Untitled #2” (green). The former stands 12 inches and is available for $375, while her green companion is 10.5 inches and $350.
Guaranteed one of these have given your heartstrings a little tug, or — at the very least — have made you stop a moment to stare. Enjoy it. And if either is ‘the one’ for you, drop Scott a line at scott@scottradke.com … they’re a steal and you’d be doing your soul good. Trust me!
Doktor A has just put the finishing touches on all of the dimensional pieces for his upcoming solo show at myplasticheart this October, A Postcard from New Yorkshire. First to be revealed is this stunning original, Ophelia Grimm:
Chronic nyctophobe, Ophelia is terrified of the dark. Sadly, her grand house was inherited from an eccentric uncle who built it without windows, so she was forced to squander her fortunes on candles…
Miss Ophelia stands 9.5″ tall, or 11.5″ with the vintage brass dome. She and the (seriously impressive) candles are crafted from vinyl, ABS, rubber, lead, glass, styrene, polymer clay, vintage draughtsman’s tools & clock key, and other repurposed treasures.
A Postcard from New Yorkshire opens at MPH during NYCC weekend, Oct. 12, and is on view until Nov. 11th.
Unlike Brandt’sStingy Jack, there was no pre-existing master sculpt for the Calliope Jackalope, which meant she had to be made from the ground-up. With Teodoru Badiu again at the helm of 3D rendering, he created the digital turns of the figure. Stingy Jack sculptor Yohei Kaneko of Mirock Toy would return as sculptor for this project.
One of the really interesting features of the CP sofubi project is the goal to have interchangeable heads between all of the figures. That also presents many obstacles, however, as was discovered while sculpting Calliope: in order to support Jack’s head and have it look natural, Calliope’s backline and shoulder width had to be adjusted. This element of interchangeability will have to be taken into account with each subsequent release and, while a challenge, may very well yield both impressive and playful results.
And here she is, in all her glory: after repeated modifications and adjustments to the figure to accommodate Brandt’s Stingy Jack and preserve Kathie’s signature style, the prototype was approved the evening of the Monsters & Misfits II opening in Takayama, Japan, last April.
In anticipation of Le Carnaval des Spectres, Vienna-based CP artist Teodoru Badiu has revealed a pair of slick new fine art prints that will release as part of the exhibition next month. Featuring fan favourites Half Life and Mr. Bones, each 11″x17″ print is on natural white matte, ultra smooth paper. Each is an open edition and comes signed and numbered by Teo. They’ll be available in-store and online through Artoyz.
A new little lady has surfaced from the studio of Amanda Louise Spayd for Le Carnaval des Spectres, this one blessed ‘Paperwhite’. Similar to her Daylight Specters, Paperwhite is hand made one-off who comes packin’ enough electric punch to illuminate a room. I can only imagine what she’d look like under a black light!
Previously on Stingy Jack, An Anatomy II: Stingy Jack sees double after he’s made into a wax model! Five metal molds are created and the folks at Obitsu start casting Stingy’s individual parts. Now: we return to the factory and watch as Stingy’s clone army comes to life one by one.
After all of Stingy’s parts have been poured, spun and popped, the sculptors at Obitsu are left with dozens of lone limbs that need to be reassembled. But before doing that, the flashing needs to be cut off — these are the cone-like scraps you see on the left side of the picture below. The flashing makes it easier to extract the vinyl from the mold, so it can be discarded after the figure is pulled. That’s when the fun of reanimation begins …
For a carnival of spectres it’s only befitting for our ghostly buddy, Boo, to make an appearance and dayyyum, is he looking fine! Brand new from the CP stable is Silver Boo, who, just as the name implies, is enrobed in a shimmering silver cloak, charcoal grey mask and — get this — GID EYES. (!!!)
An edition of 66, Silver Boo will debut as part of Le Carnaval des Spectres next month in Paris, with an online release likely sometime thereafter. There is also the possibility of a CP Sponsor Pack as a fundraiser for the trip, so boardies, keep your eyes peeled on the forums for an announcement from KO within the next week or so.
Woo, all this sofubi talk is getting me antsy for some vinyl goodness and what happens to pop up on the @circusposterus Instagram just recently but a GORGEOUS shot of Kathie’sCalliope Jackalope — a few, in fact — in a beautiful spectrum of colours. The cutline beneath the photo reads a short and sweet “very soon!!”
Leading the trio is the sofubi paint master for the factory, with two resin handpaints in behind. Exactly when these beauties will be dropping is anyone’s guess. Paris, perhaps? AFA? Oh the anticipation — don’t wander too far!
Previously on Stingy Jack, An Anatomy:Brandt Peters and Tomenosuke-syoten’s Shinji Nakako join forces and found an ambitious new designer toy project: Circus Posterus x Tomenosuke sofubi. This particular blog series follows the production of Brandt’s Stingy Jack, the first of an entire line of sofubi figures from different Circus artists. Part I saw Stingy go from resin prototype to mods to re-sculpting for sofubi format. Now: we head to Obitsu, a long-established Japanese plastics manufacturer, where Stingy prepares to be cloned. ***
Following Stingy’s sofubi facelift, the master sculpt is taken to Obitsu to determine how many molds it will require. With all of his accessories and details, Stingy is considered a fairly complex sculpt by sofubi standards, with seven separate parts (hat, head, torso, two hands, two feet). It’s determined that he’ll require a total of five molds, as illustrated by the colour-coding in the image above.
For molding purposes, the master sculpt is re-cast in wax, which is then used to create the metal molds.
And heeeeeeeere’s Stingy! I mean, can you get more metal?! With these molds, Obitsu casts the first test-pulls. As you can see, the body parts are made slightly longer than necessary to account for the flashing (i.e. cone-like ‘leftovers’ which make it easier to pull the pieces out of the mold).
Now, let us all hold hands and watch Stingy be birthed. It’s actually quite an interesting process:
1) The vinyl is poured into the mold.
2) The mold is then put into a large drum where it’s spun (the number of times a figure is spun is in direct correlation with the thickness of the vinyl).
3) The mold is then briefly dropped into a chemical bath, drained and cooled.
4) The sculpt is then plucked from the mold and set aside.
5) This is repeated with every part of the figure.
Up next: we cut some flash, assemble some Stingies and start planning the figure’s first colorway! (My kind of party!)
There’s some serious French lace and GID paint action going on in Studio Spayd for Le Carnaval des Spectres, opening Sept. 13 at Artoyz Paris. Dubbed the Daylight Specters, these two custom critters are just as radiant with the lights off as they are on:
Just awesome. Haven’t been this amped for a GID critter since Amanda’s Deadnettle edition for Dragon*Con two years ago!
I know I’ve said this dozens of times, but Scott Radke’s work just amazes me. It’s curious, emotive, delicate and beautiful. For me, it promotes a feeling of peace and balance and if I had to choose only one sculpture to grace my work space, it’d be my Radke.
