Archive for the ‘ Event ’ Category
The early start to rainy season didn’t hamper the turn out of Le Merde‘s third show at Thrash Out. This show marked the release of Le Merde’s Megalith, the first vinyl figure sculpted by Mike. All the detail on this guy takes 15 different paint masks, which means the details are super sharp on the standard release figure. In addition, there were rows of customs done by Mike, as well as a other guest painters.
Design Festa is an odd event where one time, it’ll be nothing but cat postcards and nothing new. Other times, there will be a rush of amazing art. This time was somewhere in between. Max Toy and friends had a large row of booths that included: Max Toy, Elegab, Dream Rocket, Sunguts, Nakayoshi, Pico Pico, Blobpus, and Yamomark. Atelier Pu, Kaijin, Galaxy People, RESTORE, Fig-Lab, Goccodo, Art Denka, and Kikkake were all in attendance. While nothing large was released at Design Festa, many people brought samples of upcoming projects (RESTORE’s Debris Japan, or Blobpus’ version of Yamomark’s Yamobazooka). For coverage of Saturday, be sure to visit Andy’s website for lots of pictures when things were still in stock.
Rockin’ Jelly Bean and Sketch got together and put on a gallery show at Sunday Issue in Shibuya. The rain didn’t stop people from lining the stairwell to get in. The venue was nice, and the art even better.
These are the origins of the website name, sq(ui)dbl(a)st(e)r. I first started playing around with Sculpey and casting with resin a year and a half ago, and one of my first attempts at a larger figure was this, a squid tentacle holding a ghetto blaster. The mold was messy; it’s far from perfect; but I learned a lot from it. These were dyed purple with Rit dye in a 100 yen pot, and survived the earthquake on March 11th.
The cost will be $25 each, plus $18 for EMS shipping to the US. All the proceeds will be donated directly to Miyagi Prefecture’s Social Welfare Division. Ideally, this means those that need the money can receive it as quickly as possible. More information about donating directly to Miyagi Prefecture can be found here.
Contact me at sqdblstr [at] gmail [dot] com to order. Thanks for your support.
The customs from Ilanena’s Dai Kaiju Customs Show are now available online, with the proceeds going towards relief for those in Tohoku.
Ilanena was either kind, or extremely short sighted, and invited me to participate in his 10th anniversary show. In addition to the toys, I wanted to play with water colors and pens, so they come with a companion mixed media painting: Gesso, paint, and old CD cases. This Friday is the opening reception, although the show officially opened today. Andy went by and took pictures of all the submissions so far. Depending on the number of photos I take of the party, they’ll either be uploaded here, or directly to Twitter.
Ilanena‘s having a custom show to celebrate his 10th anniversary of being active in the toy world. Customs! All variations of his Dai Kaiju Card Monsters! The show runs from February 8th to the 20th at Alternative Cafe in Nakano, with a reception happening on the 11th from 6-9.
Super Festival was a large number of toy makers, and unusually crowded compared to September’s. New to toy events is Iluilu, from Kobe, with his Tokio, Neo Gorilla, and finger puppet-sized Urban Kaiju. For the most part, the event saw a lot of new colors for older sculpts, but very few truly new toys. With Wonder Fest less than a month away, and coming off the end of New Year’s holidays, a lot of makers may not have been able to get new sculpts prepared in time.
Tonight was the opening reception for Uamou’s new studio, along with her brother’s new restaurant. They’re both in the newly developed 2k540 Aki-Oka Artisan space, near Okachimachi station. There was a lot great food, lots of toys, and tons of toy makers. The grand opening for the newly renovated area is on December 10th.
