Busy day in the studio

Busy day in the studio, originally uploaded by Tyler Poncho Toys.

Unrelated to this photo...the thing that made my day today was running into a customer at the post office. She thanked me for the Gruffy McBearguin. I always find it entertaining when other adults say the silly made up names for my toy so matter-of-factly. "Gruffy McBearguin" it was great. Although people saying "Tyler Poncho" isn't as magical anymore since I hear it so much. "Cloudweelius" has been thrown around a lot lately and it's pretty silly.

I also find it touching that someone has taken the time to remember the proper name of the toy. At the Holiday Craftacular last year, a little boy, named Tyler coincidentally, memorized all the animals and their names that were available at my booth and excitedly told all the new people walking up. Very Adorable, a picture of us was in the newspaper, I'm sure you could find it looking through our other photos....

Superpack!! Amalgamated Menagerie Book and Toys together

Our story book, Tyler Poncho's Amalgamated Menagerie, Volume One, and four of the toys featured in it are now available in a SUPERPACK!

Includes:

Tiny Tyler Poncho

Gruffy McBearguin

Chilly Lomedome

Bats

Hooray! Meet the animals as you read, and play with them in real life!

Available here.


But Most Importantly!!!
Have you seen Joseph Petticoat's Birthday Tea Party???

This is the whole set on Flickr.

Making of: Joseph Petticoat!

All hail the epic procrastination that was Joseph Petticoat! It's been about a year since I first thought of him. With finishing school, fixing up the house, and everything else always going on - This July was the first chance I really got to sit down and work out Joseph.

As an extra large prototype, he is mine for the keeping - his replicas to be made for sale will be smaller, like Tyler, since that is a much more managable size. My arm gets a bit tired from making Joseph dance at his 9 foot tall size.

I nearly forgot the importance of finishing Joseph until my husband got home and exclaimed that it was Joseph Petticoat's birthday! Since we celebrate Tyler's birthday, and Joseph being his new human size bestest friend, we must of course celebrate his birthday too!

Tyler thinks of Joseph as more of a friend than the other toys because he is not an edible size, although they can both bite each other quite well.

Joseph Petticoat's birthday is August 25th, 2010!
Tyler Poncho's birthday is May 9th, 2008!

Inspired by awkwardly cute flamingos and giraffes, I built Joseph on the idea of a super shocked and silly looking bird. In Madison we have a free zoo with these adorable animals for me to stare at and imagine Joseph frolicking and foraging among them. Tyler Poncho sponsored both a giraffe and a flamingo at our zoo!

This is the first sketch of Joseph...

I kept his shrimpy little T-Rex arms, his big ear spheres, his bulgy cloth eyes and beak. I added his lower and jaw in the production phase because I realized that was the best way to capture the expression I wanted. Originally he was to have discs with tentacles to make his petticoat, but as you'll see in the next illustration, I added long silly legs. In the production phase again I realized that legs and tentacles would be too much so I had to pick one. Since the illustration of his legs was already published in the book I thought that would be the one, especially since I loved the cute little feets he has in that picture. But he still needed to have a petticoat so he has feather trim around his bottom, for his little skirt.

Tyler and Joseph sailing into the sunset with Chilly Lomedomes in Tyler Poncho's Amalgamated Menagerie, Volume One.

They met at the end of Tyler Poncho's Amalgamated Menagerie, and will be adventuring into Volume 2 soon!

"Joseph is a rather haphazardly awkward flamingo from a beautiful blue desert. His species is responsible for painting the sky everyday, changing the colors and creating alluring sunsets for all to behold. They keep their feathers well groomed and trimmed with their peachy green bone-combs. Walking stately through the desert hills, their webbed feet softly shifting the sand, they bend their knees in an off-rhythm march, curving their necks to create letter shapes across the sky. In Tyler's land, the sky is made of flamingos."

Their book is available on Amazon.

More behind the scenes sketches?! Here's the thumbnails for the Amalgamated Menagerie, you can see the sketch for the above illustration in the lower left corner.

Click to open a larger view.

Unfortunately I didn't take many in process photos, but there are progress shots before I finished his head, and eyes. I made his entire body suddenly one morning. Did I forget to mention that he is COMPLETELY HAND-SEWN? Yes, I'm insane. Sometimes I get an aversion to sewing machines, and especially with new designs I like to have more control. I cut out his legs and finished one the night before, and the next day I had everything in this photo.

While I was working on Joseph I was staying at my parent's house, making it seem more like a "vacation." (Not having to cook for myself ;D!) You can see there lovely "Blue's Clues" chair that Joseph is sitting on in the above photo.

Here is Joseph wearing his head, which I believe I made the next day.

I regret accidentally having the flash on :(

As you can see, his eyes are not yet finished. So now begins the second phase of procrastination....

Tyler and Joseph discussing what kind of eyes Joseph would like to have...

 They contemplated his eyes for almost a month. After all, the eyes are the window to the fluffy soul, and have great importance in determining his personality. For some reason yesterday, I was able to overcome all this and finish his eyes, after having a sudden inspiration to make Swisswis in the middle of the night.

Happy Birthday Joseph Petticoat!!!

"I'm a pretty bird, I'm a pretty bird!"

Take a moment to imagine him yelling that at you.

And then he gets a little closer....

Oh, thanks for stepping in there, Tyler, I was getting a bit nervous...

Tyler in his Baroque Ruff, and Joseph with his Bow-Tie.

Now these dapper gentleman are ready for a night on the town!

Joseph Petticoat's will be available on TylerPoncho.com soon, but if you can't wait just send us a message. There will be Many Mini Josephs coming soon! Portable Awkward Bird Fun!

And of course, we now have TWO very large monsters living in our house - They really do add a presence and and personality. ...But what will Joseph's title be at Tyler Poncho Toys?....hmmm.......

Making of: Swisswis!

Swisswis is the newest design in our Stuffed Animal World series. The real swisswis is a 3 foot tall, super huggable, soft and wide teddy bear that's white with pink paws....The evolution of inspiration led me to this.

Swisswis is a monstrous creature of Stuffed Animal World, he lives alone in his spotted cave, feasting on any small insects that pass him.

I believe I started imagining that since Swisswis was such a large bear, having claws seemed like something he would do...Through a series of sketches he also developed beaks. Through the process of production he lost his claws. I thought his ears would be pretty, so he has hollow ears. Like Prince Ted, he gets a certain amount of his cuteness by not having any limbs :) Ah the helpless, pitiable, limbless monster...don't you just want to snuggle up to his beaks so he can chew on you a little bit with minimal exertion on his part?

As my last making of post was popular enough to receive two comments, I took more making of photos!

Pieces cut and starting to pin together.

Spots sewn, beaks started.

Beaks finished, ears cut.

Face coming together, sewing body.

Aaw...so tentacley and fuzzy :)

He is available on Etsy now, and tylerponcho.com/stuffedanimalworld soon!


First seven in the Stuffed Animal World series:

King Ted: http://www.etsy.com/listing/51525675/king-ted-plush-leader

Prince Ted: www.etsy.com/listing/01234567/prince-ted-plush-child

Cloudweelius: http://www.etsy.com/listing/50115002/cloudweelius-plush-friend

Jester of Seriousness: www.etsy.com/listing/01234567/jester-of-seriousness-plush-villain

Ornery Steamroller: www.etsy.com/listing/01234567/ornery-steamroller-plush-villain

Super Ted: www.etsy.com/listing/01234567/super-ted-plush-hero

Huggie: www.etsy.com/listing/01234567/huggie-plush-acrobat

Officially Labeled Bat Colors

Officially Labeled Bat Colors, originally uploaded by Tyler Poncho Toys.

Check out this photo to see all the bats labeled with their proper colors!
Enter the color you want at tylerponcho.com/bats to order :D

They're all made with new wool felt, which I love, and have decided that all bats will hence forth be made with this material. I named it "butter felt" because it's so creamy...

The eyes are simple black eyes with secure backs, overall simplified the process for more cuteness!

I'm hoping to make a mobile out of the bats, with instructions on how you can make your own rainbow bat mobile, and there will be a bulk discount to buy the amount of bats necessary :D!

They are also available on tylerponcho.etsy.com

Making of: Easel Ain't Easy

A new commission, Easel Ain't Easy. We made B, and her Conscience Cat. I loved making these toys since they're very different from my usual toys - especially the fabrics.

A daily life comic, you can see them all in succession on Facebook. Album 1, Album 2.
"A mostly daily webcomic, of the autobiographical variety. Follow the exploits of B, her friends and Conscience Cat as they traipse about throwing up speech bubbles and such."

and now...making the toys!

For B, I started with drawings, I combined several elements from different drawings but overall I wanted to keep the feel and look of the comic, so she would be immediately recognizable.

Starting to cut out her shapes using my drawing as reference. After the cut pieces are finalized, I create a patterns for possible recreations to be consistent.

Her adorable little bag, (which she can actually use!) and her cute ear peeking out of her hair.

All her pieces cut out. And she's even got tiny tiny buttons on her coat! (At some point Conscience Cat has gotten himself tangled into a bunch of string...cats, how typical)

Aaw...they have velcro on their hand and paw so they can hold hands.

Sewing her together...torso and head almost finished.

Detail - her expressions in the comic are always great. Smile!

Legs almost finished...Scroll down to see completed photos!

Unfortunately I lost my photos of making Conscience Cat, so I'll just tell you about it.

For his shape, I made alot of drawings interpreting many of his poses. An important thing he had to do was be able to hold B's hand. I combined different elements from her drawings so he could sit up, and reach out his paw. My first try at the sewn cat was a little sad. He just seemed incomplete, he only had embroidered details on an otherwise all plush cat. What we thought was missing was his muzzle, it brings out his face a bit more, and makes him look more complete.

Now they're finished toys!

They love each other!

Holding hands with their velcro.

Height comparison, she stands a little silly on her feets.

From the back...with her comic in her bag!

www.easelainteasy.com


We do custom plushes with full series making capabilities. Contact us with drawings and we'll give you a quote for the concepting, prototypes, pattern-making, and production of a batch of pieces. -- tylerponcho@gmail.com

signing up! the Creative Conference of Entrepreneurs

signing up!, originally uploaded by schmancytoys.

Me at the Creative Conference of Entrepreneurs!

I met so many inspiring and amazing people, learned a lot (I spelled entrepreneur correctly!) and they served coffee and amazingly delicious cupcakes from Trophy cupcakes. (Along with lots of other delicious foods.) There were so many talks with panels of great business folk/crafters...check out creativeconferencewest.com to see all the super fantastic and accomplished speakers, and the topics they spoke about. They're planning on having another conference next year!

Of course, it was very interesting to hear Lauren Venell of Sweet Meats talk about getting into manufacturing and distribution of her plush toys. She took a leap from making them herself when she got a lot of nice press, and started the learning process of getting her line streamlined into a profitable venture with minimal work on her part. She now offers her custom plush services to help get your plush manufactured - so you can skip all the mistakes of starting out clueless. I feel slightly less bewildered by manufacturing, but I'll have to save up many bear monies to start doing it.

Being someone who has always been shy, I definitely exceeded my goals for introducing myself and talking to people. With minimal awkwardness (I hope.) Hooray! ...I still need to get my notes organized and get everything all sorted out, use my brains to keep my learnings inside it, make improvements and keep my business going :D!

As soon as I got back I cleaned up my workroom and started selling off the fabrics I don't use. There may be a few things left! I've always kind of neglected by Etsy shop, but over the last month I've put effort into keeping up the listings and promoting them, not to mention finally switching my username to TylerPoncho - which I should've done years ago...but I've raised my sales from 2 a month ago to 27 now! Definitely reached a goal. I sold 17 things just today, and not all were destash items :)

Jon and I LOVED Seattle - there are so many trees! The best part about the trees is that no one cut them down when they sprang up somewhere random, like an alleyway. A three story pine tree behind a building, next to a trash can. And the mountains...and the oceans....It's all so beautiful. Jon got to see a lot more since he had a citypass for the time I was in the Conference. He came back with the cutest zoo map I've ever seen! That Emu just kills me, and the squishy looking smiley face next to "giraffe feeding." I wish I could've fed those giraffes.

I also visited my fellow Plush Team member Becky's solo show Scrumdiddlyumpitous -- it'll be open all month and everyone needs to see it! All new designs and variations on classic Scrumptious Delight, they're all available at Schmancy! (1932 2nd. Ave, Seattle)

Cute Baby Photos: Jackson and Cloudweelius!

Jackson, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cloudweelius, YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This ridiculously adorable human baby loves his Cloudweelius very much -- he can squish an entire eye into his mouth before Cloudweelius even has a chance for a retaliatory licking!  

Cloudweeliusses are made of all soft parts, baby safe, & machine-washable.

Jackson - 10 months old

OM NOM NOM, Cloudweelius!

Hooray!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, Nom Nom again!!

Cloudweelius,  $14
tylerponcho.etsy.com

p.s. CCE post coming soon...

Plushies we LOVE...

These are the kinds of toys that I stare at longingly for hours until I break down and buy them....

Alejandro (I will not tell you where to buy him because I want him! But here's a hint: Starts with a D and she's on the plush team.)

Little Bidule by Scrumptious Delight

Plushroom Soup makes the most adorable giraffes.

These two are already in Tyler's collection ;)

Absolutely Fantastic Mini-Marshmallows by Scrumptious Delight. (I'm going to her Scrumdiddlyumptious solo show on Friday at Schmancy!)

I uber-love LoveandaSandwich's work. This is her Apple Blossom Monstroctopus, check out her shop for more awesome stuff!

Moon Bun in a cozy basket by Moons Creations

Monster Banana Split by Diane Koss

Plush Deer by followthewhiterabbit

Check out the Plush Team at www.plushteam.com