This magazine feature includes an interview, a bunch of toys and plushies photos of Alien Ape Star ' s work and a specially made articulated toy of a Yeti / Bigfoot snowboarder.
Many thanks to Dragos Petrisor for making this happen and for helping me hands on with the photo session!
From here below, find the process for the SkYety photograph. Starting with toy design sketches in Adobe Photoshop to the full process of sewing the furry toys.
I loved this Global industrial sewing machine, I used to call it "the Tank"! Super solid machine that could sew really thick stuff! Very comfortable to use too, once you got the hang of it! Here you can see I was using a wooden manequin as a skeleton structure for my cyclops SkYeti snowboarder! :)
As you can see the SkYeti's feet have a Velcro sole so it can attach and detach easily to the layered snowboard.
The brown fur for the "bro cheerleader" character is recycled natural bear fur used in the lining of a vintage military coat (thank you, dad!). I used linen to back it and stiffen it a bit because it was a little bit fragile.
I had a lot of fun trying to find the perfect expression for this character. I used soft felt for the features.
Dragos Petrisor is helping a lot with staging the photoshoot and his in depth knowledge of skating and boarding tricks!
From here below you can see a few larger photos of most plush toys that were featured in the interview pages.
I really loved doing cute, simple but also functional commissions like these! Why not disguise your wallet into something kawaii? :)