As it's Friday 13th I decided there was no better time than now to talk about a favourite Artist of mine Matthew Roby who goes by the moniker Pickled Circus probably due to the wondrous menagerie of misfits, monsters and marvels that he creates! A talented artist by no small stretch he has created a whole host of weird and wonderful characters starting as sketches, building into fully formed characters with backstories and finally sculptures/custom collectible toys which is how I discovered him on one of my many tumbles down the Instagram rabbit hole. As luck may have it he also went to Toy Con last year and this year so I got to see his amazing art up close! This year I even got hold of some prints and the book of some of his characters which is ...
For the second year in a row I decided to attend the creative display known as ToyCon. A convention full of toy designers, artists, customisers, collectors and dealers (of toys obviously). This year I decided to attend for one main reason, the chance to join Matt Jones for his 1 hour master class of Model Making using Super Sculpey. Okay I'm lying I got tickets before I knew about the workshop but it was totally my main reason for attending after I found out about it... Students would learn skills in making Clay Models and get a better understanding of how the design process works from initial 2D sketches to 3D models. Every student got to take home a finished clay figure and a copy of the Plastik Surgery Workshop Handbook. The event which was supported by Super Sculpey was ...