WTS goes to school

 WTS Creatures was made "Artist of the Month" by our art teacher friend Danielle.  Usually she just shows the kids pictures of the monthly artist, gives a little presentation then has the kids do projects centered around the artist.  But we're no ordinary artists of the month!
We visted the kids at school, gave a presentation of what we do, and passed around a few of our creature friends.  They loved it.  Then Danielle blew their minds: telling them that their project was to come up with their own creature!  She told them that their creatures would be judged by us and the best one would be made into a plush creature.  Their jaws dropped and excitement filled the room.  The kids couldn't wait to start!  Below are photos of 5th graders blowing OUR minds with their talented imaginations:

Hard at work.

 Lots of great ideas.

Denise and I were only able to present to one 5th grade class but the contest is for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades.  Each grade will have a winner.  We have been informed that this contest is the talk of the school.  

I can honestly say that this is thee most exciting thing that WTS Creatures has done.  

Thank you Danielle.

2012 is now 2013

Ladies and gentlemen it is no longer 2012 it is 2013!  Where are the flying cars and when can I vacation on the moon or go on a Saturn cruise?!

This year has been crazy:  WTS moved into a house, we came up with some new designs, DIA invited us to be a part of their Colorado Art and Culture exhibit and we made some really great custom creatures.  Our resolution is to try and maintain creating more exciting things and spread the WTS word as much and as consistently as possible.  We are also gonna try to make an actual website to take place of this here blog.  What do you  think about them apples?

Here are photos from the last two shows that we did:  The "Design Within Denver" Trunk Show at the MCA and December's "Neat Market."

Outside the Denver MCA on a cold December evening:

The famous bleeding heart twirling in the darkness

Denise and the table of huggable WTS Creatures:

Other tables with other crafters.

Other  talented crafters with silk screens and letter pressings and jewelry.

Doctor Who is my favorite and so are these letterpress cards:

The geometry of MCA's stair wells:

"Crappy Crafts" table with treats for make crappy crafts and rotting your teeth.

The future of gardens and home furnishings from the 70's/ 80's

The Denver Neat Market was on a cold December day but the sun was shining and so were the smiles:

Denise keeping an eye out for any kidnappers or catnappers or kritflappers and frogtrappers.

(I just made that up.  Like Dr. Seuss. BAM!)

Oh!  Hello friends!

And Hello to you too!

This market was completely vegan in that everything being sold, as well as most of the people, were vegan!

This lucky boy got a Finch for the holiday.  It is rumored that he would later get to open this gift on Christmas morning.  A happy customer all the same.

A vegan marshmallow snowman with a chocolate peppermint butt: delicious!

Thanks for all the people that talked to us at the markets we were apart of and to those who bought our creatures.  We really appreciate it and you.

WTS Creature hopes your 2012 ended well and 2013 starts fantastic.

Take care.

Have Fun.

WTS @ DIA

Great news:  WTS Creatures has been invited by Denver International Airport to be a part of their Art & Culture Exhibit!!  The exhibit runs from October to April and is located on the bridge going over to Concourse A.

Last night we brought all our creatures to the airport to figure out our display with the lovely and talented Erin Mulrooney.  Check out the action in these sick pics:

Denise and the "stock".

A Sumi Rainbow!

Denise and Erin , in the back, figuring out the best placement.

New "Giant" LockJaws.  I don't know why we didn't do this before.  Now there will be 2 sizes of LockJaw!!!

To the left.  A little more.  More.  More.  More.  Ok.  That's too much.  Lets try it form the right.

The exhibit is open to the public and you won't have to go thru security to view it.  I suspect big things will come from this great opportunity!!!

Also we've recently created a custom octopus for our friend Sheri and her new baby.  His name is Carl (the octopus not the baby.)

We love the way he turned out so much that we're gonna make more of him but with different face shapes.  Welcome to the WTS Creatures family Carl.  Yay!

Halloween is just around the corner  so please check out our spooky wares in the etsy shop.

Ok.  That's it for now.  Till next time: Have fun.

R & D

Wildin' Out

Will Smith said it best in his 1991 hit single "Summertime":

summer, summer, summertime
time to sit back and unwind

Unfortunately this doesn't apply to WTS Creatures 'cause we've got two shows coming up!

The first one is this Sunday at the Fresh Soap Company in Breckenridge.  It'll be a nice little trunk show with the smells of fresh soap in the air, arts and plushies from 11am to 6pm.  The event will be all the more pleasant with your smiling presence.  Breckenridge has a lot of activities (and snacks) going on that day including there legendary outdoor market.  Beat the heat and come up to the mountains!

The 2nd event is....

There will 115!!! vendors at this market selling their wares as well as antiques and good eats.  

We are stocking up on new inventory right now, with some old favorites like the StrongMan (below) and new pillow sets!  The Horseshoe Market is always a great time so come on out!  Hizzah!

Last but not least.

Colorado has been hit by record breaking heat, winds and massive fires.  Things are slowly getting under control.  If you'd like to help out in any way check out the cool shirts at Wildfire Tees.  100% of the proceeds go to the victims and each design is amazing.

There you have it folks.  Hope to see you some time soon.  Take care and Have FUN!

summer, summer, summertime
time to sit back and unwind

Pour On The Sugar

Speaking of pouring on the sugar, we just poured 12 new WTS creatures into the I Heart Denver Store! 3 of which were new and improved little lumps of WTS sugar ... Sugar, that's our little guy's name, hence I'm making all of these silly references to sugar. Here's what sugar looks like in his natural environment, next to my cup of coffee ...

Isn't that sugar just the sweetest thing. I forgot to mention the best part about our Sugar, he's completely non-edible, so he won't rot your teeth out! YAY!! That also makes him perfect for babies, diabetics and those of us that aren't lucky enough to have a sweet tooth.

We also dropped off our friend UNO! unlike his cousin, ONE, Uno is not a lonely fellow. He has lots of friends and is quite popular with the ladies.

As you can see here, he/she is quite the handsome fellow/ lovely lady ... and quite soft and hug-able as well. If you're in need of a new friend, uno just might be the "one" for you ... HA!

That's all for right now. Until then, go visit our creatures at I heart Denver and get yourself some love from all of the WTS creatures.

Let The Hiatus Cease

Our three month hiatus has come to an end and we're back to our usual tricks .... having a good time, drinking tea, being inspired by the possibility of extraterrestrial beings, and sewing, of course. Speaking of sewing, a few new creatures have come into existence this evening...

The strong man is back, this time in gray quilted goodness and purple paisley. He is a fine looking fellow if I don't say so myself.

And just in time for Easter, or Spring, or any old good time, it's two new LockJaw buddies. Be careful, these two might take a bite right out of your heart if you don't keep an eye on 'em.

That's the quick version of it. You can expect many more great posts now that we're back !!

2011 wrap up; 2012 hi-yah!

First off: Happy Holidays, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Festivus and Happy New Year. Its 2012 where are the flying cars and why don't I have a condo on the moon?

Since we unfortunately didn't get into Holiday Handmade we thought that our November/ December was gonna be pretty relaxed: sip some egg-nog, bake some cookies, sing some yada yada...WRONG! December 15th was the deadline for 6 plush versions of video game characters from Backflip Studios newest game AAAND the deadline for plushie versions of DISH Network's new DVR system: The Hopper. I'm gonna try and do this in chronological order so lets get started:

Denise did most of the video game character plushies and I helped make one. Which is basically a rag doll of sorts. Here it is all in pieces.

Here it is magically sewn together.

Ta-dah! You can see the other characters in our facebook photos.

One day I was at work and the people I work with were all like,

"Hey ricky you make, like, stuffed, like animals. Do you think you could make one from the two DISH "Hopper" logos?"

And I was all,

"Well how do you want me to make them. Like a pillow or with more depth?"

And they were all,

"Make it both ways."

So I did.

Much testing ensued. First I was trying out sizes and how to get the ears and arms right for the pillow. You may have seen this picture briefly on facebook. I had to take it down because of a non-disclosure agreement. Opps!

I built a full prototype to make sure it all worked ok before doing the final.

This is for the 2nd Hopper logo aptly named the "Joey" logo (Joeys are baby kangaroos)

The pillows came together easier than I expected and I'm very happy with the result. The white highlights I glued on with fabric glue. It looked nicer and cleaner than trying to sew them on. Final Hopper logo pillow:

Final Joey logo pillow:

Next was making the logo version with more "depth"; 3 dimensional if you will. This took more testing. Luckily I came across a picture of an old stuffed animal pattern online that planted this seed in my head. The problem was the arms looked like little chicken wings and the head was on backwards.

So I refined it and brought back the ears from the pillows. I sewed the head on separately and sewed the arms into the seams. I actually made foam wrapped wire "bones" for the legs which gave it great support, but didn't work with the final Kangaroo so I took them out.

This is the "3D" Joey pattern 'bout to get sewn up.

The Joey nub that sits in the pocket of the 'roo.

Final "3D" Joey and Hopper Logos. Again I put the white details on with fabric glue. The pillows and these version were give to the client as gifts. They had no idea we were doing this and were pleasantly surprised.

Speaking of pleasantly surprised. This is Natasha and the skull pillow I've been promising her for 20 years. This was the first custom gift of 2012! Play a trumpet if you've got one. Toot! Toooot! Toooot!

Big things in 2012 people! More custom creations! More new designs and hopefully flying cars.

Don't forget you can find us at the I (heart) Denver store at the Denver Pavilions and at Fresh Soap Company up in Breckenridge.

In the immortal words of Chris Rose, "Have Fun!"