The Boy Who Dreamed Of Tiny Toys

This blog used to be all about "plush this" and "plush that." Well, not anymore, chum! These days I'm strictly a tiny toy man, and I can assure you that I come by my love of the small stuff honestly. In fact, my earliest childhood memories are of visiting the neighborhood toy store to pick out Starcom and Air Raiders mini-figures. Even now, as a fully-grown adult person, I frequently dream about finding tiny toys. Those are my favorite dreams until I wake up to the disappointment of NOTHING. :'-r

Uhh, segue... Did you know that my wood toys are heavily influenced by the old wooden Erzgebirge-style Christmas ornaments I grew up with? (That would be pretty spooky if you did already know that.) The very first wood toy I made was supposed to become a Christmas ornament itself, but I liked the darn thing so much as a standalone figurine that I kept it that way. See! It's got a cute little gold hat and everything.

 

Back in the pre-2020 year of 2019, I started making a series of tiny toys called Capsule Castaways. I'd intended to sell them at a last-minute street art festival, but found out the night before the event that I hadn't actually been accepted (just *invited* to apply 24 hours prior??) and, also, the fest was cancelled anyways - oops! But I was a man possessed by the power of tiny toy and could not have stopped the making of them if I tried. (Pretty sure I stayed up until at least four in the morning frantically putting together toy after toy after toy...) When they were all done, I decided to call them Capsule Castaways since they were made of small cast-off bits from old wood toys and I was selling them in vending prize capsules (naturally). They were the closest I'd gotten to pulling the art I see inside my brain directly into the real world completely intact, you know? Here are a few examples from the first (and still my favorite) series.

I've made a bunch of other stuff since then, but most recently (and by recent I mean last week), I finished three small series called Aminals, Good People, and Weird Worm wood toys. All of them turned out really well and, as of this posting, can be found in my storenvy shop. Here! Look at some pictures of them.

That pretty much catches you up to where I'm at now (at least in terms of tiny toy making). I've already started work on some new stuff, but won't have anything to show until next month at the earliest. Keep your eyes peeled on this space for updates and further long-winded ramblings by yours truly, okay?