When I was invited to create an entry as part of Team Australia for this year’s Designer Toy World Cup it came as a bit of a surprise as I’ve never made or decorated an art toy before! But never one to pass up an opportunity for a fun art project I accepted with relish. Obviously I severely underestimated the amount of time it would take me but that’s par for the course as I tend to get a little carried away when given free rein.
When transforming my little DIY Bobby I wanted to stick to what I know best; metal. So it seemed like a no brainer to me to give him a suit of armour. Sir Bobby was born.
From the very beginning I envisioned Sir Bobby as some kind of demon warrior king so I designed his armour in a Medieval Gothic tracery style, complete with a skull motif subtly worked into the breastplate. This guy isn’t messing around.
I hand pierced everything including axe, shield, breastplate, epaulettes, crown and visor from brass sheet and did a little bit of hand engraving to pick out the necessary details. After shaping the flat metal to the contours of Bobby’s body and riveting the pieces together, my knight was in need of some chainmaille to protect his precious little vinyl head and thighs. Now this is where I may have mismanaged my time somewhat. Making each little link from scratch I went through metres of brass wire and gave up a solid chunk of my life to fashioning his coif and skirt. Worth it.
Sir Bobby was starting to look like he was spoiling for a fight but he wasn’t quite tough enough for my liking. Obviously he required head to toe tattoos. To match his armour and emphasise his slightly supernatural aspect, I painted Bobby with some medieval style foliage. I lightly pencilled the design all over his body then carefully painted it in black so it was just visible. I then went over it in a gloss topcoat to give the contrast of the glossy vines on the matte black body. Even though most of the painting is hidden by his armour, I like that you catch occasional glimpses of it through the holes.
Sir Bobby was then ready for assembly and his trip to NYC to join all the other Bobbys! I hope he plays nice.
The competition begins June 1st 2019 at the Martian Toys booth at Five Points Festival in NYC. If you’re close by check it out! If not you can see all of the incredible the entries here:
@martian_toys
@designertoyworldcup
@redlife1972
Wow!! This is fantastic. Such wonderful detail. A masterpiece.
Thanks Lorraine 😀 You should check out the other entries, they’re all incredibly detailed!