Thursday, January 28, 2010

Creative Monotony

To be quite honest, I was getting a little tired from making all the little dinosaurs and they also started taking on a different shape/form after working on so many in a row. So after every 4th one that I did, I would take a break and work on something else. I wanted to make something for Valentine's so I worked on baby chicks and bunnies.
Going back to the t-rexs', I wondered how I could incorporate dinosaurs and Valentine's day and working with so much green clay was just starting to get to me. With all these thoughts in my head, I decided to change it up and make a pink Lady T-rex. And as I'm always playing around with my new camera, I gathered all of the T-rexs' for a unique picture :)Doesn't she look in awe of all of her suitors gathering to see her? With that "come hither" look, she looks like quite the flirt! Work it girl!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

A Labor of Love...

Diane has been hinting around that I've been working on a project for a special little someone and I have! In about a week and a half, her son Aidan will be celebrating his 5th birthday and I wanted to make him something fun. Aidan LOVES dinosaurs, specifically the Tyrannosaurus Rex, so I thought I would give it a try. Little did I realize, but there are a lot of little details to the T-rex, but this is how it turned out! Aidan will be celebrating his birthday at school with his classmates so both Diane and I thought it would be a cute favor for the kids to have. Did I mention there are 22 kids in Aidan's class? LOL

I think the kids will be thrilled to receive something that they can keep and remember Aidan's special day by :) Stay tuned because this is not the end of this project- Diane will be adding her special touches to make this project complete!

Happy Birthday Aidan!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

New Turtle Listings

So in keeping with the tropical or Hawaii theme this week, I decided to rework my "honu"/ turtle concept. My original turtle wasn't my best work, but as I continue to play around with the clay, I find better ways to achieve the cute look I'm going for. These are my latest Etsy creations! They came out super cute.
I did the one with the pink cupcake base and fuchsia pink plumeria flowers first and then after some thought, I had an idea to do a swirl ocean blue and white frosting top with a light green base for the cupcake and change the flower to a white plumeria. Either way, they are both super cute. One a little more feminine and the other a little more masculine.

Check out our Etsy site if you're interested in purchasing one! Lots of "aloha" went into these little honu!

Friday, January 22, 2010

New Penguin Cupcake Listings!

I've been busy making some penguin cupcakes for Valentine's Day as well as another little cute cupcake design which I'll share with you in this post. This week 3 of our cupcakes sold so since it seems like the cupcakes are selling well, I thought I would add a few more to the list. They are so fun, quick and cute. That's what I love about the figurines and cupcakes, in less than 30 minutes I'm done and it's a finished product. Instant gratification!
The first two are single penguins one in purple and one in pink. The pink one I decided to give a plumeria hair flower. Hearts on the cupcake too. How cute. I also added the glitter embellishments which add a lot to the cupcake and figurine.
The 3rd design is sweetheart penguins with whimsical hearts floating on some crinkle wire. My version of love birds. :)The last one is my all-time favorite thus far. I had been wanting to make a surfboard with a penguin on top and today it finally clicked. It's what I call my "Surf's Up" Penguin! I knew what I wanted to do and it came out just as I had imagined. Even with the fin at the bottom of the surfboard! I made the surfboard more marbled to give it some added texture which I think looks awesome. Of course it wouldn't be complete without a white plumeria and glitter accents.

Be sure to click on the pictures to take you directly to the actual listing on our Etsy site.

Myrna has been busy on a special assignment for a special little someone so soon she will post what she's been working on for the last couple of weeks!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Another Lady Bug Cupcake

I've been busy making lady bugs. The fuchsia pink one I made earlier in the week sold so I decided to post up another one on the site. Each time I make a figurine I learn a little more each time on how to make it better. That's what I love about the clay, it's a never ending learning experience!
I added some sparkle to the base of the "icing" this time and played around with the eyes. I also modified the colors slightly. Always different, always unique!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Custom Design for Baby Shower - Penguin Family

One of my dear friends, Debbie Friedrich of zenatona, had posted our gofigurette! site on her Facebook page to help build awareness about our new endeavor. Debbie is so sweet. One of her clients was interested right away as she's throwing a baby shower in March/April for a family member when she's back there. She lives in India, but is from Hawaii. So we discussed what she wanted and she had specific colors she wanted to incorporate so then I decided to just make the penguins in orange, yellow and red. To further specify who was the mom, dad and baby, she asked if I could put a plumeria flower for the mom and a black bow tie for the dad. I'll be putting them with a wire ornament hanger so her guests can hang them on the Christmas tree in December!So, my client sent me another email asking if maybe we could switch the bowtie out for something that was a little bit more personal to her husband. He's big into photography so she asked for a camera. So this is the final sample design. I realized then that the baby shower favors she was asking for are for her own baby shower when she goes back to visit her family in Hawaii! So the plumeria matches an island girl!

I'm so appreciative of the orders we have received and the interest level in such a short amount of time from when we launched! Can't wait to see what 2010 holds for gofigurette!

Lady Bug and Hearts Cupcake

Some of our fans have been asking us to make lady bugs. So I was working on some other concepts for clients and decided to try my hand at a lady bug. This was inspired by a lady bug cake I saw on Cake Lava's blog today. Super cute. I decided that in honor of Valentine's day it would be cute to do the antennae and spots on the wings in heart shapes instead of circles. I love the light pink colors of the lady bug instead of the traditional black and red color palette. It's cute and makes you just smile. :)
Makes a perfect Valentine's Day gift or a cake topper for a little girl or baby shower! Of course it wasn't complete without a little bit of glitter on the hearts! Click on the images to take you to the actual listing on Etsy!

Custom Order for Baby Shower

The interest level in our company has been going strong. Lots of inquiries and people interested in custom items for their upcoming baby showers, birthdays and more. I was asked recently to make a custom topper for a diaper cake. I normally defer birds to Myrna because she's so good at them, but because this one was basically done as a trade for an industry friend/client, I decided to give it a whirl! The client had made baby shower invitations of a blue bird (the new stork) flying in the air carrying a baby blanket bundle. She wanted to try and recreate it for a diaper cake.

Since launching gofigurette!, she asked me if I could help her out. Her sister is a professional photographer so we'll hopefully be able to share professional photos at a later date with you.
So I made my first bird and it was way too big, then crushed it up and tried again. The 2nd time came out much better. Then I had the challenge of figuring out how to make the legs and feet of the bird. I luckily had brown crinkle wire and so I twisted it and made it look like the feet that was in the picture. The baby blanket bundle also took some thought. But, after a couple tries, I managed to make it work. But how would I give the bird the appearance that it was flying in the air? I was contemplating doing a tree stump to prop up the bird, but then realized I had some nests I bought at the craft store and figured out a way that I could hide the wire holding the bird in the air. So this is the end result. Not bad if I do say so myself. LOL. For those of you who know me, my specialty is flowers, not figurines.

It was a fun exercise and I'm glad my industry colleague gave me a good challenge! Who knows, maybe we'll offer something like this in the future on our site. It does however qualify as our first sold item on our Etsy site! So happy!
I can't wait for Myrna to blog about what she's been working on for a special little someone! Stay tuned for that!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Another Valentine's Listing

Since my owl has been getting some good hits, I decided to make a Valentine's themed owl on a cupcake. I wanted to incorporate a little bit of flowers since they've always been my first love when creating items with clay.

This little owl sits in a "love nest" of puffy hearts and two shades of pink flowers, all on top of a white frosted cupcake. So cute I want to keep it! Diane and I are coming up with a lot of fun ideas not just for Valentines, but with other items we'll be offering in our shop-so keep visiting!

Valentine's Day Penguin Just Listed...

Well, since I was busy today, doing a lot of running around, I only had a brief moment to sit in my studio and create something small. Since I had a bunch of cupcakes finished I decided to make something for Valentine's Day to list on our gofigurette! site on Etsy.

I can't wait to see what Myrna has created on her end, but here goes mine. I decided to make a pink penguin with darker pink hearts on it's body and then embellish a white "frosted" cupcake with the same mini pink hearts and embellished them with matching glitter glue. So sweet! All the pieces were handmade. The hearts were not from a mold, again, hand formed and believe me the clay I started with was super tiny. I decided to add a little "Happy Valentine's Day" sign that can be removed after Valentine's Day.
Would be super cute for your loved one who loves penguins or for your child's teacher at school. We'll be coming up with some more items soon so stay tuned. Click on either of the images to take you directly to the actual listing on Etsy!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Photography 101

The one thing I told myself when Diane and I discussed working together was that I needed to learn how to take better pictures. Diane was gracious enough to take pictures of my grey and white owl and as always, her pictures are awesome!
Well, I recently got a new camera for Christmas, and I thought, this is it, now there's no excuse for having a bad shot. So I decided to focus my creative energies on taking pictures of my new fairy.

Diane often tells me that a good shot doesn't necessarily have to be straight, horizontal or vertical, but to play around with the angles too.

I think I captured the cheeriness of my fairy and I'm getting a bit better with picture taking :)

Cupcakes are Fun!

Myrna's owl has gotten A LOT of hits! I'm so excited for her. We've gotten a couple of inquiries for custom orders which is great so it can only go up from here!

Myrna sent me cute cupcakes made out of clay and so I experimented based on how she told me she did hers. The thing I like about our company is we don't restrict one another as far as trying to make our things exactly the same. She has her style and I have mine, but we inspire each other to create! The top ones were the ones she sent me so I could take photos and the bottom layer is my own version of the cupcake.
I think I secretly like making the cupcakes more than the figurines. LOL. They're fun too! Who knew?

We're gearing up to list a few new items for Valentine's Day gifts and looking at offering some new favors that will be super cute! So stay tuned!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

gofigurette! Signature Cupcake - a collaborative design effort!

Myrna and I love working together. It's one of those things, we either both have the same idea or come up with an idea and the other executes. It's a fun working environment, just wish we lived closer so we could actually hang out. :)
After I designed our logo, I thought to myself, "we need to make the birds and cherry blossom out of clay. Myrna figured out how to make cupcake forms so we don't have to go out and buy real cupcakes every time we want to photograph a new figurine to post on our Etsy site. We both had the same idea, make a cupcake with our birds and cherry blossom. Myrna came up with the birds and the cupcake in the most perfect colors and she sent it to me and I figured out the cherry blossom location and created the flower. So it was a collaborative design effort from both of us. Myrna is jealous because I'm not giving her the sample back. LOL. It's SUPER CUTE!
So, we're selling these on Etsy soon, just in time for Valentine's Day. We thought this would make a cute cake topper too for someone who loves birds and loves cupcakes! We're thinking of new packaging ideas as well, but until these things really take off, they will come in their own little gofigurette! logo bag.

We'll also be coming out with a line of figurine and cupcake sets. Already gives me ideas for my son's birthday in February! So be sure to check out www.gofigurette.etsy.com for different color and figurine combinations!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

gofigurette! Etsy Shop is Now Open!


Myrna and I have been busy trying to put together some of our pieces to list and today I had time to put them together and get the site up and running! We hope you like what you see and will tell your friends and family about our new venture. These are so cute and I can definitely see these being a big hit at children's parties and baby showers. There's lots more to come, but for now, we have listed a few items instead of waiting any longer.
So visit us at www.gofigurette.etsy.com!
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