On a cold and frosty November evening, they arrived. Handsome linen envelopes sealed with red wax. The waiting was over. Only a select few would attend. Those who did would remember it as a gala event — an epic unlike anything ever done before. The screening of the long awaited, much anticipated Frankencurse. It was a Brian De Palma film, so you know it was going to be golden.

To three individuals in the audience, though, it was more-much more than just a film premiere. It had been the chance of a lifetime. A much hoped for big break. The culmination of a failed dream and poorly directed ambition.

You see, Count Dracula, Wolfman and Mummy had all read for the lead role, believing the title, Frankencurse, to be a small oversight on the director’s part. They all felt the starring part (which by the way was written specifically for Frankenstein) was an insignificant detail that could be reworked to suit their individual and unique qualities.

When the monstrous trio arrived to read for the part, it was awkward to say the least. The director had tried to reason with the trio — explaining that the role had already been filled. And after a short period of what you might call “making a scene” (read begging), the crew decided to let them read as a courtesy to Frank.

The problems were clear right from the start. Dracula’s accent — a major issue. The Mummy’s bandages came unravelled more than once, as he fumbled and stumbled throughout the reading. And Wolfman? Well, where to start? He doesn’t even talk! His growling and grunting, while cute at first, simply slaughtered the gentle nuances of the script. He finally gave up and simply reconciled himself to a series of weird, disjointed movements so the camera could catch him from different angles. Needless to say, they were promptly escorted off the set. It was a bad day, an embarrassing day, for our three friends. They were sure they would never darken the doorsteps of tinsel town again.

Then the invitations arrived. It didn’t matter that Frank, a long time friend, had convinced the higher ups to show some sympathy and send the courtesy tickets. No, they were back! And now, invites in hand, cloaks freshly pressed, bandages tightly wrapped and fur brushed, they wait. They wait for the event of
the year — to be seen and heard once more. Surely this is their key to success. Three Hollywood heroes — a revival for the ages…

And now we wait, worried and wondering about how things are going to shake out. We’re hoping it doesn’t get ugly, because I think we all remember the roller derby debacle of 2009. I still have scars from that night!

We do hope to see you at the event of the year. I wonder which will be more interesting — the movie, or the red carpet walk of Count Dracula, Wolfman and The Mummy? I have my money on the latter, and I can’t wait to see how it goes. Remember to cut them a break will ya?

Well, here they are: Zelda, Link, Maggie, and the little known Fishman. We were so excited when our friends at Jolby asked us to participate in the Tri-force tribute show. But which characters to choose? There are so many awesome possibilities, especially when this game spans so much time, and has countless of interesting creatures. Not to mention that the array of talented people contributing to this show, was in truth a bit intimidating! Thank goodness for the Zelda Wiki site.

After educating ourselves on some of the many, and varied options, we chose two lesser known characters (Maggie and Fishman), and the two main characters, Link and Zelda. We loved Maggie’s story, although she suffers a tad from stockholm syndrome. She tends to have a more pessimistic personality, and we wanted to portray her as such. The unusual Fishman, plays a small part as a mini-game character in Wind Waker. He is kind of a weird guy, and we hope we stayed true to that in our version of him! And last, but certainly not least are the infamous Link and Zelda. There are so many renditions of these two. They have been portrayed in the sweet, “anime” style as ToonLink and ToonZelda, as well as the very sophisticated warrior version which is very cool. But when we envision Link and Zelda we lean toward the “toon” version, so that seemed like a natural choice for us.

This was a great project to be a part of, and we were thrilled to be included among a group of artists we admire so much. You can check out everyone’s work on Buy Olympia. The prints are available now, and the one off pieces will be available soon. Our work will be a part of
the latter.

We’ve recently come off of one of the most exhilarating and intense projects we have worked on in our short careers. Two months ago we received a phone call from Jeffrey Zeldman, web designer, author and industry icon. He was being inducted (the first inductee) into the brand new Interactive Hall of Fame that is being established in Austin, TX.

A couple of years ago we’d done a rough plush doll of Jeffrey and sent it to him with our thanks for all of the wonderful work he’s done for the web design industry and for being a huge source of inspiration to us. Shameless self promotion? Perhaps, but we’ve made a commitment to ourselves that we should be thanking the people that have sparked the inspiration within us. Without them, we’d still be shopping at the mall and waiting for the new season at The Gap.

Jeffrey was looking for us to do a more tailored, short run of the doll we had initially designed of him-215 to be exact. They were to be given away as gifts at the Hall of Fame after party being held at South by Southwest (right about now is where you can hear our jaws drop to the floor).

Here was the opportunity to put handmade work into the hands of 215 web designers and industry gurus at one of the largest interactive design conferences in the world-South by Southwest. Are we interested? Hells, please! So, after hashing out the details and specifics we set into work on the very complicated and detailed project.

Flash forward to just over a month later, and we have jumped hurdles, traveled great distances to find fabric, gone through 67 yards of material, 30lbs. of stuffing and 5,000 meters of thread to produce the completely custom, limited edition run. We’ve learned A LOT (especially about estimating time and materials). There were many trials and errors throughout the life of this project, but here we are standing on the other side and stronger for it.

We had an amazing time working on this for Jeffrey and are, as always, so thankful for forward thinking individuals who put their faith and dollars into the handmade market to create something truly unique.

Below are just a few of the pictures we took documenting the process:

We’ve been invited to take part in the TriForce Tribute gallery show in Portland during March. In case you’ve been lost for the last 20 years, the TriForce show will focus on everything Zelda, the amazingly fantastic video game that has rawked our lives for decades. The show is being put on by our wonderful friends at Jolby and Always With Honor, and promises to be an amazing event.

We’ll be doing four plush pieces for the show (two main characters and two sub-characters), but we’re keeping the specifics under wraps for now. We’ll be trying out some new techniques and some new detail effects on these, though, so they should be uber-awesome.

Here are a few specifics for the show:

The Triforce Tribute is an epic multi-medium show celebrating all things Zelda. Curated by Jolby & Always With Honor. The show will run March 9th to April 21st 2012 at Land Gallery in Portland, OR.

Hooray for Right NOW!

We’ve also booked almost all our shows for the holiday season. In November we will be doing a first-time appearance at the Abernathy Art Show, while in December we are once again attending our much loved local crafter get together, Crafty Wonderland, AND we will be making a first-time appearance at Urban Craft Uprising in Seattle. The exact dates and times will pop up on our shows page once we get all that information together.

What it all amounts to is, “Crap, we’re busy!”

Hooray for, “Crap, we’re busy!”

Piggums the pig,
He’s not very big.
A cube of a sort,
No legs-he’s quite short.
And partial to overripe figs.
He roots in the grass,
While snorting alas!
Piggums, the super cube pig!

Mickey, what do you want to be when you grow up? “Fireman!” Mickey-Luv, is there anything else you might want to be? “FIREMAN!”. Mickey my dear, what is your most favorite thing in the whole wide world? “FIREMAN!” Not anything else…nothing? “NO, FIREMAN!”

There you have it, Mickey wants to be a doctor when he grows up, mom says so.

Peet came to us not so long ago. Discovered wandering around the local farmer’s market, happily pocketing items into his pouch. Once apprehended, Peet’s pocket was found to contain the following items: 2 small bananas, 1 green pepper, 2 red tomatoes, 1 small terrier (owner unknown), 1 knitted scarf, 3 hazelnuts, and 2 medium sized eggplants.

When asked his plans for the unusual assortment of items, he simply shrugged, smiled and said, “lasagna”. Now, far be it from us to question a budding chef, but really, a terrier? Anyways, Peet is hard at work in the kitchen as we speak, humming and stinking up the whole place. He is throwing a party for all of the neighborhood cats. He claims to have a new recipe in mind. Oh dear. Well, if you have a small animal at home, perhaps Peet is not the guy for you, but please keep him in mind if you have an adventurous side-especially in the kitchen!

From the depths of space deep within the bowels of star system z165-xx34b comes the mysterious and bewildering Lord Zerrung. His tale is one of woe and misery. A tale so frightful it will turn your skin as white as a marshmallow and your ears the shade of ox hooves…

…Just don’t ask us, cause honestly, we can’t understand a word he says.

BUT APPARENTLY, it’s AMAZING! and SCARY! and it will make the HORSES SWEAT and, and the CO…WS W…ill… bark, and, and…

During our mini-hiatus we’ve been talking a lot about the state of DFF, and where we want to go over the next couple years. How do we expand? What products do we want to concentrate on-just plush, or do we start developing other products featuring our cast of miscreants?

Business decisions are always some of the hardest for both of us. We are by nature firmly housed on the creative side of this endeavor. Developing a business side and mindset has proven more difficult and still feels bit foreign to both of us. But we’re working on it…

I would love to say that we got it down rock solid, but we still have a way to go. We are, however, finally gearing back up, which feels great. Shows for this year have been and are being booked, and we have amassed quite a bit in our sketchbooks that will fuel us through the rest of the year. Whichever direction we end up going we will at least have a partial roadmap. It may not get us all the way there, but it’s enough to keep us going until we need a restroom break.