Bumbling B and onwards.

I've had some really nice comments on my Bumbling B figure (see previous post) from Samantha Bryan and the people that are members of her Facebook group, which is really encouraging, and also from Jennifer Collier over at Unit Twelve on their Facebook Group.
So, I'm feeling even more determined to have another go.
This time though I've designed him around something I came across in a local antique fair.

An old fire extinguisher, resting on an A4 page for scale.

Which has some really nice features...

...a nice attachment, or two, for tubes, and I love the label on it...

...which calls it an Extintor Liliput, almost implying it's actually some horrible device for killing little people, so maybe it wasn't a fire extinguisher as sold to me.
Anyway, the figure I'm going to try and create around this will look something along the lines of...

He'll be from another planet and the costume will be his spacesuit, needed to keep him alive. I think he'll wear a mask, to hide his identity, although he is the only red skinned individual around and hardly likely to be trying to live amongst us unnoticed.
It'll no doubt take me a long time .. but I'll post his progress now and then.
Wish me luck ..

It's been a strange few weeks. I went to the opening of the Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition and was a little humbled by the professionalism of the other entries. True to any form of art there were those that I liked and those that I didn't, but overall I felt a certain amount of pride that Belmat was even there.
He didn't get a prize of course, but he did look the toughest exhibit in the room and I certainly noticed that none of the other exhibits would look him in the eye.
I have plans for entering something next year, but we'll see if I ever find the time to make it.

Yesterday Accent UK had a table at the Comiket in London and sold a good number of our books. All was going very well until I sold a copy of Robot Shorts to a Spanish (I think) couple.
'My partner makes robots', the lady stated, very proud of her chap.
 'Hey, so do I', I felt a bond forming between myself and the gentleman. 'I make mine out of paper mache' I explained.
'Oh, he programmes his to avoid objects...'
'Oh... real robots...' I felt a little like Androx The Mighty and crawled back behind the table to deal with the next customer.
Still, it feels good to know that a Robotics Engineer now possessed a book of my about robots.
Next weekend I'll be at the Leeds' Thought Bubble Festival, so do pop in and say hello if you're in the area, and if you happen to be a Robotics Engineer it might be best to mention that early in the conversation, to avoid my embarrassing myself... again.

Belmat delivered...

I dropped Belmat off with Jennifer Collier yesterday for the Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition, which opens to the public from the 1st Nov - 25th Nov 2012.

Jennifer referred to me as a 'Maker', which is the term used to describe people who are in the craft world. I quite like the term. Looking around Unit 12 I'm certainly feeling inspired to make some more robots and have something in mind to enter next year, it won't have the charm of Belmat though so we'll see how it goes and how it is received.

Belmat gets selected for a Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition

On the insistence of my wife, I entered Belmat in the Contemporary Craft Open Exhibition at Unit Twelve, in Stafford. And he has been selected.

Both my wife and I love visiting galleries and workshops around the country and we have been drawn more to the 'craft' side of the art world these last few years.

I would never have considered entering Belmat, but Jane was convinced that he deserved to be seen by more more people and so I agreed, never expecting for him to be selected, but there you go, the little guy won through.

The exhibition will run 1st - 25th November, and all visitors will be entered into a prize draw to win £100 voucher to spend with madebyhandonline.co.uk

Sadly One-Eye wasn't selected, but he'll get over it I'm sure.

If you've not been to one of these Contemporary Craft Open Exhibitions before then I'd recommend it. Very inspiring and it's amazing how many ideas from one medium can leak into another, so I'd be surprised if any comic creators who might happen to attend don't come away with some new ideas.