Bigfoot Paper toy Freebie #4: Frankenstein's Monster

Another one breaks out of the cage! I've always loved the old Universal monster movies; this is my tribute to Boris. Click on the model sheet below for a full downloadable jpeg. Don't forget to check out the building tips first.

Bigfoot Paper Toy Freebie #3

Next in line for release in my occassional series of free paper toys is the ever charming and companionable Grim Reaper. Fitting for the season, being the official representative of endings and beginnings in the Major Arcana. Just click on the image for the full downloadable jpeg and get busy! Print off to the thickest paper or card your printer can manage. You'll also maybe want to check out my 'tips for building sheet' which you can find here, or click on the sheet below.

Angels on the loose!:

Thought it would be fun to share some pics of The Angel of the Morning after as he travelled around the globe during the Christmas festivities for 2009....apparently he got about quite a bit. Here he is after taking one too many with Margot & Matt in Arlington in the US (cheers for the photos and keeping an eye on him!):

 

 

Bigfoot Paper Toy Freebie #2: The i-Bug

After being spectacularly let down by two local firms in one year, I've decided to release a few of my paper toys here as freebies over the next few months. Be sure to check back every once in a while to see what's happening....Several were built with a trial version of Flash, but I'm hoping to get up to speed with Inkspace soon and see what crazed buddies I can come up with in the future.



First off the cutting blocks is the i-Bug. Designed to perch on an open laptop he fits quite inconspicuously on the curtain rail! Click here or on the image below for a large resolution jpeg. ...then right click and download in the usual manner. Have fun :-D

Bigfoot Freebie #1: Happy Solstice to all Red Bubblers!

I've recently discovered the joys of Red Bubble and the talented community of folk who help make it such a great place to visit and hang out. I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has commented on my work there and been so incredibly welcoming and encouraging. You're a fantastic bunch and have totally restored my faith in online communities and I've been more inspired than you can imagine. So as a wee thank you and Solstice present I'm posting a seasonal paper toy for folk to download and make, and for any other kindred souls I've pointed in this direction!

So allow me to present my "Angel of the Morning After"...he's a friendly little soul but has a tendency to rather over do it on the sherry at this time of year, so please treat him gently.

Clicking on the model sheet below should give a view of a larger jpeg which you can right click and save in the usual manner. Print off to a reasonably thick paper or card (180gsm-ish) then grab your scissors, scalpel and glue of your choice...I find the stick varieties work best.

Best wishes for the Solstice to you all...look forward to chatting and raving over more of your exceptional talents in the New Year.

The Proliferating Pyxis...

Meet the Pyxis (or rather 'pyxides' plural!). The latest peculiarities from the Bigfoot parallel paper dimension.

Pixys: (piksis) Latin - small box or casket. And a suitably impish or hobbish name to boot; equally fitting for their Cornish origins. Also where the word 'pixel' has its root.

Pyxis is also a charming constellation of ancient stripe, originally known as Pyxis Nauticus, the Mariner's Compass (a ship's compass in them days was housed in a chamber, or said 'box', and often fitted, with not insignificant reverance), traditionally placed at the base of the ships's mast (malus).

The wonderful site Constellations Of Words.com, carries some enticing and almost free-form riffing on the etymology and symbolism of the constellations. With a dash of the history and archaeology of astrology/onomy along the way, it will keep the most palsied and tangential of auto-didacts amused and off of the streets.

(For instance: Habitare comes from the Indo-European root *ghabh- Also *ghebh-. 'To give or receive'. An interesting nugget where the concept of 'home' is bound up with the concepts of conscious giving and conscious receiving...)

I'd like to offer some of these online for folks to grab, print & build for themselves, but I'm struggling to know how to publish them myself without the hassle of waking the (only occassionly available) webgoblin who valiantly built my website. If there's anyone who feels charitable enough to point me to a good free, online storage site where I could upload & link to PDFs, then you would be favoured among the firmament indeed.

Paperbag Boy & The Manikin March Against Mammon

Latest figure template based on the traditional pillow box... and Paperbag Boy is born! One small muffled voice in the wilderness of retail monopoly monsters and high-street community munching super-hyper-mega-marts. Also the first completely 'on-screen' designed toy I've created....no preliminary drawings or artwork, save a doodle in the sketchbook. Full gallery on Flickr

Paperbag Boy & The Manikin March Against Mammon
Originally uploaded by Bigfoot Studio

Oliver's Army

Ed' Will & Ginger enquired a while back about a custom paper toy commission, and then Oliver Postgate passed away a few days back, and things sort of gelled on the drawing board all of a sudden. So this one is dedicated to Mr Postgate for all the wonderful memes and ideas and tales he layed down in my soul....and thousands more like me....Oliver's Army is here to stay. Thank you Mr P!

Flip Your Lid With The ...

Sadly due to the vagaries of human whimsy, these little critters were a victim of the times and the range was never produced. I leave them here as reference...you never know!!

There's a range of 11 Hobnoggin novelty stash boxes at present, intended to be packaged as cut and make paper toys on 350g board;they make great toys, gift boxes, mascots, shelf buddies etc and take about 20 minutes to make.

Bigfoot Prints

The March of The Noggins Continues

Originally uploaded by Bigfoot StudioGreat excitement in the Bigfoot burrow... and as plans coalesce, a little bit more can be revealed. Bigfoot Studio paper toys are about to appear as a mass production funky eco-toy, produced on highest quality hemp paper, and distributed around the UK with the very likely possibilities of some European distribution too.

This has been a great whirlwind of a sea change (to mix my meteorological metaphors) over a very short number of weeks, from touting my hand finished prototype stock around venues in Cornwall, to being invited to collaborate with a paper goods manufacturer in the South West to relaunch under their banner. A lot of plans are pinned to the wall at the moment, but things are going to be grown slow and steady to see how this new business relationship goes; so far my experience has been one of working with someone and a business that have a depth and quality of integrity and character that I thought extinct long ago. No names at the moment as there is a whole bunch of legal trademarky stuff to be locked down first, and it seems the world of paper goods is as fraught with shades and hues of industrial espionage as much as any other trade.

So keep an eye out on the shelves, folks...or check back here from time to time. Plenty more freebies to come to complement the range!!

Cornish Noggin

Cornish NogginOriginally uploaded by Bigfoot Studio
In this particular neck of Ruralshire the local Gorsedd have been fending off criticism of wafflerey and plain bloody lack of gumption; it does strike me as odd that a gathering of bards should gather once a year to be bag-piped into their ceremonial circle, sky blue robes all a flap and a flurry, only to reverently sing their great cultural anthem accompanied by the strains of a wobbly C60 cassette whistling through an agricultural show PA system. But then, pride in your roots and your heritage has got to be a good thing in any form where the intent is positive. So just to whip up the national spirit a little more, Bigfoot Studio proudly present your genyooine tartan kilted Cornish Noggin, great for the dashboard of the ex-pat's old jallopy, or a perfect Kernewek diva for the family altar. Download your Cornish Noggin here, fire it off your printer and make yourself a new friend from Kernow today.

NB: You'll need to open the jpg file in a publishing package once it's downloaded, and then drag out the file to A4 or size of choice. It's a reasonable res' on the image...but if anyone can advise me how to use Google Docs to share PDFs via public links I'd be really grateful :)

We Three Free Wee Men

Is it a bird?
Originally uploaded by Bigfoot Studio

Nimrod, Bob & Commander Zap....3 seems a good number to start the first on-line sharing of Bigfoot Studio paper toys.

Commander Zap comes from my boyhood loves of the old Flash Gordon cinema serials, Michael Moorcock's Martian series and Hawkwind of the Bob Calvert era.

Greasy Bob is a nod to the incredible Japanese Rock-a-Billy, Teddy Boy tribes that pose in the parks on the weekends...as well as an homage to all the surviving Brylliantined, Triumph polishing, oily fingered bad boys who survive in the corners of transport cafs, where the cobwebs hang so thickly they make that 'shoo-wop-shoo-wop' sound that brings an achey breaky feeling to the heart.

Nimrod Jones - Circus Strongman: Once shared a farmhouse with a bunch of likely types, as you do, when one dark & stormy night, Ian shared tales of his grandfather: a fairground strongman in the 1900's....take on all comers in the ring. Men paid to see how many rounds they could go with him; not many. He was 'chapel' and his name was Nimrod...my tribute to a lost world of mad Victorian gentlemen. Surnames have been changed to protect the innocent.

So out with the sharp implements and stikcy things, bosh some card in the printer & build away!!

Big Celebratory Push...

Nimrod Jones (2)
Originally uploaded by Bigfoot Studio

To mark the beginning of new collaborations and employ, along with a whole new bunch of obsessions and projects, I'm getting to grips with uploading and sharing files so that, hopefully, others can have as much fun building some of the new paper projects as I have designing 'em. Things have been seemingly quiet from Bigfoot Land over the last 6 months...and though the thunder clouds may have been rolling over head, there has been lots of hammering, sawing, folding, gluing and scribbling going on in the Bigfoot Studio shed.

Links to the right for downloadable fun stuff...hope to update with new freebies regularly if not semi-frequently(!!).