Friday, May 23, 2008

The Birth of Biscuit Bunnies


I'll be doing some more posts on how some of the Toys in the Flying Star Toys world have been originated. The notion and design for my toys often come from quite unexpected sources and I thought people might find it interesting to see what some of those processes are.

One way I develop a toy is to draw a picture. Biscuit Bunnies was one such toy that came about in this manner....but with all things there are often curious twists on the road of creativity.

This was one of the few toys that I sat down purposely to design. You might not know it but I very rarely work like that as it can often be forced and produce very average results. But on this occasion I was feeling frustrated by a certain inability to make a simple toy that didn't use any buttons and such and would be "baby safe".


With sketch book, in hand after concentrating for a few minutes on my desired toy parameters, I did a tiny little sketch of a bunny. The one seen above is in close up and from the picture above it you can see how small the actual drawing is, only a little bigger than a paper clip. That tiny little drawing had so much innate character that I left it in its original condition and proceeded to translate it into a pattern.

Biscuit Bunnies are a perfect example of what looks simple isn't necessarily so for it takes 13 pieces of fabric to make that one little bunny! So it didn't turn out to be as simple as I had hoped. However, while failing the major parameter - to be simple, it is very successful toy. Biscuit Bunnies have turned out to be one of the most popular toys in the Flying Star Toys collection and what's more I always enjoy making them and seeing what little variation of their personality appear, each is unique every time.

You can see more images of Biscuit Bunnies on their gallery page.

9 comments:

Jean-Luc Picard said...

A good look behind a creation.

rashbre said...

From the enlarged drawing, there's almost a finger puppet family there too, waiting to get out!

Actually, could be a do-it-yourself & colour them in promo kit!

Smiles.

rashbre

rashbre said...

couldn't resist.

they work best with selotape/scotch tape around the legs to attach to fingers.

here

Anonymous said...

lovely! I found you via Jaihn - glad I did!

Florence Forrest said...

Thanks Captain :)

A clever idea rashbre, I like seeing your experiments :D

Thank you for stopping by Paula, please feel welcome here :)

xx

Handmade in Israel said...

Adorable! It's funny - I also thought that they were perhaps finger puppets at first. Really cute though.

jude said...

simplicity is so deceiving, isn't it...it seem it must be quite a hidden process to others sometimes, that elimination of everything but the essential.

Florence Forrest said...

Thanks Lisa for comment and for stopping by. Please feel welcome here. :)

Jude, your very thoughtful comments are always appreciated. Simplicity is indeed quite like as you say.

xx

Cheryl said...

Cute!