My Best Friendly Plastic Work

I got a link to the Amaco 2009 Friendly Plastic Challenge Gallery in my email today. It was great to see all the fp work.

I am so happy to see people using this stuff!

This got me thinking that I really enjoyed looking at a bunch of fp work and I figured I may as well post some of my best examples of how I've used fp. Hope you enjoy taking a look and that you get inspired to make something new!



wedding favours



viking lady pin

long tall kitty a good example of why I love fp cause you can make something so long and tall and it holds its shape.

nice shark pin

very symmetrical moose design

mirror of good cheer "may the road you follow have only green lights."

wedding favours: behind their hands were small clothespins to hold the name of the guest (and to hold other things afterwards like notes or photos). These were such a hit that guests were stealing other guest's favours. I gave up my own, and a few spares, to cover those lost, so no one went home empty handed.

A special order for a kayaker who loved orcas

I love making ladies with fancy clothes

kitchen witch

dragon with precious jewel

little boy fun and some little girls too (but not me) I just really like making hands holding things

Fimo bases, people on wires above the bases

another dragon

death takes a holiday. I always figured I'd get flack for this one but, surprisingly, it was the older folks who loved it! I made several versions of this with all kinds of hats: fedoras, toques, caps, a fez, but I loved the fedora the best.

mirror of good cheer

the whole wedding

a gang of fp well wishers

special wedding gift for a happy couple

lady with stars

red dragon

chick of the sea -- fp lends itself really well
to all things aquatic

this was a highly decorative fish motif for me

swamp thing aka dragonfly

Ahhh. Kids today.. no not just for the kids!

This is from one of Vincent Van Gogh's self-portraits.

I decided to make an all friendly plastic ATC. This is Dorothy's Kansas house being caught up in the tornado and about to be carried over to Oz.

A parrot lover kept after me to make some parrots. She knew the colours of fp would be perfect for parrots and she was right. I liked it and so did she.

I am partial to the design of Soviet era posters and decided to make this Homage to the Worker in red-orange friendly plastic. This design was based on a Soviet poster.

I was doing some experimentation and this little sculpture is made from raw friendly plastic. I didn't heat any of these pieces, except for trying to model the face in water (I am not very good in water with fp). The pieces are all fused together using a soldering iron at the joints. The design was based on a 1960's kid's book illustration.

This is just a little mermaid pin. Few pieces, bright colour, happy results.

I really love these earrings. It's like a "glass half full" design: are the little fish escaping or caught?

I did an art show in a comic shop and decided to try my hand at reproducing a few comic book covers. I made Little Lulu for myself because I remember reading Little Lulu as a kid. I loved it. Not many comic book attendees knew of Little Lulu except real comic book people. I was surprised and not surprised at the same time. The lettering was made with foamie sponge material. It really suited this project. The lettering couldn't be omitted. This took quite a while to complete but it was worth it. All those tiny Little Lulu's around the edge were a real pain but oh so worth it.

I adore this little picture frame. She's very sassy.

This was a special request for a lawyer. I went ahead and tackled Blind Justice. I remember as I was modelling the folds in her cloak the plastic wasn't totally melted. I had to really push it around to get the right look. I was very pleased with how it turned out, as was my client.

Fiskars are the only scissors I have ever used to cut fp.(I only cut my plastic with scissors, but I do trim my fp designs with an exacto blade &/or Fiskars after it's been cooked.) Actually, I have used other types but for the amount of work I do with this material I quickly built up blisters and then callouses and a nobby thing at the base of my thumb. When i came across Fiskars I was in heaven! My first pair I used everyday for 10 years and then the spring between the two pieces broke in two. Since then I have had two pairs break on me (grrrrr)and my latest pair seems the flimsiest of them all, but even still, they are well worth any aggravation. I don't know where my hands would be without them.

Lady Godiva's famous ride. Another atc.

For and art show I made a few mixed media pieces. here I wrote a famour Einstein quote onto shrink plastic (Gravity cannot be held responsible for people falling in love), glued it to the canvas, and made an Einstein for the piece. This is actually Einstein#2 as the first one I absent-mindedly placed onto my hot toaster oven and he melted into two blobs before I noticed.

For the same show I made this fancy lady and her pooch. The quote, using shrink plastic again, was "Love is an emotion a woman always feels for her poodle, and sometimes for a man."

Sexy Beast.

I made this for a Vancouver hairdresser. It was a gift from a friend and an inside joke... I never did get the insider details but I love this Bog Queen, especially the little frog.

Another comic book cover reproduction in friendly plastic. This time the first appearance of The Batman. This is a big file. Click on it for a very detailed shot.

My what big teeth you have.

Another uncooked raw fp sculpture.

This is fp reproduction of a very famous Matisse design.

I made this for a school nurse from Texas. She wanted something for her office to help the kids feel more comfortable when they came to see her. I had her hold a golden bandaid aloft the way a torch lights the way!

And this mirror is one of my best memories.

I was asked to create a mirror of positive affirmation for Jennifer Heil. She is a member of the Canadian Ski Team and was heading to the Torino, Italy, Winter Olympics in 2006 when I got this request. Her sport is freestyle mogul skiing and she took the Gold at this event in 2006. I was told by her sport psychologist, who requested this mirror for her, that she brought the mirror with her to the Olympic village in Torino, and it was there with her when she won the gold! So, if you thought saying affirmations to yourself into a mirror was silly, think again. Look what it helped Jennifer achieve!