Plush You! Interview with Victor Huang

Plush You! is an annual exhibit in October that showcases plush creations from artists all over the globe - there are 5 venues throughout Seattle participating in this years event. We are excited to be one of those venues!!


So to get everyone familiar we are posting interviews and doing special giveaways with participating Bluebottle Plush You! artists.


What is your name and where are you located?
Hello, hello! My name is Victor Huang and I'm in Chicago, Illinois, USA.



Quadropode




What are your favorite materials and why?

When I first decided I wanted to try to make toys I had plans for sculpting in clay, creating molds and casting plastic figures. I quickly realized that was far out of my price range so I picked up some spare fabric and tried sewing something.
Since then I've almost exclusively worked in fleece. Fleece is wonderful because it's readily available at so many craft and fabric shops, it's very soft, there are so many colors and often it's quite forgiving. Fleece hides the seams pretty well so little mistakes don't become glaring errors.

I certainly love fleece quite a bit, however I do have plans to move away from fleece in the future. We'll see what comes out of that!




How long does it usually take for you to complete a piece?
Well! It certainly depends on the size of the piece because I'm terribly slow when I sew by hand. Smaller toys are pretty much almost entirely sewn by hand so a little bunny may take me somewhere between two to three hours to cut, sew and stuff. Larger toys move along at a quicker pace because I can use the sewing machine (a round of applause to Elias Howe for inventing the thing!).

Since I sewing at home I'm also very easily distracted. I'll start a toy then find myself watching a Pixar dvd, reading a comic book, or dancing like a fool and that'll stretch the working time of a toy a bit. I think the most consecutive time I've spent on a toy is close to ten or eleven hours with bathroom breaks. I forgot to eat.






"Single purple male Cephalopod ISO fun loving six armed creature of the sea. Raised in captivity. Nearly 17 inches wide and 15 inches tall.

I enjoy long crawls up the side of the tank, clam bakes and spooking the occasional passerby with a cloud of purple ink.

My perfect match would be a little wild, possibly from the Pacific, sweet and is capable of communicating using their chromatophore skin cells.

While unable to relocate from the aquarium, neighboring tanks include Japanese spider crabs and jellyfish. They're good company. Meals arrive promptly at 8pm and then we can party the night away.

My picture is included please send yours with your reply.

Longing for love under the sea....
Humphrey."



What are you excited about lately?
BOARDGAMES! My friends and I have been playing an awful lot of Settlers of Catan recently. I haven't won a game yet.... and until recently I've always ended up in last place. I may have plans to make my own ridiculous boardgames someday!


Which super power would you prefer to have and why: the ability to fly or to be invisible?
This is a question I've asked myself on numerous occasions. I'm not sure why anybody would want to be invisible! I think invisibility is a choice for peeping toms and thieves. Unless, you're a biologist studying wildlife, hoping not to be noticed. Otherwise we would all be quite tempted to slip into any number of locker rooms and changing facilities. However! I'm also quite terrified of heights.

I think my perfect super ability would be to break apart into little animals. Just shatter into little elephants and walruses and go on mini-stampedes then join back together into my regular person self. Pretty fun right?!




Ingrid Unicorn


What's your dream project?
I've recently come up with a collaboration idea that I will one day hopefully pursue. The Exquisite Plush! Exquisite Corpse was a game that I used to play in high school during art class. A piece of paper would be folded into thirds, then three people would each take turns drawing part of a figure on one of the three segments without letting the other artists see what they've drawn.

Then the entire sheet is revealed and it's often a wonderfully ridiculous drawing. I would love to work on a toy collaboration with other artists that follows the same principle. We would each create the top, middle and bottom of a plushie then mix them together! I think it'd be awesome fun! Though shipping might cost a bit...Hrmmm....



What did you do last Saturday afternoon?
I rolled down a hill. Several times. Then ate some rainbow sherbet. Pretty sweet Saturday.




www.vickangaroo.com


CHECK BACK HERE IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO WIN A LOVELY HANDMADE ITEM FROM VICTOR HUANG!