COLORFUL DISCOVERY: While scrolling through the designer figure blogs I came across an artist I have never seen before. I wanted to know more about her and she seemed to have a lot of quality figures and dolls released. So we are pleased to have the monster loving Norwegian artist Remjie Malham here to get to know a bit more about her.
Q: How did you get into monsters?
A: I always was into monsters! As a kid I was bored by Barbies and terrified of toddler toys. But I was all over dinosaurs and tiny animal figures (the mixed ones you buy in those plastic bags), insects, mythical creatures and any creepy, bright coloured stuff. Also I had a huge collection of Kinder Surprise figures.
Q: Nice, how did you get into making them?
A: I made my first mixed media art doll in 2008, that’s when it officially started I guess. Before that I was working towards becoming a digital illustrator.
Q: How long have you been making/customizing?
A: I have been living off creating dolls and sculptures for 9 years now, but I got into customizing less than a year ago. Last April I participated in my first big toy convention, ToyconUK, and managed to see sofubi toys in person, that is when/where my sofubi passion started!
Q: Who do you look up to artistically?
A: There are so many people that are inspiring and motivating me to become better. First of all Moebius! His colours, shapes, motives and linework are hypnotising. I draw a lot of inspiration from his paintings. Simon Lee and Andy Bergholtz are definitely those I look up to and admire as sculptors. self.atspirit and his ability to bring up incredible detail, character and symbolism into his tiny carved pieces have always fascinated and impressed me! Kim Jung Gi’s art inspires me a lot, so I try to draw and doodle a lot when I’m out or traveling.
Q: You mentioned traveling, do any places you travel to inspire designs or styles in your pieces?
A: Absolutely. Kochasri toy design for instance was heavily inspired by my trip to Thailand. Also my first trip to China was very exciting! Seeing all the art, colours and patterns caused a new curve in my work with and gradients and textures!
Q: The colors you use are amazing, how do you determine the mood of each piece when handed a blank?
A: That's actually the funny part! I don’t have any idea how the toy is going to turn out until I’m starting to paint it. I never make a plan or colour palette in my head. I just go for whatever feels right. Sometimes I have to recolour the base a couple of times because it doesn't feel right, haha!
Q: I am super intrigued about the part that you do not know what the custom is going to look like until you are done. It really inspires me to get it customizing because I never can figure out how I want to paint/customize each piece after prepping them into primer. Any tips for intro customizers?
A: I have just finished airbrushing three RedHotStyle’s toys, and it actually took me two goes. At first I wanted to make them teal and blue, but it felt a bit boring, so I stripped the paint off and went for purple, pink and violet (who would have guessed, haha!).
The main tip I would give to anyone who doesn't know how to start and make a nice colour combo: start with maximum 3 colours. Two colours that can be mixed (and produce another colour) and one colour that can not be mixed with other two. For example sky blue-purple-orange. You can mix sky blue and purple and make a nice violet gradient and use this palette to paint the body. And orange can be used for eyes or some ornaments/features to attract attention. If you use too many open colours chaotically (or if you use three colours that can not mix with each other) it is very easy to make the viewer get distracted by the palette so there will be issues to see the toy’s features and details.
Q: Thank you for these tips! Here is a fun question, what is your spirit animal?
A: I can relate to cockatoos very much. I’m just as messy, loud and hyperactive!
Q: Scrolling through your instagram/tumblr I noticed you do pieces that are resin and fabrics. What are the challenges you face when creating these mixed media pieces? What is the process creating these?
A: One of the reasons I switched to customizing sofubi was the enormous amount of work I had to deal with while creating each mixed media project and difficulties with pricing/sales afterwards. Creating a wax model and making a silicone mold, pressure casting, refining resin pieces, assembling skeletons, cutting patterns, painting, sewing… It was taking a lot of time and energy. It took a lot of space to store all the supplies and work with them. I learned a lot of cool tricks about the various medias and of course painting and sculpting!
Q: It seems you do a more monster, kaiju and sofubi, do you have any other western customs?
A: I’ve been painting some western mass produced figures here and there (resin one-offs, and a couple of kidrobot designs). I have painted one Bobby custom by Dominic Qwek and have customized a whole bunch of Missmonster’s art dolls (but those were more of one of a kind art projects rather than customs). For some reason I’m being approached mostly by Asian studios and toy artists with proposals of collaborations.
Q: Speaking of collaborations, you recently collaborated with Rato Kim, Candie Bolton, but who else have you collaborated with?
A: Missmonster was one of the first people I collaborated with. We were trading doll parts back and fourth for some years and thanks to her I was able to have so much confidence in my art. When I was working with her dolls and toys I was always pushing myself a little extra to try to outdo myself each time with more and more interesting designs!
RedHotStyle were my first long term collaboration partners in the sofubi community. Daniel Yu, Planetx, Nomiwa, Zectron, Momoco studio, OK Luna are sofubi artists I’ve been personally arranging collaborations and already finished some projects with (there are more collaborations with other artists in progress or pending).
Q: Wow, that is a lot of artists! I also see you are participating in ToyconUK again this year, will you have a lot to purchase or anything new your are showing off?
(Publisher Note: GOFN will have someone covering this year's ToyCok UK event)
A: Oh boy, I’m planning to bring a lot of cool monsters with me! First of all, this con is going to be our debut with Blackseed designs. I am bringing three of their designs to the show (Peanut Dwarf, Jade monster and Yu Shou Long). Also OK Luna’s JOBI Fox, Daniel Yu’s Jiangshi, and hopefully a bunch of RedHotStyle’s and Rocky's critters! I’ll also bring some Miscreationtoys' Autopsy Zombie Staple Babies and some various one-offs… gosh I really hope I have time to finish all that I planned before the con.
Q: It was great to get to know a bit about you, is there anything in the works the readers could know about? *hint *hint*
A: Yeeees, I am actually working on my first sofubi design. It will be already existing monster Doro. Doro is a little toothy demon with five eyes. I have made resin version of him, and sofubi design will have moveable head, front paws and some crazy textures!. Right now the prototype is in-progress and should be done in April sometime. Pre-order info will be announced shortly after Doro is sculpted! You will be able to see this toy sculpt at Toycon!
