Overview and Diary of my Tokidoki Unicorno Project
You can follow my progress on Instagram too!
September 20, 2014
Meeting Simone Legno, Founder of Tokidoki
I’ll admit, although I admired the Tokidoki brand, I wasn’t into Unicornos at first because they seemed a bit too derivative and commercial. But after all these years (2015 is their 10-year anniversary) I can’t deny their charm. After meeting Simone Legno at his Tokidoki x LeSportsac signing event in Santa Monica my appreciation for Tokidoki grew. Seeing him actually draw the characters by hand made Tokidoki more real to me, instead of just a commercial brand.
I wanted to see what other people have done to customize Unicornos, and realized that compared to other popular vinyl platforms like dunnys and munnys, there wasn’t much out there. That’s when I made it my mission to bring Unicornos to the forefront of vinyl toy design.
Here are a few initial sketches I made:
I have always loved weird creatures and cute things. In these concepts, I wanted to bring those two ideas together and address the question of, “How can something be weird and cute at the same time?”
Jan 4, 2015
Finally Starting the Project – Sculpting
Sorry – I was so busy during the holidays, I didn’t have time to work on my UnicornoΒ project! I was finally able to get started this week. I bought a few figurines, removed their paint with acetone, and started sculpting! I used Sculpey Firm for the tentacles, as seen in my Tentacles Tutorial. I even made bunny friends for each of them.
I’m making these sculpts into resin toys, so the next step will be making molds out of these figures.
Jan 7, 2015
Simone Likes My Work!
This was the first thing I saw when I checked my Instagram this morning:
After the initial surprise I was jumping for joy. It’s always an honor to have one of your idols and inspirations acknowledge your work!
Jan 20, 2015
Mold Making
Making a silicone mold from a figurine is the most time-consuming part of the resin toy process. It has to be perfect because if the mold doesn’t come out right, then the resin casts will all be messed up. I won’t go into the process now because I will be writing an in-depth tutorial about it soon. For my Unicornos, I chose to make two-part molds that splitΒ apart in the middle.
I made the first mold (the purple one) with Smooth-On’s Oomoo 30 because that seemed to beΒ the most commonly used silicone mold for beginners when I was doing my research online. Carlos (@PinkNoiseToyz)Β showed me how to make a two-part mold using some pieces of board and clay. He also recommended that I use Mold Star 15 silicone for my next moldΒ because it is much more flexible and does not tear as easily as Oomoo, which would be perfect for delicate sculptures like my tentacled Unicorno. I liked Mold Star so much that I used it for my mermaid Unicorno too!
Photo of my first mold using Oomoo-30:
Photo of my next two molds using Mold Star 15:
Next up is resin casting!
Jan 23, 2015
Casting the Resin Figures
The molds are fully cured so now is the moment of truth – resin casting! Again, I will writing a detailed tutorial on this later, so I won’t go into the specifics now.
I got scared because my very first cast came out bad – I didn’t use a funnel and the resin didn’t fill up the mold before it started hardening. But my second casting came out great!
Now I have a whole army of resin Unicornos!
January 28, 2015
Simone Again!
I’ve been trying to keep track of all the times Simone Legno likes and comments on my work! It makes me so happy to see such an inspirational designer notice my work!
February 7, 2015
Giveaway!
I had to take a short break from my Unicornos because I was so busy at work, but here is my first painted Unicorno as an Instagram giveaway! I will randomly choose a winner on March 1 (Continental US residents only). The rules are on my Instagram page.
March 1, 2015
Giveaway Winner and Store Launch!
And the winner is…@kupcakemonsta!
THANK YOU to everyone who entered my very first giveaway. I was happy to see that so many of you are interested in my artwork. You are my motivation for creating better art every day! If you want to purchase one of my custom unicornos, I will be launching my store on TUESDAY at 3pmΒ Pacific Time!
There will be free goodies for those who make a purchase from my shop this week! More announcements coming soon!
This also concludes my blog posts about my first wave of custom Unicornos, which I am calling the Aquacorns. I will be working on a second wave which I will be announcing soon, so check back soon or follow me on Instagram for updates.
