Daffodil Dreaming Come True

Dear Reader,

Last weekend Alien One's dream of a daffodil birthday party came to fruition :)

Capped by a seven layer daffodil cake the celebration was the triumph of a unique vision and a dedicated team to implement it. Along with crafting stations and general poolside mayhem a lot of fun was had by all involved. Here's to watching another year of creativity blossom!

Keep enjoying the small moments everyone.

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Daffodil Dreaming

Dear Reader,

Alien One is well known to love a posy of daffodils. In fact, she's so delighting in them right now that she asked for a daffodil themed birthday cake.

And so the Trouble and Strife has marshaled myself and a few others. Today she makes the actual cake, but already we have made great progress with sugar-gum paste adornments ... we may be looking closer to a field of flowers than a posy :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Familiar but Different

Dear Reader,

Many of you will recall Robin's pom pom bathroom door, which for some time has now hung on a wall in my bedroom. It's kind of a beautiful aesthetic piece, but functionally it's a little fragile and it kind of feels prone to twisting.

Imagine if the pom poms were made of felted wool! At a friend's house the other day, I came across the wonderfully sturdy versions on the left ... the future is so full of possibilities :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Hula Hooping Inspiration

Dear Reader,

We've been very busy lately with some behind the scenes work that isn't so visual. Hopefully that should all change soon, but in the interim, here's some more visual inspiration from our very own, and increasingly diversely talented Alien One:


How far she's come since the first times we saw her crawling around the spaceship nursery!

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Bubble Breather

Dear Reader,

Breathing underwater requires a mouthpiece and exhaling bubbles.

Of course if you don't actually shoot underwater, you'll need to figure out a way to exhale bubbles from the mouthpiece your actors use.

With the construction of such a mouthpiece in mind, I enlisted Alien One's help in figuring out how best to produce bubbles.

Suffice it to say we both had a lot of fun testing wire, mesh foam and all manner of materials :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Helping Inside a Maze

Dear Reader,

Over the course of production on The Squirrel King, we've had countless people lend a hand, act in, record sound, shoot or .... and I'm always so thrilled to have people along to share the experience.



Yesterday though was a reversal! And what a delightful reversal it was; I spent the afternoon helping Bill Watterson, our Paul, shoot inside a homemade cardboard maze. What a joy!

Cardboard circular saws were just the beginning! Great work Bill, can't wait to see more :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Fingerprint Animation

Dear Reader,

For a couple of months I've been cogitating fingerprint animation. I'm not sure where it fits into The Squirrel King, but I do love the tone of Stephania Silveira's little clip here:


I hope you too enjoy this piece, there's just something about the upbeat nature of fingerprint art that I hope we too can capture :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Super Junior

Dear Reader,

While catching up with an old friend the other day, I was introduced to Super Junior ...



The mini-stunt squirrels apparently already knew of the stratospheric Korean pop band, and given the opportunity, insisted on having their photos taken with the idols' likenesses.

No surprise then, when I found one of them brushing up on his Korean :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Mutant Fish

Dear Reader,

Thinking more about papier mache lamp fish and scouring the web to see what others have come up with, I stumbled across this wonderful mutant fish! Not only do I love the fish itself, but even more its placement within a real environment.


Lindsey Thomas, that's a wonderful mixing of media :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims

Rejuvenated with Fish

Dear Reader,

Returning from a lovely spring break holiday, I wanted to share with you some ruminations for designs a new thread of our story is demanding. Specifically, we're thinking of incorporating a scene that involves a school of lamp-fish; denizens of the deep otherwise known as Anglerfish.

My own initial thoughts involve water-filled balloons (actually the water was Alien One's idea but I think it was inspired genius that will give a better fleshy texture), thin papier mache, fluorescent pen scales and tiny light bulbs (see right for my schematic); then, a visit to the Santa Barbara art gallery shop inspired me to add toothpick structured fins!


In truth, the scene itself still needs writing, but I think I might have to do some prototyping of these fish with the Aliens in the next few days anyway :)

Chin chin
Ruthless Whims