Written on March 13, 2012 Erin Lynch -->
Of Austin Fame and Marches
We’ve recently come off of one of the most exhilarating and intense projects we have worked on in our short careers. Two months ago we received a phone call from Jeffrey Zeldman, web designer, author and industry icon. He was being inducted (the first inductee) into the brand new Interactive Hall of Fame that is being established in Austin, TX.
A couple of years ago we’d done a rough plush doll of Jeffrey and sent it to him with our thanks for all of the wonderful work he’s done for the web design industry and for being a huge source of inspiration to us. Shameless self promotion? Perhaps, but we’ve made a commitment to ourselves that we should be thanking the people that have sparked the inspiration within us. Without them, we’d still be shopping at the mall and waiting for the new season at The Gap.
Jeffrey was looking for us to do a more tailored, short run of the doll we had initially designed of him-215 to be exact. They were to be given away as gifts at the Hall of Fame after party being held at South by Southwest (right about now is where you can hear our jaws drop to the floor).
Here was the opportunity to put handmade work into the hands of 215 web designers and industry gurus at one of the largest interactive design conferences in the world-South by Southwest. Are we interested? Hells, please! So, after hashing out the details and specifics we set into work on the very complicated and detailed project.
Flash forward to just over a month later, and we have jumped hurdles, traveled great distances to find fabric, gone through 67 yards of material, 30lbs. of stuffing and 5,000 meters of thread to produce the completely custom, limited edition run. We’ve learned A LOT (especially about estimating time and materials). There were many trials and errors throughout the life of this project, but here we are standing on the other side and stronger for it.
We had an amazing time working on this for Jeffrey and are, as always, so thankful for forward thinking individuals who put their faith and dollars into the handmade market to create something truly unique.
Below are just a few of the pictures we took documenting the process:
Filed in: Custom Project,New Friends.
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8 Comments
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Erin and Jill,
Being the proud owners of two custom Dolls for Friends creations (that look so much like us it is incredible) I am not surprised you got this wonderful opportunity.
That picture of them all lined up is amazing, I would be having nightmares of them taking over my house while I slept!
Congratulations. Now go have a nice glass of something strong.
Jessica (your old neighbor and one of the “little people” who you surely won’t forget on your rise to stardom?)
Those are the best!
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The photos, excellent as they are, cannot do justice to the cuteness, personality, and quality of these soft plush dopplegangers. I love my Zeldman Doll and I love the wonderful artists who made it.
Thanks, Jill and Erin!
What a great company… you did an awesome job!
I am furiously rubbing money on my iPad and nothing is happening. MUST HAVE….. Tell me how
Thank you everyone. We are so glad they were so well received. This was a great project. Unfortunately, they were limited to just the 215 dolls in this numbered edition.
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