I Like Big Bus

It’s official–I have (a) become world famous in Raleigh, and (b) bored all my friends to death on the Fobot Facebook page talking about this.  So now I’m going to bore YOU for a while.

Several months ago, by purest coincidence, I saw an article in the paper calling for artists to submit designs to be wrapped around Raleigh city buses. I thought “What the heck–could be fun seeing five foot tall Fobots rolling around the city”, so I entered the competition. I didn’t tell ANYONE–not even Phil–because I didn’t want anyone but myself to be disappointed if I didn’t get picked.  But as you can see from the snapshot above (photo credit Kim Curry-Evans) the powers that be had a sense of humor, and my design was one of twelve selected for the project. My plan was to take Phil and some friends to the big unveiling next weekend at Artsplosure and just casually say “Will you look at that bus!  Giant Fobots on both sides–how did that happen?”, but they started rolling them out last week and I didn’t think the surprise would keep. Or maybe it would have–I still haven’t seen it yet. But when I do, I’ll post more pictures. I’m so proud of my little guys. Little did I know that when I sent them out to conquer the world, they’d be taking the bus.

Update–finally got to see the “Fobus” in person this weekend, so here are the pictures I promised:

Results of the Second Annual Shame-A-Thon

…and here we are, 24 hours later, with a studio that, if not exactly clinical in its cleanliness and order, at least won’t get me on an episode of “Hoarders”. And to all the people yesterday who said it didn’t look THAT bad, and I should just revel in the chaos, let me say that  disorder can be a good thing, but when it gets in the way of productivity and moves into the realm of health hazard, it’s time to clean.

Now–time to mess it up…

The Second Annual Shame-A-Thon

Hey kids!  iIt’s time for the second annual Studio Shame-A-Thon! Here’s how it works: I’m posting pictures of the current state of disaster in the Fobotorium, and in 24 hours, I will have to post pictures of it all cleaned up and organized or be FOREVER SHAMED.

A few tips if you want to conduct your own Shame-A-Thon:

1. Do it on a dreary, rainy, cold day, so you won’t have all of Mother nature distracting you. CHECK.

2. Get a good recorded book to listen to to make the time past more quickly. “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain, about Hemingway and his first wife during the Paris years. CHECK.

3. Have an even worse task in mind that you really should be doing, so that this will seem like fun in comparison. Deciphering all the mailing list names and email addresses from the last two shows and entering them into the database. CHECK.

If you don’t hear from me by noon tomorrow, send out a search party, ’cause I’m buried under an avalanche of junk. Oh, and don’t let the patches of bare wood floor fool you–the wide angle lens makes them seem bigger than they are.

Deck the Halls With Bots of Folly

The extent of my Christmas decorating this year. Peace and joy to you all—Amy

2013 Calendar–It’s almost Here!

It’s just about time for another hilarious glimpse into the secret lives of the Fobots!  The 2013 calendars have arrived from the printer, and will be available at my new shopping site, fobots.bigcartel.com (or through a link on the ifobot.com website) starting on Sunday, November 18, at 3pm EST. Here’s a sneak preview of Mr. January. They’re still $14.95 + shipping, and just in time for Christmas. What better way to own 12 Fobots?

Keeper

I’m sitting on the floor of the Las Vegas airport, one of many people squatting next to electrical outlets like bums on the sidewalk in need of a voltage fix. (Watts?  Got any spare watts?) I’ve been away in California taking care of my mom and her newly broken arm, which has put me way behind for our last show of the year in Westchester County, NY.  But my Auntie Anne’s pretzel is long gone, I’ve checked Facebook to see if anything happened in my absence (no), and I have run out of “I’m too busy” excuses to prevent me from updating this poor neglected blog. And I do have a little sweetie of a Fobot I want to share with you.

People often ask us at shows if we ever have bots we can’t bear to part with, and I always say no, I take their picture before I send them out into the world, and that’s enough. But then I started working on this little one, one of the smallest I’ve ever completed (8″ tall), and she just got to me. I try not to get too attached to “things”, but I could already feel the hurt of letting her go someday. And then something funny happened.  I took her downstairs and showed her to Phil for the first time.  And without any idea of what I’d been thinking to myself, Phil said “We have to keep this one. We can’t sell her”. So meet “Dolly Dimple”, one of very few Fobots we actually own. You’d think we’d have a house full of bots, but no, just the very first one, one I made for Phil one Christmas, one that hangs on the wall in the kitchen and has all of the house and car keys in it (he’s earning his keep) and now, her.  There are many collectors out there who own more Fobots than we do.  But we have the best one.  At least in my opinion. And Phil’s.

Attention, Junior Fobotologists!

We get a lot of kids in the booth at art fairs. A LOT. And a lot of teachers as well.  And for the last few months, I’ve been promising to share an idea I had with them for a simpler, more child-friendly technique for making Fobots. Now, please note–this is not how I make Fobots.  Noooo no no. When I make’em, there are metal fragments flying, molten lead dripping, caustic chemicals, and a hundred different ways you can hurt yourself. In short, not an ideal school project, unless you really hate children.

The idea I had was this–don’t try to glue objects to your cans or other found materials. Glue bonds break too easily, and it’s hard to hold everything in place while the glue is drying. So what you’re going to do is buy a bunch of magnets from the hardware or craft store, and glue stuff to THEM. Then, find tin cans for the head and body, and let the magnets do what they do best. Here are two little bots that I put together this morning from stuff I had laying around the house, as well as some cans from the recycling bin:

Here are the details.  First, find cans that are tin, not aluminum. Cans that had liquid inside and that have been opened by puncturing them with a “church key” type can opener are best if you want to have both the top and bottom of the can in place. You can leave the labels on or remove them–or even paint the cans. Next, round up a bunch of cool stuff from that drawer in the kitchen, that workbench in the garage, that aisle at Ace Hardware that has all the fun little parts in drawers, or the flea market. Then glue that stuff to the magnets. I used hot glue, because I like the immediacy, but most glues will do. Finally, just stick the magnets to the cans. I chose not to give mine legs. It’s hard to find cans that have the bottom intact, and if they do, they have ridges on the bottom that make it hard for the magnets to stay level. So one of mine has a skirt, and the other is legless, but if you do find a can that is wide and smooth on the bottom, give it a try. Just don’t make the legs too long, as it will make the bot unstable. For an even simpler project, make just a robot head–you can have plenty of fun and creativity with eyes, noses, mouths, hair, hats, ears, mustaches…

The beauty of this process is that if you drop your bot, or squeeze the arms too hard, anything that comes off can just get stuck right back on. And bonus! If you find enough cool junk, you can mix and match to your heart’s delight, just like Mr. Potato Head!

Another Star is Born

Remember a few years ago when a bunch of Fobots were part of the set dressing for the TV show, “Ugly Betty”?  Well, it’s happened again!

While we were exhibiting at the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival in Reston two weeks ago, a woman who works for ESPN stopped by the booth. Being somewhat ill-informed when it comes to anything athletic, I assumed when she said “Pardon the Interruption” that she was apologizing for cutting short a conversation I was having with an old friend, Roger Bridges. But no, she wanted to know if she could borrow a Fobot for the set of this ESPN news/talk/opinion show featuring Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. After doing a little research to determine that this wasn’t a scam–yeah, I’m suspicious like that–I agreed.

So here he is, the latest bot to achieve TV stardom. His name is “Droid Hobbs” (baseball movie reference, let me know if you get it) and he is composed of a camera, baseball, phone ringer bell, sash lock, wrenches, hose fittings, and a watch movement. And if you peek through the top lens of the camera, you can see his heart inside. He just arrived there this afternoon, and Bonnie (that’s the nice lady that “discovered” him) says he’ll be on the “Pardon the Interruption” set tonight, and he’ll be there until I send a new one–probably at the end of baseball season. It’s on here at 5:30pm, if you want to see him in action.  Or inaction, as the case may be. He doesn’t move much.

UPDATE: “Droid” made his TV debut the same day he arrived at ESPN, and he’ll be there until the end of baseball season. Here he is with Tony Kornheiser.  Droid is the one on the right.

Coconut Grove and Winter Park

Where does the time go? Two shows under our belts this year already, and at least seven more to come. Yup, I’ve been a robot-makin’ fool lately. But on a rainy Saturday morning, I just though I’d let you know how it’s going so far.

Our first two festivals of the year were in Florida—Coconut Grove in Miami, and Winter Park near Orlando. Like I was telling everyone before we left, even if we don’t sell a thing, at least we’ll be in Florida. But we did sell, and pretty darn well, too. I don’t know if the economy has finally turned around, or if the difference was the awesome new display units I’ve been working on all winter, but we had two of our best shows ever. Miami outpaced WP by a fair margin, and yet, if I had to do one of them again, I’d pick Winter Park.

The weather was sublime at both shows, much to my relief. But the big difference was the atmosphere.  In Miami, we were jammed in together on the streets as tightly as possible, loading in and out was a disorganized mess, the music (?) from the Verizon stage was deafening, and the whole affair had a carnival atmosphere. Whereas in Winter Park, we were under the trees in a beautiful park, there was plenty of room between booths and for storage, and the artists were treated more as honored guests than as sideshow attractions. But the biggest difference was this: in WP, ALL the artists seemed to be doing well.  Not just us, not just a few lucky ones, but everyone around us was having a good and profitable show. I can’t tell you what a difference that makes. The mood was euphoric. And I speak as someone who just can’t have a good time unless EVERYONE is having a good time. It was bliss. We’d be happy to participate in either show again, but Winter Park holds a special place in my heart–cross your fingers that we get invited back next year.

Here’s a photo of the new booth, taken in Winter Park. Try not to be blinded by the whiteness of my legs–they hadn’t seen the sun in quite a while. And the hair–well, no excuses. It’s always like that.

 

Holiday Greetings from Fobotopia

Or, “Deck the halls with bots of folly”.