Caveman Rides Trunki-Mamouth!

Cookie and I have been busy working on a little project for the Bristol Design Festival, Pimp My Trunki! If you’ve not heard of Trunki, it’s a much loved kids-ride-on-suitcase designed by Cookie’s college buddy Rob Law. ( Documentary about Rob here ) Kids go mental for them.

A set of Trunki’s were mailed out to prospective, product designers, artists, and wild cards for pimping. Fascinated to see what’s been done to the others ( i’ll post pics if i can wangle any ).

We’ve been sewing, stuffing, and weaving wig like no-bodies business! I was in charge of Caveman Construction, and Cookie of Mammoth Management. ( Although i helped with the stuffing and eyes ;) ). Mammoth is made from a bath matt bought from Ridley Road Market in Dalston - plus a couple of buttons. And Caveman Rider is comprised of a pair of American Apparel socks, some goofy tooth shaped felt, a bit of fake zebra skin i had laying about ( as you do ) … and finally, the pièce de résistance - the hair piece. Took me flippin’ hours to cover over his bald patch!

Cave-fella and his hairy elephant-like mate fold down and pack inside for handy carrying….. Does anyone else think he looks a bit like Tina Turner ?

I think the main thing we made was a mess! But the nice chaps in there were very nice to us, and let us take over the back part of the pub with our chopped up socks and piles of felt. A few shadies were had, and a couple of characters brought to life. Rex was constructing a 3D effigy of his famous Grip Wrench (Hollywood Hardman) character, complete with awesome stuffed quiff. Cookie was sketching away doodling ideas for a tshirt range. And Jay was creating an athletic looking striped monster. A good night was had by all!

Photos are talented photographer Jaypeg

Making some things in the pub tonight. Pop down to say hello and a quick shandy if you’re in the area :)

Heard some great news today, that our Balloon based bundle of fun Balloonacy has had a special week. I’m super chuffed to announce we’re expecting a lovely Golden Cube and a big ol’ spring ( ADC and Webby Award ) in the post. Thanks so much to everyone who voted, and who took part in the event itself…. I’m welling up… Go Raccoon! ;) More info and news on the Poke site.

I was sweeping the yard yesterday and i spotted this little fella grubbing around under the deck chair. I could never quite figure out how you’d go about moving if you only had one foot, so i drew closer and had a gander. Suddenly i remembered i have a timelapse function on my camera. He seemed agreeable to a photoshoot, and so here he is in all his breakdancing glory - May i present … Snail! ( Extended version here ). I was thinking Benny Hill for music - whatdya think ?

Snail Stop Frame from Nicky Gibson on Vimeo.

He may have a yellow belly, but don’t call him “chicken”! Or he’ll go proper mental. Mr.Yellow has a short fuse and a big mouth - the Jo Peche of the sock monster world lets say. Stay well back or you’ll feel the rip of steel zippy teeth ripping through your ankles… He’s a mean little bugger.

A relatively new addition to the household, i’ve just gotten around to taking his picture. If he went on the BBC series “Who do you think you are?” i wouldn’t be surprised to find a certain zip faced loud mouth, and a boy made of sack in his lineage ;)

Yellow Belly is made from American Apparel thigh length socks ( for extra big head-ness).

Baker Tweet is here! After several weeks of noodling, soldering, tweeking, twiddling, posting and polishing, mad scientist Zolty from Poke has unveiled his mouth-watering machine. The ingenious contraption harnesses the power of the internets to deliver up-to-the-minute baking news flashes from across the road in the Albion kitchen. And so, as the era of the cold roll is banished forever, we usher in the glorious age of warm juicey cupcakes.

If you’re in the Shoreditch area and you want the latest cake update, checkout the @AlbionsOven Baker Tweet feed. To read the back story ( and upcoming tutorial on the very exciting make-it-yourself Arduino technology used ) visit the Poke site. Also - lots of pics here. And a glimpse of the back end here.

Ps. I chipped in the little birdie logo… Mattia’s cooked up the site, Nik Roope took the snaps, and the Flippers made the movie.

QuadCamera is officially awesome. These shots were taken with my iPhone. Honestly. *

Iain mailed around about this Lomo-a-like iPhone app and i couldn’t resist a play with it. Can you believe that only one of the shots above had it’s levels tweeked in photoshop ? It’s colour, contrast, and edge burning are just lush. I warn you, it’s very addictive once you get going. Download it with caution! More info on QuadCam here. My heart will always be with my Lomo, but this is a lot of fun. See more test shots on me Flickr.

* ( Although - the pic of Igor’s tshirt, taken by Mr.Lomo, is actually an iPhone picture of a Lomo ) ;)

This one’s for you Cookie ;)  x

It’s Monster-Munch’s 1st birthday today! I’m pretty chuffed i’ve kept it going for a full circuit, and it’s mainly due to all the lovely comments you guys leave me. I just wanted to say a massive thanks to you, for popping in everyday, and making looking at my blog stats pretty exciting! Hope you’ll be popping over to see us just as much this year too : ) Here’s a round up of the year in numbers - Cheers you lot, Nicky. 

Little Big Vice is a mini magazine collaboration between Vice Magazine and Playstation, that came out at the end of the year, featuring our hero Sack Boy!

Sack Boy features in his own fashion shoot with hot models and the latest in designer outfits. There’s a run down of the top worst games characters in history. They asked a bunch of creative types, musicians, illustrators, and designers to come up with their own levels and have a quick chat about creativity, and their sources of inspiration. Seems like a nice way to showcase the depth of flexibility in the game’s Build Your Own, level making tools. I made it into the mag - yey! The Monster-Munch level is stuffed with my handmade Monster geezers. They’ve even rendered me a special moustachioed Sack Boy complete with his own sock puppet! Awesome!

A big massive thank you to Paul from Crowd DNA for hooking me up with the very nice freelance journo Bob Foster from Vice magazine. And a of course super special thanks to Rex for designing Sack Boy in the first place : ) You can read Bob’s full interview with me here.

That’s me walking the panther on a cold winters day. You’ve got to keep him on a leash that one. You can download him here in a 1024 x 768 format. Help yourself :)

I know everyone’s pretty skint at Christmas what with all the present buying, catching up with friends, and Christmas party outfit purchasing! So i thought you’d like to know that, the little Topshop thing we did, still has a Year’s Supply of Shoes left to win, and with only a day to go you could get yourself one more present sorted - or keep them all for yourself … well i would :)

Asi and I have been beavering away on a little project for a while now. I’ve been hand sewing this book together, and inking up the cover ( made from t-shirt fabric ) ready to launch it out into the wide world. The aim is to create something interesting we can auction for charity at Christmas.

So, what’s the idea ? Well it’s a bit of a cross between Pass the Parcel, Consequences, and the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. There’s 6 spreads in the book, and we’ve sent it to the most famous person we know to create something or leave a message, and then pass it on to the most famous person they know. Fingers crossed it will get to some exciting people along the way. And you never know, maybe even Mr.Bacon himself ;) Anyway, we’ll keep you updated!

The proceeds of the auction will be going to the NSPCC. So if you could blog about it and help get people excited, the more monies we can hopefully raise for this excellent cause. Thanks :D More from Asi here.

“A dirty nasty evil Witch, has entrapped the village, what a bitch!

To win some shoes, you must peruse, the forest but - be quick!”

Or something like that… It’s a little competition we’ve been working on here at Poke for Topshop. They launching their Gothic Christmas theme and we thought what better than a victorian inspired mechanical toy. A bit of Zoetrope action combined with a credit crunching Year’s Supply of Clothes or shoes to be won. Not bad.