Lillian gets her Rainbowphant (and names it Rainbee)

Hey Beautiful People! Remember my pachyderm portmanteau contest a few months ago? I finally finished the winning pieces and they've been delivered to their new owners. Here's Lillian with Rainbee, her drawing come to life!

H, J, Q, R, S, and sometimes Z

Hey Beautiful People!

Well, I'm pleased to announce that my Arfabet Kickstarter campaign has been funded! Woo Hoo!  There's only a little over a week left, but I've set a mini-goal of surpassing the Kickstarter goal by another $2500 so I can do a second printing of Elephabet in large format hardcover and save a ton of money on shipping. Thanks for helping me spread the word in these last few days by forwarding this post onto your dog loving friends!!!

Things have, as anticipated, also been very exciting in the studio as I'm seeing many of these pieces come to completion. Here's a few of the ones that are ready for my photo shoot next week! As you will see, I am varying the scales of these pieces, thinking ahead to the exhibition at Velvet da Vinci Gallery this October.  You won't be able to tell in the book, but it will make for a more dynamic presentation at the gallery for me to think and work in various sizes.

Our fearless husky who eats habanero chili peppers! He's about 10 inches tall.

This Jack Russell is digging into a slice of Jackfruit. He's only about 4 inches high.

The Queensland Heeler about to learn why one would never want to eat a raw quince. This is another smaller piece--4 inches high

This Russian Wolfhound is over a foot tall. He's got the makings for a tasty ratatouille balanced on his back.

The hirsute Scottie Dog has a subtle fur pattern painted all over. (salmon sashimi on her back) This piece is about 11 inches high and over a foot long.

The finale of the book will be this Zuchon (one of the only mixed breeds in the entire book!) leaping over a fancy Zuccotto Cake.

Back in a few days with more updates!! Thanks everyone for your support of this project!!!

And now for your alphabet bonus video:

let them wear paint!

Hello Beautiful People! I'm back, as promised, with an update on the painting of the dog sculptures for Arfabet! I'll get right to the images of the pieces on my workbench right now. I'm nearly done with all the base colors and most pieces are awaiting the detailed painting and/or ears glued on, etc.

Here's the pug who will be chasing its tail atop a pile of persimmons

My Jackfruit, in living color

Scottie is painted black--I plan to add a subtle fur patterning to the body

An array of dogs ready for their markings, eyes, ears, etc.

Another assortment, including the Vizla running through the grasses

Xylon the Xoloitzcuintli riding on the Xouba

a headless Queensland Heeler (keep scrolling to see the soon to be added head!)

the Whippet and the Russian Wolfhound without their more distinctive markings

The dachshund who will eventually be piled high like a Dagwood sandwich

Ahhh....here's that Queensland Heeler's head biting into a quince

And finally, the licorice lab.

I'm launching into the big final push tomorrow as I prepare for my photo shoot on August 1st so get ready for the fun stuff--I love this part so much!  

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project already - I am only about $100 away from reaching the Kickstarter goal with a dozen days left, so it's looking good in Arfabet land!  Click here to join in on the fun!!

And now for a word from the granddaddy of canine art, William Wegman!

Arfabet is almost paint-ready

Hello Beautiful People!

I'm happy to report that Arfabet is now 88% funded with 17 days to go! (Now I'm only 12% anxious!)

Things have been happening here at Bunny with a Toolbelt headquarters--I'm expecting that tomorrow will wrap up my construction and I can move on to the painting stages on Thursday! Besides passing that major milestone, the best thing about that is that there will be a lot more images to share with you as I hone in on the finishing touches.

Here are a few more studio shots of the newly constructed doggies to keep you satisfied until I post again this weekend in living color!

Uriah the Utonagan with an Udon noodle beehive

Suki the Scottie with great facial hair

Ouija the Otterhound who loves Oysters

Yma the Yorkie who fits inside a Yorkshire Pudding

Xylon the Xoloitzcuintli who rides on a Xouba!

Ravi the Russian Wolfhound who loves Ratatouille

Quentin the Queensland Heeler who loves to Quaff Quince

Vito the Vivacious Vizla who runs through the Vanilla grass

And I remade my Jack Russell Jethro so he could sit at this table with a fork and knife in hand and eat a slice of that humongous Jackfruit!

Again, I would be ever so grateful if you'd help me spread the word about Arfabet  by sharing this on Facebook,  clicking the Facebook "like" button found under my video on the Kickstarter page for this project, or if you prefer human to human contact, send me a private message with your snail mail address and I can give you a little stack of my cute promotional postcards that you to give to all your dog-loving friends! Thank you!!!

Take it to the bridge, Lena!

Hitting 50 (percent funded!)

Hello Beautiful People!

First things first: thank you so much for supporting my book project! I was happy to surpass the 50% mark yesterday after a week in the Kickstarter trenches....three weeks to go to meet my goal! If you have a minute, please help me spread the word by clicking the Facebook "like" button found under my video on the Kickstarter page for this project, or if you prefer human to human contact, send me your snail mail address and I can give you a little stack of my cute promotional postcards that you to give to all your dog-loving friends!

I've at least started on the forms for the dogs for letters A-P and then I realized the other day that I really should be working on the text first, making sure the dogs are doing different things that dogs do besides stand around looking adorable and hoping you'll notice so you'll feed them.

So I have been stationed at my dining room table, with all sorts of reference books, with several dog breed books including Desmond Morris' amazing compendium of information and beautiful illustrations on every breed and mix known to human and dogkind, the Oxford English Dictionary, one of my all-time favorite reference books The Food Lovers Companion, and a rhyming dictionary with an inscription from my best friend Shannon when she gave it to me in 1989. (I found a really interesting book at the library the other day that might come in handy, though maybe in the kitchen rather than the writing desk: The Flavor Thesaurus.)

I also made a list of things dogs do, in case it might provide some inspiration. And then I searched the web for lists of words that mean "to eat." I'm finding that sometimes the information about the breed is what leads me to the rhyme--for example, S will be for Scottish Terrier or Scottie, who are known for their hirsuteness. I worked that into the story this way:

S is for Suki
whose great facial hair
obscured the sashimi
on her derriére. 

So I will spend the day working on this, hopefully ready to roll in the studio again tomorrow. If you come up with any of your favorite words for eating, or things that dogs do, comment here and I'll check in during the day--it just might work its way in before it's too late!

Here are a few more studio shots of works in progress--awaiting their protective coats of paint! Thanks again for your part in making Arfabet come to life!

Daisy the Dachshund who became a Dagwood

Jack Russell (ears not attached yet!) with a Jackfruit

The Chihuahua Cheese Courier

Husky, Black Lab, Komondor, Greyhound, and part of a Mastiff

Irish Setter doing the downward dog with soft-serve ice cream!

Arfabet on the Kickstarter blog!

My current project Arfabet was featured on the Kickstarter blog as one of their favorite newbies today! Yay! Click here to read it! It's time for my first progress report, as I have three weeks counting down to my photo shoot for the book! If you're new to my Kickstarter campaigns, hello and welcome! If you're a veteran supporter, back from last summer's Elephabet, I'm going to do things a little bit differently this time due to the short time constraints. This time, I've basically designed all of the pieces in advance, will construct them in three big batches, so I can be painting some while the glue dries on others, etc. And then I'll work on the text when things are coming together during the last week of the month. This update will reveal the beginnings of batch one (B through H) that I've been working on in the past few days.


 Before I begin, you have already seen A in my Kickstarter video, right? A is for Astrid the Afghan Hound with an Angel Food Cake.....yadda yadda......

 B will be Bella, a Beagle who loves Bagels

C will be Calder, a Chihuahua Cheese Courier 

D is Daisy, a Dachshund who's shaped like a Dagwood sandwich 

E is for Edsel, an English Bulldog who prefers Earl Grey Tea

 F is for Fifi, a French Poodle who's nutty as a Fruitcake 

G is Gustav, a Gherkin loving Greyhound 

and H is for Homer the Husky who can't get enough of those habanero peppers.

 I'll explain more when I'm ready to show the final pieces. Here's a few studio shots of the work in progress. Thanks again for backing the project and I'll check in again mid-week with the next batch!

Don't forget--you can get these updates sent directly to your email box as soon as they go live on Kickstarter if you back the project! Click here to become one of the Beautiful People!

Let's Make an Arfabet!

Hey Beautiful Person! As of yesterday, I have officially launched the Arfabet Kickstarter campaign and looking for a few good donors to raise a lucky $7777! This video tells most of it.....click here to read the rest on the offical Kickstarter page for Arfabet!

This will cover my publishing fees for a hardback, paperback, set of DVDs of the animation, a commemorative button for Kickstarter backers, postage for shipping the rewards, and the fees I gladly pay to Kickstarter and Amazon for promoting my project. There are a bunch of great rewards you can choose from, aside from the updates all month long while I give you an insider's view on making this book come to life, so it's a win-win situation that will help me out big time. Thanks so much for supporting my next big thing!

Get Ready for ARFABET!

Howdy, beautiful person! Let this serve as the official announcement that I will not be taking any custom orders until August 2012 so I can work on my second book Arfabet--an alphabet book for dog lovers and foodies!

I am planning on launching the Kickstarter campaign in the next few days, so check back if you want to be in on the fun as I create the entire book in one action-packed month! The best way to come along for the ride is to pledge to my Kickstarter fundraiser--then you'll receive my bi-weekly updates directly in your email box! I'll also post updates on this blog and the Bunny with a Toolbelt Facebook page, so I invite you to come along for the ride and make a book with me!

measure-phant?

I just got this great image from Melissa Stiles who was taking measurements for one of my elephant pendants she scored in my most recent Kickstarter campaign. She couldn't help but note that the measuring tape looked very elephant-like and snapped this photo to prove it!