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A quick post about my new toys. I just received (better late than never…) 2 new vinyl Fafinettes, Jeanette and Claude. They are nearly 8 inches tall (19 cm approximately) and the figures are exact creations from graffiti artist Fafi‘s sketches. The toys have been produced by adFunture Workshop, in a limited edition of 2000 pieces. I already have the Sony capsule toys, Jeanette and Claude but Irina, the 11 inches tall rotocast vinyl figure (the Tan Colette version, limited to 200 pieces) produced last year by Necessaries Toy Foundation, is still missing in my collection (sadly sold out). As you already know if you have been reading my blog for a while, I really like Fafi’s paintings, drawings and sketches. Fafinettes are sweet, funny, sexy, explosive, liberated… They can be seen adorning street walls, on canvas and furniture, or even styling clothing. I also have the ‘Fafinettes Adidas pink…⇒ READ MORE

I was first impressed by graffiti, then by sgraffiti. A pun that sums up my first approach with decorative Art. Graffiti Art is now worldwide known but it’s in the mid-1980s I had my first graffiti experience. I remember French artists like Lokiss or Bando, it was a great era even if graffiti were then only regarded like vandalism; at the same time, graffiti artist Futura 2000 was asked to work on a commercial for RATP (Paris Metro/Bus company). It was then a little inconsistent, not to say two-faced. Still today, it’s like graffiti are more welcomed in galleries than in the streets… I will not tell you the history of graffiti, many people already wrote about it but graffiti has existed since ancient times and has even been found in Pompeii. It has always been employed to communicate social or political messages. Recently, graffiti artist Seen, one of the…⇒ READ MORE

The 1930s were a great time for movies and design, as well as the 1950s and the 1970s. I have several furniture and objects from the Seventies, reminding me when I was a kid (along with Abba, Star Wars, flares pants…). Everything was ‘designed’, from the Maruman table cigarettes lighter (made in Japan) to the ‘Boby’ storage cart by Joe Columbo (made in Italy) in the late 60′s. Colors were fresh, orange, green, red or yellow. If you like this period, then you would probably enjoy this photo I took 2 days ago. This is the vintage desk I’m often working on, listening to Donna Summer or Leonard Cohen. There is an orange phone (I don’t use it), an orange alarm-clock (displaying the right time only once a day), an orange apple shaped ice-cube storage and some orange vinyl toys (Stereotype 04: Be My Guest, two red Rolito birds). And…⇒ READ MORE

Urban vinyl toys, vinyl figures, designer toys; all these terms are used to describe toys and other collectibles (plastic or vinyl) you might have already seen somewhere. When I published my first Sama drawings on the Internet, back in 1999, I was working on a 3D model of the Sama Water Tank, made with clay. The result was approximate but my Sama went to life in real 3D. I had a Mazinger Z figure on my desk, an Astro Boy on a shelf aside this Sama kind-of-thing; that was before I heard of Michael Lau. The Gardeners, his first original action figures created in the late nineties, were the start of a whole new industry, the designer toys industry was born. It would be too long to talk about every artist, designer and figure but I can tell you is that I really like vinyl toys. I’m not making a…⇒ READ MORE