Meow Wolf Snurtle Slippers

At Meow Wolf's Convergence Station in Denver, there is a truck called Snurtle that is covered in lights and you can sit in the front our enter the back and go on a trippy journey. I was tasked with turning that large vehicle into house slippers!

The truck is very angular with lots of triangles and lights, as well a various intricate images painted on the sides. I started with a sketch to figure how a foot would fit into and how to break down those hard metal shapes into soft fabric that could make up a slipper.

 

I use my sketch to draft the pattern shape. First building it out of muslin, then making a sample version in finish fabrics. I had worked with long chenille fabrics making some pet toys so I though that material would work well to replicate the feel of the cleaning fringe on the truck.

I used a combination of machine embroidery and appliqué to define the different sections on the truck. In my first sample I didn't have the intricate image that would later be screen printed on. I also added some rhinestones to mimic the lights.

The real truck has a light up antenna so I tried to replicate that with a removable light. This way you could snap off the light to wash the slippers.

 

 

Once the in house design team at Meow Wolf is happy with the pattern and sample I've created that is usually the end of my involvement. So what comes back as the final factory piece is often a surprise to me. There are a lot of design and cost decisions that come in to play working with the factory to get to a point where everyone is happy with the product. For the Snurtle slippers, they dropped the light feature, switching it out for a sequin ball that is no doubt simpler to construct. They switched out multiple panel piecing for a simpler construction with fewer pieces and a full back instead of the slide in slipper. They also printed all the images and dropped the front mirror pieces. Even with changes it's always cool to see the final result.

Factory Finals

Available in the Meow Wolf Store

Meow Wolf Scrappies bags

Many of the projects that I work on for Meow Wolf incorporate custom printed fabrics produced through Spoonflower. Depending on how many prototypes or samples I end up making with those fabrics, I always have some material left over. The projects have added up and I've been sitting on a good amount of material that I could only use with Meow Wolf projects. I pitched them making some little bags using the leftover fabric and they were into it.

I came up with a simple but interesting zippered bag shape that could hold pencils, make-up or whatever. The fun thing for me about sewing together these bags is that I get to mix and match all the fabrics so each bag is unique. The fabric are leftovers from such projects as Plotzo the rat, the Fridge Portal Backpack, Bearret, Fig Sloth and some soon to be releases concepts as well.

 

I'll keep making the bags as long as I have various leftover fabrics. They are currently only available in the gift stores at the various Meow Wolf locations.

Meow Wolf Numinita Stacker

I worked on a cool stacking plush for Meow Wolf based on the character Numinita at Convergence Station in Denver, CO. The design consisted of multiple heads (and hat!) that connect with magnets. The arm and legs are also posable using a plastic internal armature. It's always an extra challenge to add a "feature" to a plush as well as get the pattern shaping right but it's also makes the final product extra fun.

The initial sketch didn't have faces as that was still being figured out at the time.  The head are similar shapes with the variation coming from either or arm or legs.  Once the faces were decided on it was all about translating that look into machine embroidery. It really helps to simplify the shapes as much as possible, you can make complicated designs but it helps to break it into basic shapes so it reads clearly.

The initial prototypes were made in a range of shades of purple fabric. Once it was at the factory production stage the colors changed to match the colorways of the Covergence Station. Colorways often shift, both to match the design and to get the feeling of the final look just right.

This is the magnet breakdown I did for the prototype. This guide helped me assembly the pieces correctly so that it would stack by size but then would also be able to mix and match without running into negative/positive polarity issues.

With all the magnets,  Numinita can stick to itself as well as to any metal thing like a pinball machine or a fridge.

 Numinita is for sale in the Meow Wolf Store.

Meow Wolf Nimsesku the hamster plush toy

I got to make a plush version of the hamster, Nimsesku from Meow Wolf's The House of Eternal Return art experience in Santa Fe, NM. On one side it looks like a regular hamster but on the other side it's revealed to be a cyborg! Plus there are extra flaps that reveal more robotic details along with a light up feature when you push the front right paw.

Final production version

Final production version

Final production version

This was the first time I was tasked with adding a light feature to a plush. I tested out several different fabrics to see which would still let the light come through using a tri-color LED showing the whole rainbow. Plus it was new to to me to incorporate a battery pack while making sure the stuffing didn't interfere with the electronics. 

 

Version 1 has two small flaps on the side based on the original sketch. After making this prototype we decided to add bigger flaps and more visuals of the cyborg bits.

 Version 2 has bigger and more curved flaps that reveal the lights and gears. Also the plain black plastic eyes were replaced with gold lamé fabric giving them some shine.

 

We also played around with different eyes, version two had a golden eye while we moved on to version three with a solid embroidered black eyes.

Keep an eye out throughout The House of Eternal Return for Nimsesku the hamster. It starts in the kid's bedroom, where there is a diagram and an empty hamster cage. If you through further through the portals you may find some version of Nimsesku.

You can buy it here: Meow Wolf Shop

Meow Wolf Omega Mart Reversible Pastry Plush Toy

I worked on turning the character Shelby from Meow Wolf Omega Mart in Las Vegas into a transforming plush. Shelby is inspired by soft serve ice cream and the designers thought it would be fun to have that character be able to turn inside out of a pastry.

 The Shelby character model was already built, so I just had to translate that into a plush pattern. The body is symmetrical but the swirl on the head was a complicated asymmetrical shape with many different pieces that needed to be gathered to fit with the other pieces.

Shelby plush turnaround

Pastry plush turnaround

The first idea for the pastry side was to  incorporate a möbius strip with a visual line would appear to connect through the pastry to Shelby on the inside. It was a challenge squashing a möbius strip into a solid shape but still retaining the idea that it's one continuous loop. The first prototype didn't quite translate,  the shape on the pastry seemed too lumpy and it was hard to follow the line that went into the pastry as making a connection with Shelby.

First pastry prototype

We abandoned the literal möbius idea as it wasn't coming through on the pastry plush concept, but still wanted the pastry to have some defined lines. It took me a bit but I remembered the round shape of a baseball is two of the same curved pattern pieces stitched together. I figured out a similar shape with the pastry having three identical pattern pieces stitched together to create the disc-like pastry shape.

The second prototype has some color definition with a Neapolitan vibe before it was decided to go with a printed fabric to really have the pastry texture pop out.

Prototype two: Pastry Bottom

Prototype two: Pastry side

Prototype two: Pastry top

Prototype two: Pastry open

Transformation

Transformation with both pieces showing

Shelby back

Shelby front

Shelby prototype

 

The finalized version has more stuffing in Shelby which fills out the pastry shape more. Along with a printed fabric that shows the pastry texture.

Final product with packaging

Final Shelby emerging from the pastry

Shelby pastries are available for sale in the Meow Wolf store.

Meow Wolf Cherry Blitz spray horse

I made the prototype and pattern for Emily Montoya's Cherry Blitz spray horse. She created the concept and original sculpture that is at Omega Mart in Las Vegas. She was working on the installation version while I was figuring out the soft product version to make them both ready for the Omega Mart opening in early 2021.

Cherry Blitz finished product, available in the Meow Wolf store

 

 

Turnaround working sketch the first prototype was based on. The label was not designed yet, so a space was left for that to be added later.

 

It has an interior plastic armature, so the legs and neck are posable.

It was a challenge to figure out how to securely attach the spray bottle head to the neck of the "spray horse". The material is a fabric backed polyurethane. It's thick so it took some tweaking to create the smaller shapes and body details.

I still haven't made it to Omega Mart in Las Vegas, but I'll get there eventually to have the most unique shopping experience of my life. Check out the truly awesome Omega Mart Training Video.

Adam Savage also picked up a Cherry Blitz while touring the southwest, check it out here: https://youtu.be/J6oPJmGsioA

Swirly the Sovereign Snake stuffed animal

Swirly the Sovereign Snake is my latest stuffed animal. Inspired by funny snakes like Sir Hiss from Disney's Robin Hood, I designed my own royal snake.  I think snakes are really silly, so it was fun making a plush version with a bouncy, coiled body. Top it with a crown and you've got a very regal but funny snake.

Alec often draws funny looking snake sketch, be them sad or mad, they always crack me up. I used that idea is putting together Swirly the Sovereign Snake. I played around with a couple different eye looks and ended up with an appliqué solid eye, with highlight and eyelashes. I think the eyelashes add a lot of character.

The finished snake measures:
9 inches long (nose to body coil)
10 inches wide (base to top of head)
7 inches long (body coil)

It's a great pattern for extra scraps, you can patch them all together on the body to make unique markings on the body.

Adding the cape and crown really gives Swirly a lot of personality, as well as their regal attitude.

Once it hand, Swirly is very springy and can be posed in many different ways.

The Swirly the Sovereign Snake pattern is now available for sale on etsy & ko-fi as a digital download. You get the pattern as well as step by step instructions to make a custom swirly snake.

 Make a bunch of new snakes friends!