Indie Squid Kid

I hope that this week’s shopping guide has helped some of you find the perfect Christmas and/or Cephalopodmas gift for the squidophile in your life. To round things out, here are a few products that didn’t really fit in the other categories. And in case you missed them, those categories are:

Toys | Apparel | Books | Jewelry

Gama-Go

Giant Squid Sticker ($2)

This sticker is roughly 3″ x 4″ and is printed on durable transparent vinyl.

Buy from Gama-Go!

Squid Kimono Billfold ($24)

This embossed vinyl wallet is a variation on the same theme we saw with their “Geisha Tentacles” shirt (which is still available!). It has two i.d. windows, three coin holders, and “surprises a-plenty.” Buy from Gama-Go!

Futuregirl Leah Riley

Squiddish Pouch ($15)

From Leah’s product description:

The best thing about Squiddish Pouches is their diverse capabilities -
- they can be closed using the convenient button and button hole method OR
- they can be hung on the wall using a nail or pushpin through the buttonhole OR
- they can even be attached to holiday trees or other shrubbery by running a string through the buttonhole

Each Squiddish Pouch is hand-cut from thick wool felt, which means each one is unique.
Each piece is securely sewn together, and features a lovely button eye.

Measurements:
Open: 11″h x 3.25″w
Closed: 7.75″h x 3.25″w

Other details:
Bright pink button
Rich Purple wool felt with darker purple thread design swirling through

Kamibashi Freak*O*Bags™

Squid ($20)

These fair trade, colorful creatures open up to reveal a sturdy 16″ x 16″ tote bag that can be used again and again. Bring them to the grocery store or anywhere you typically receive plastic bags. When you’re done, simply stuff it back into the attached pet and clip it on to anything so it’s always around when you need it.

Articulate Matter

Justina Kochansky’s Etsy shop is the companion site to her webcomic Articulate Matter (previously reviewed here). She sells prints, a brand new calendar, and some of the actual polymer clay sculptures from the comic!

Ariculate Matter 2010 Calendar ($15)

Articulate Matter Prints ($10)

Card Squid ($75)

Ninja Squid ($100)

A Plush A Day: Day 2 Baby Socktopus, originally uploaded by Futuregirl_LeahRiley.

We interrupt Action Figure Week to bring you this really cute hand-made one-eyed plush octopus. It was yesterday’s entry in Leah Riley’s Plush a Day Challenge. That’s right, Leah is making a new plush toy every day until she runs out of ideas or scrap material. Which ever comes first!

Follow her progress at Leah’s Stuff.

Yes, it’s time for more squid art by my pal Leah Riley! Sadly, this one isn’t mine but part of a series of five small (5″ x 3″) plaques commissioned by one of Leah’s Etsy customers. Here is the complete set:

Leah’s art has shown up here on Indie Squid Kid a few times already, and if you haven’t yet, I really think you should check out her work. Her Etsy shop is a good place to start.

I also suggest visiting her blog. UNLESS YOU HATE THINGS THAT ARE CUTE!

Lastly, if you are reading this tonight (August 14, 2009) and you are near Carrboro, NC. Leah is one of the featured artists at a local art opening!!

Damn Hot

Where: Wootini Carr Mill, 200 North Greensboro St., Carrboro

When: Friday, August 14, 7-10 pm

Featured Artists: Jerstin Crosby, Orvokki Halme, Kelly Green, Amy Richards, and, of course, Leah Riley

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it to the opening, but the art will be on display at Wootini for the next month. I don’t know yet if any of her squids are part of the show, but I look forward to finding out!

“Three Hearts Beat As One” by Leah Riley, originally uploaded by Cryptonaut.

For my birthday this year, I got some amazing pieces of cephalopod art, and this is one of them.

“Three Hearts Beat As One” is by Leah Riley (who created “The Kraken Always Follows Its Heart” featured in last year’s Art Week), and was a gift from the artist herself.

Leah says,

Inspired by curio cabinets, this piece of art is a mixture of the vintage and the scientific. The title is a reference to the biological fact that squids have three hearts.

“Three Hearts Beat As One” is a mixed media piece: includes a hand-painted squid in metallic copper paint on a vintage medical book page about “The Regulation of the Heart’s Action”. This, in turn, is layered over red damask patterned paper.

A one-of-a-kind original, hand-painted, with the artist’s initials in the lower corner of the medical page.

Measurements:
Original: 5″ x 7″

Check out her Etsy shop for steampunk jewelry, plush robots, and, of course, squid art.

Leah is also the co-creator of the webcomics Willrad and Robohobo and the co-author of the manga review blog Hobotaku. See her art portfolio online at www.leahstuff.com.

Welcome back to Art Week! Today we have something that’s actually hanging on a wall in my house, “The Kraken Always Follows Its Heart” by my good friend Leah Riley. Leah is a graphic artist, creator of comics, and purveyor of robots. Once upon a time when we were still co-workers, we used to keep a running list of funny things people would say that sounded like the titles of non-existent songs by a band that didn’t have a name. Well, it made sense to us, and this is one of them.

At the time of this writing, there are still two baby doll tees of this very design (in black and red) for sale in her Esty store, but even if they’re gone, you are guaranteed to find something both awesome and ridiculously cute.

Leah is also the co-creator of the webcomics Willrad and Robohobo and the co-author of the manga review blog Hobotoku. See her art portfolio online at www.leahstuff.com.