Its been hard to keep this little guy a secret until he was completely finished but I am now excited to finally show off our very own custom Edward Vinyl Toy!!

Ever since I started this brand vinyl toys were something I always wanted to add to my ‘to do’ list for the future so when I came across the VERY talented toy collector and customiser Karen ‘ KRUNSTER Langwieser, it was the perfect opportunity to bring Edward to life…well sort of!

After a few chats about what an Edward Vinyl Toy would look like, I recieved some great WIP shots from Karen which just blew my mind from the start.

The finished model is beyond anything I could have imagined and the sculpting work that has gone into this piece really amazes me. I’ve had ideas for some time now on smaller Teabelly Toys at some point so seeing this just makes me that much more excited of things to come!

If you want to check out Karen’s work and I highly recommend you do then head over to her Instagram here to check out all her custom projects.

Pinkys Up!

I say good or bad because without the bad feedback you can’t grow, you cant get better, improve and change things up in order to succeed. On the other hand, the positive feedback is one of the most amazing feelings you can get when doing something you love! Hearing positive words coming from someone who enjoys what you do is by far the biggest reward anyone in this game could ask for!

Pinkys Up!

I was lucky enough to recieve this Mad Hatter teapot as a gift a while back and just had to share it. A wonderful piece to have on display in the office I must say.
Pinkys Up!

- Edward

With those questions in mind, I figured I would dig out my original sketches and sit down to write something up just to explain my thoughts on where Edward came from and how he developed to what you see today as the trademarked logo of the brand.

When I first started fleshing out ideas for the brand the name was already there and as many people know it was a nickname that has stuck with me since University, but what I didnt have straight away was a logo. I had alot of design ideas, doodles and sketches, notes, product ideas, packaging ideas, an actual teashop idea, but no logo!

A logo is one of the most important parts that you need to nail when starting any business, whether its going to be a symbol or a simple typography logo in a particular font style, it needs to fit with your brand direction and ideas perfectly, it needs to be memorable and appealing right off the bat because for the most part, it will be the first thing people will see when they come across your brand.

While I was playing with ideas I found myself looking at packaging for Tea products aswel as other brand logo’s, especially in streetwear and clothing. This really helped me to work out what I felt would or wouldnt work for my brand, which then was just an idea and a note book of design concepts! I wasnt sure on which way to go, should I have a simple or fancy font logo? Should I use some sort of symbol logo like a teapot or something? The more I thought about it, the more ideas I had. I saw Edward Teabelly as the alter ego of myself so I had the idea of creating an actual character that could represent the name and the brand as the logo itself and as the mascot. Why not have an actual person/character BE the logo!

The more I thought about it the more it got me excited and made me think of how different it would be. I saw alot and I mean alot of brands with great font logos but that was it, some had no symbols or anything and I wanted to change that. I wanted to add some character to my brands logo.

The moment I sat down with a tracing pad, I pictured what Edward would look like straight away. A jolly looking English gent with a teacup top hat, moustache and monocle was my first mental description. For some reason, I kept sketching out his top hat with a handle, very much like a cup/mug but after many revisions I wasn’t feeling it so that quickly got removed and replaced with an actual teapot symbol on the front of his hat. Its kind of strange because working with an illustrator at the time as I was, we sent back and forth variations of Edward, my original sketches, his revisions, my revisions and so forth but in the end, the final logo which you see today is pretty much close to what I  originally sketched up in the begining. I had a vision in my head of what Edward would look like and pretty much stuck with it, minus a few slight changes ofcourse.

The whole decision behind using a character as the logo/mascot was a pretty easy one for me. It opened the door to many ways of using him in designs, in products and so forth to make the brand fun and cool yet be unique and still remain a streetwear brand. So much has been done before so its all about reinventing and using your inspirations and loves as a base for your own ideas to come up with something that feels fresh and I felt the Edward logo and more importantly, Edward as a character did that!

There is alot bubbling for the future with more Edward designs, the Edward Classic possibly coming in new colourways. There is alot planned and alot I want to achieve with the brand with plenty of  fresh designs, new products and so forth.

Pinkys Up!

Harryhausen was a pioneer in stop motion model animation and visual effects and was involved and responsible for some of the most memorable scenes and effects/techniques in movie history. Ray Harryhausens work was something I saw from a very early age, Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans were among the first I was lucky enough to watch on an old BETAMAX (yes im that old lol) tape and to this day when I see them again, it takes me back to the  first moment I witnessed such movie magic!

I remember seeing them for the first time and being totaly blown away, excited and scared at the amazing work he did in these movies, bringing so many creatures to life on screen was such an exciting feeling as a kid.

Its pretty easy to spot why filmakers like Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas and John Landis among many others made some amazing flicks I grew up with by having such amazing work to be influenced by.

In the modern day movie business with all the cgi effects we have come to expect in big epic movies, my heart is still with this old school form of film making. Even with alot of the movies we see now maybe easier or more sensible to use CGI effects for some aspects, Ive always appreciated and the loved the old styles of stop motion and prosthetics work. Theres just something about this form that makes it FEEL real in the movies as apposed to just LOOKING real in some cgi cases.

RIP Ray Harryhausen

Apologies for any inconvenience so to show some Teabelly love, use coupon code ‘APRILDELAY’ for a hot 15% off your order! ENDS 11.59PM 25TH April.

Pinkys Up!

After afew delays, we finally have our very first addition of headwear to the teashop! Not 1, but 2 beanie hats are NOW AVAILABLE. We have Cuff Beanies featuring our very own custom gold woven tag and our fully custom Slouch Beanie hat which features a very nice embroidered signature logo detailing. Both beanies come in 4 colourways and are the perfect piece to keep your noggin warm and cozy!

Beanies not enough, how about a warm and cozy Hooded Sweatshirt too?? Our first hoodie is now available in a stunning burgundy colourway and features our Signature logo to the front. Details include our custom woven neck tag, woven tophat to sleeve, kangaroo pouch pocket and a secret opening for your ear phone lead!!

Head over to the Teashop and grab one of our fresh goodies!

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