TTC Beard
Jake over at Aardman Animations (the guys behind Wallace & Gromit) emailed us with details of his newly designed vinyl toy, that we knew instantly fell in love with & had to share with you. Before we give you details on his design though, let us give you some of the back story…
Jake and his girlfriend (Marti) are planning on a huge charity bike ride in November, from Uganda to Kenya, raising money for the Kenyan Orphan Project – supporting children living in poverty in East Africa. To help raise money, Jake has designed a vinyl toy – but rather than being made from plastic, they’re being hand-carved out of soapstone, by one guy, in Africa. This design is already being carved out of stone in Kenya by their friend – Geoffrey. Geoffrey is a talented and generous artist, who teaches art to street children in Kisumu.
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Pretty cool, right?
Jake’s toy is called Jinja and is based on a lion – posed to be either roaring, cheering, or simply yawning – depending on your mood.
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To help them raise money, Jake has commissioned 8 artists to customise resin figures of Jinja. These 8 customs will be available to the highest bidder on Thursday 30th October, you can find out more details on the Jinja website here!
The list of custom artists are:
- Peter Lord (Aardman founder)
- Rich Webber (Purple & Brown / DC Funnest)
- Merlin Crossingham (Wallace & Gromit)
- Gav Strange (Aardman / JamFactory)
- Sarah Matthews (Aardman / BernysPlace)
- Sam Hadley (Slumberbean)
- Danny Capozzi (Aardman / Hero73*)
- Peskimo
These guys have come up with some great customs too, why not take a look below:
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Peter Lord (Aardman founder)
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Rich Webber (Purple & Brown / DC Funnest)
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Merlin Crossingham (Wallace & Gromit)
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Gav Strange (Aardman / JamFactory)
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Sarah Matthews (Aardman / BernysPlace)
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Sam Hadley (Slumberbean)
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Danny Capozzi (Aardman / Hero73*)
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Peskimo
Sam’s (our good friend at Slumberbean) custom in particular is incredible – and he’s done a great video showing how it was done:
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The above 8 customs, as mentioned, will be available to the highest bidder on Thursday 30th October.
However, if you would like to get your hands on one of the unique hand-carved soapstone Jinja – you can donate through eBay on Thursday 30th October and you will be sent one of the original pieces once Jake & Marti return from Africa.
All proceeds go direct to the Kenyan Orphan Project, who are a great charity based in Bristol, like Aardman.
You can always follow both Marti & Jake on their adventure via Twitter: @martinagant and @jakemanion.
