‘We are Indie Toys!’ by Louis Bou

9780062293435

Louis Bou’s ‘We are Indie Toys!’ book ($29.99) was recently released by Harper Design. The 207 page soft-color volume focus on resin art toys created and hand-made by independent artists as opposed to produced by factories.   The book features a great, diverse selection of artists Jon Knox, Suckadelic, Paul Shih, Podgypanda, Eldercut, Doubleparlour, Gumliens, Emilio Garcia, Sergey Safonov and many more.  

We had a chance to take a look at a review copy and came away impressed. With artist spreads covering at least four pages (or more) filled with excellent color photography, ‘We Are Indie Toys!’ is a great place for those looking to showcase the creativity and variety of indie resin toys as well as the medium’s sky high potential for reducing the barrier to toy making for talented and motivated creators.  If you hand someone this book and they don’t immediately understand the magical pull of art toys – they never will. 

What’s a little less successful in our opinion, is the book’s seemingly forced focus on the process artists use to ‘turn their unique ideas into one-of-a-kind collectibles’.  While each artist provides helpful tips or tricks they’ve discovered and incorporated into their work practice as well as behind-the-scenes photos of molds and such, the advice and info is  not detailed nor systematic enough for true beginners.   While the book is a great overview of the state of the art in independent resin toys, it is not really a good starting point for learning the ins and outs of the process of creating them.

That said, we highly recommend ‘We are Indie Toys!’ by Louis Bou for its excellent coverage of top resin toy artists and their amazing creations. 

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