What got you into customizing?

Customizing is what initially got me into MLP collecting! In 1999 I was an avid Usenet group member, and one day these two girls in my gothic fashion group posted up photoshopped pictures of their G1s dressed up in club/gothic style, with fishnet stockings, stompy boots, and heavy dramatic makeup. Their symbols were of bats and gravestones. Something about them spoke to me on a deeply personal level (LOL) and I went right to ebay and typed in “My Little Pony” to see if I could score some vintage toy goodness!

What are your favorite poses to use in customizing?

I have fun with Secret Surprise ponies that lost their lids – they turn into beautiful planters. The Bubblefish pose provides a standing pony with solid stance and wide surfaces on its back, chest, and head – Good for sculpting on. And I have got a bit of a reputation built at meets and Fairs regarding my monsters and shrunken heads. Your G3 So Soft Babies aren’t safe when I go on a head-hunting binge.

Does your idea bring your choice of what poses to use to light?

Absolutely. After I conceive an idea of what I wish to create, my thoughts go immediately to how I want the pony to stand on a shelf, or hang on a wall. When I thought up “Sheepish” I knew right off the bat that I needed a shy pose. For Victorian Witch pony, I needed a pony that could straddle a broomstick, and the ice skating G3 pony was there new in stores at the time, which turned out to be a perfect anthropomorphic base.

Do you have a particular genre you like to focus on?

G1s! Their soft plastic is easy to clean, cut, and rehair, and they come in a multitude of poses and body styles. G3s come in many poses too, but they all seem to have the exact same face.

Do you recall the first custom you ever did?

She was soooo awful. Dyed black hair, white face, squiggly eyeliner with a spider web, and ankh for a symbol. I was going for something darkly cute, like Neil Gaimans’ Death or a chibi-fied Siouxsie Sioux and she looked more like a booby prize from a Marilyn Manson lookalike contest. Poorly designed and crap execution. I didn’t know how to thin paint yet, I used way too much paint and I hadn’t acquired a tiny brush for detail yet, so her eyelashes were like tarantula legs.

Is there something on your customs, a symbol or mark of some kind that just cries it’s yours?

Quirky and crude? *laughing* I am not sure. I’ve always said that when it comes to pony art, “I do BAD things WELL” and by that I mean a little sloppy but by design. Dia Muertos is folk art. Smarty Pants dolls are homespun, and zombies are unbalanced and imperfect by definition. If I tried my hardest and practiced for years, I don’t think I’d be able to achieve the sharpness of detail or level of artistic precision that some customizers. You know that kid in art class who could render amazing portraits, who could draw a picture from a magazine perfectly, accurately replicating perspective? I suck at that type of artwork. So I do bad things WELL.

Do you recall the pony you first customized (name i.e., cotton candy etc.)?

Not long after getting my first job lot from ebay, I was hooked on nostalgia and the plastic cuteness I denied myself as a pre-teen was suddenly then mine to behold. Some months later, I acquired a Perfume Puff Sweet Suds with a short haircut and stained body, and she became my first ever custom.

Have any of your customs been big brothers in a previous life?

One! A custom of an original character for BarbedDragon in 2006, maybe 2007 of a Dia Muertos pony. Sugar Skull was one of my first ever commissions. We met at one of the MLP Fairs, she showed me a tattoo on her arm of her pony OC and asked if I would replicate him. I was delighted!

Do you think outside of the box for hair materials?

Almost always! Dia Muertos ponies all use yarn for hair. It’s soft and fluffy and comes in a multitude of texture, thicknesses and colors. I have also used beads strung on wires, I’ve used artificial plants and foliage, and nails.

Have your creations always come from ponies that need a chance at second life, or have some of them been in a nice condition?

I’ve sent plenty of collection-worthy toys to second life early, but never anything of endangered abundance.

Have you ever used fakies in the G1 mold type or has it strictly been Hasbro MLP?

Fakies were a primary component in Eqqus Berberfolia, the Pony Rose plant.

What’s integral to the work of an artist?

Passion and desire to show off a little. That doesn’t mean the same as “have a big ego” – in fact in can often be your inner Fluttershy that does the talking when it comes to artistic expression.

What role does the customizer have in our community?

We bring other peoples’ ideas to life! Any time I can transform someone’s imaginings into realities I’m delighted. Seeing your OC turned into a custom pony that you can hold, brush, play with?

Also by creating a need for pony recyclables (baits and parts) it helps the collectors out. What else would they be doing with all those scribbled on Peachies and Sundances if not for us otherwise?

How has your practice changed over time?

When I first began making customs, I made them for my own pleasure and to satisfy my desires to see my favorite film and book characters represented in my newfound hobbycraft. I made them for friends and for swaps. I wouldn’t have considered selling a custom on ebay, that would be like selling off one of my children! After Friendship is Magic debuted on the HUB Network a lot of new characters appeared that weren’t available in toy form, and the crop of new fans created a demanding market for show accurate ponies. I brought 3 FIM customs to BroNYCon June 2011 and all sold within the first ten minutes of the artists alley being opened. It was at that first ever that I sold my first commission to a random stranger. That was only after the guy begged me. After that I found the confidence to market G4 customs outward to the general public, via ebay and through my own website. I remember a time where I was just making Princess Lunas, all day, all night. I kept raising the rate, and yet I couldn’t make enough to keep up with the demand.  

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?

Meeting Tom Savini (Famous Movie Special FX & Prosthetic Makeup Professional) and George Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead) inspired me to make more zombie ponies! Other artists inspire me, through interviews I read and by attending other artists’ exhibitions. Where I live there are many galleries and museums where I can look at artwork close up and absorb inspiration!  

What is your dream project?

The Pony Project! A large-scale, corporate backed mashup of plastic cuteness of MLP with the wide and wild world of art. Yes, PLEASE.

Should there be a book about pony customizing?

I’ve always said that we should have one, toy modification is a recognized medium so why not? I’d like to contribute. I have been around since customizing only meant “new hair and body repaint” – the things we do now compared to then aren’t even in the same league.

Favourite or most inspirational place (in Ponyland)?

Really? It’s Ponycon. That is the place where for one weekend a year, people from all corners of the glob and all walks of life come together to create and produce an outstanding showcase of what My Little Pony has INSPIRED them TO DO and to BE.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

The small paintbrush with 3 hairs on it? Investing in that detail brush was a game changer for me.

Professionally, what’s your goal?

I like to delight people with my work, whether they are pony fans or not. When Bonnie Zacherle came to my booth at the 2006 Fair and picked up ragdolly Patches and remarked on her, I was over the moon! I made an impression on the CREATOR of MLP! *squeee fan girl moment* I put my all into projecting my creations out to the world, and that goes for ponies, flowers, event design or a mashup of all three. Ponycon is coming up this February in New York City and we’re expecting 3,000 people for all generations. www.ponycon.nyc

What research do you do before starting a piece?

Gathering references via google image search, sometimes Wikipedia or my extensive collection of library books on horror and true crime.