The Worrier

Boy, how freeing it is to think a toy is a complete write-off.

The more I worked at trying to save parts of this drummer boy, the less I found worth saving.

Since he's about 180 degrees from the toy that I initially found, let me tell you what first arrived in my studio:

A wind-up celluloid drummer boy mounted on a wooden box, made in Japan. Age unknown but if there are any toy sleuths/historians among us, his body was constructed of cork, his legs and feet of paper mache. 

His head was dented and flopped neckless to one side and his arms had come loose within the aged, moldering sleeves that held them.

The cork of his body had started to crumble in on itself to the degree that the winding mechanism no longer worked. The head was shot, the clothes filthy and coming apart. His arms looked cheap and were broken and the sturdiest thing about him was trying to part company with his legs.

All this is to say that the only clue that this doll drummed anything at all were the sticks attached to his hands as his drum was long gone.

It can be a worry, trying to reinvigorate a toy without overwriting its initial essence and charm. This one however, felt like a free-form kinder surprise toy, one that I could pull apart and reimagine, throwing away and rebuilding significant parts of it. 

With that, The Worrier came into being and I made the strangest video of its rebuild, as I was not certain at any leg of the process that I was going reach the end with a newly functioning character.

I did though. He consists of all hte things mentioned above as well as gloss enamel, resin, and a small amount of my own forehead grease. 

25.5 x 10.5 x 9cm