Pocket Full of Posiez is a dark gem in a strange sea of gothic and macabre dolls found on line. Its style and unique character appears to have fallen strait out of a not yet published grim children’s book, and it has not fallen very far from its tree. Oddities spoke to Queenie, the creator of Pocket Full of Posiez about her dolls, her inspiration, and what the future holds.
Oddities: Can you give a little bit of background about yourself and if you have schooling, professional experience, or if you are self taught.
Queenie: As far back I can remember, being “creative” with anything and everything I could get my hands on, was just what i did. As I got a bit older, I didn’t have the confidence to call myself an “artist”. (I thought you only got that title if you actually sold something). I didn’t go to art school and I didn’t hang around other artists, so I just didn’t know how it all worked. All I knew was, I wanted to create my own world. I’ve always done things my own way, and the whole time I didn’t realize that I was being an “artist”.
Oddities: Where did your inspiration for this particular genre come from? Did this come as a youth, or later?
Queenie: I’ve always like the ‘darker’ side of life. I rooted for Darth Vadar and had a crush on Bela Lugosi as Dracula when i was very young. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I discovered a new wonderful thing called deathrock (now referred to as goth). that opened The Posiez dolls are a tiny bit creepy and strange but they are also very innocent and silly, like The Munsters (one of the best shows of all time) or The Addams Family and are appealing to so many different ages. The Pocket Full of Posiez line of dolls are manufactured. My boyfriend, Hideousboi, a sculptor at Sideshow Collectibles, takes a drawing of my characters and brings their heads to life for me. I take it from there, making the prototypes all by hand. They are then sent to the factory and reproduced exactly the way i made them. The final 8 inch doll has a vinyl head with rooted hair and a soft body. I do make one of a kind custom dolls from the manufactured ones from time to time to sell.
Oddities: What does the future hold for your work, do you have anything planned beyond what you are currently doing that you would like to reveal?
Queenie: My next doll, The deadly cute Delilah is at the factory and in production and will be available in the spring 2011! (Pushed back from Winter 2010) I am so excited about this because there was a major set back after Panzy the Pirate was produced, but I’m not giving up and I am MORE than grateful that the fans haven’t given up. I am a people pleaser and it’s really hard to promise them a new doll and it have to take this long to produce. Things happen in life that you can’t predict and I’m glad that everyone understands.
The future is open to whatever happens. I will continue to paint when I can. As for merchandise, I want to be able to continue my line of dolls, make more books, and so much more. The dolls are the most important to me and have been my dream since the beginning.
Oddities: Is there anything exclusive you can tell or show us?
Queenie: I’m in love with my new product, a parasol with a bat topper. The idea came from one of my paintings and Hideousboi helped me bring it to life by sculpting it for me from my drawing. I make each one by hand right now, but I am looking into having them mass produced. I also make exclusive brooches and cameo necklaces hand sculpted for me. Also available are stickers, pins, purses, coaster sets, mirrors, etc. These items can be purchased on my etsy shop http://www.posiez.etsy.com as well as the store Halloween Town in Burbank, and Ipso Facto in Fullerton.
Queenie with her creations
Oddities: Where did your inspiration for this particular work (the dolls and related artwork) come from and how did it get started?
Queenie: One Halloween I was in a big chain store and they had their Halloween decorations out. I thought at that moment, “I want to make cute characters like this”. I went home and started doodling out a character Hortencia. I just kept coming up with more and more characters for fun. I kind of hoped it would go this far, but that wasn’t the plan initially. After I had a group of characters that I had named after flowers and plants, Pocket Full of Posiez seemed to be a really cool name for the group. The story behind the “ring around the rosies” rhyme is a bit morbid and mysterious, yet it’s such an innocent game when you are a kid. Along with the dark side, I love being surrounded by vibrant colors that really inspire me. Over the years my artwork has become a lot more detailed and fun as I grow. I try not to look at other artists work. That may seem to sound like I’m being selfish in a way, but it really is self preservation for me. I used to compare myself to other people all the time and it did nothing but stop me from creating. I had to force myself to focus on my own little art world only to keep it fresh and original. Especially in the small ‘dark art’ community. There’s a fine line between influence and soaking in too much information from other artists.
Oddities: Can you explain a little bit about the dolls, how they are made and what they are made out of? Are they all hand made, or do you have them produced?
your website or do you have stores that carry any of your work? Do you go to shows and if so do you have any coming up? This issue will be out in Feb, so it would be anything following that.
Queenie: I do art shows from time to time, but I don’t do them as much as I used to. Right now I am pretty much exclusive to doing them at The Parlour in Halloween Town. There will be a show around Feb/Mar there. I vend every year at The Bats Day in the Fun Park Black Market. The next Black Market is Saturday May 7th 2pm – 10pm Free Admission Located @ DoubleTree Guest Suites Anaheim 2085 South Harbor Blvd. I also have an internet live cam chat show with my boyfriend every Wed at 7pm PST on Ustream. We talk about our current art work, chat with fans, and just whatever happens to come up. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/queenietv
ISSN 2159-4708
Wicked Little Play Things…Pocket Full of Posiez
By Jesse Horn
Pocket Full of Posiez is a dark gem in a strange sea of gothic and macabre dolls found on line. Its style and unique character appears to have fallen strait out of a not yet published grim children’s book, and it has not fallen very far from its tree. Oddities spoke to Queenie, the creator of Pocket Full of Posiez about her dolls, her inspiration, and what the future holds.
Oddities: Can you give a little bit of background about yourself and if you have schooling, professional experience, or if you are self taught.
Queenie: As far back I can remember, being “creative” with anything and everything I could get my hands on, was just what i did. As I got a bit older, I didn’t have the confidence to call myself an “artist”. (I thought you only got that title if you actually sold something). I didn’t go to art school and I didn’t hang around other artists, so I just didn’t know how it all worked. All I knew was, I wanted to create my own world. I’ve always done things my own way, and the whole time I didn’t realize that I was being an “artist”.
Oddities: Where did your inspiration for this particular genre come from? Did this come as a youth, or later?
Queenie: I’ve always like the ‘darker’ side of life. I rooted for Darth Vadar and had a crush on Bela Lugosi as Dracula when i was very young. It wasn’t until I was in high school that I discovered a new wonderful thing called deathrock (now referred to as goth). that opened The Posiez dolls are a tiny bit creepy and strange but they are also very innocent and silly, like The Munsters (one of the best shows of all time) or The Addams Family and are appealing to so many different ages. The Pocket Full of Posiez line of dolls are manufactured. My boyfriend, Hideousboi, a sculptor at Sideshow Collectibles, takes a drawing of my characters and brings their heads to life for me. I take it from there, making the prototypes all by hand. They are then sent to the factory and reproduced exactly the way i made them. The final 8 inch doll has a vinyl head with rooted hair and a soft body. I do make one of a kind custom dolls from the manufactured ones from time to time to sell.
Oddities: What does the future hold for your work, do you have anything planned beyond what you are currently doing that you would like to reveal?
Queenie: My next doll, The deadly cute Delilah is at the factory and in production and will be available in the spring 2011! (Pushed back from Winter 2010) I am so excited about this because there was a major set back after Panzy the Pirate was produced, but I’m not giving up and I am MORE than grateful that the fans haven’t given up. I am a people pleaser and it’s really hard to promise them a new doll and it have to take this long to produce. Things happen in life that you can’t predict and I’m glad that everyone understands.
The future is open to whatever happens. I will continue to paint when I can. As for merchandise, I want to be able to continue my line of dolls, make more books, and so much more. The dolls are the most important to me and have been my dream since the beginning.
Oddities: Is there anything exclusive you can tell or show us?
Queenie: I’m in love with my new product, a parasol with a bat topper. The idea came from one of my paintings and Hideousboi helped me bring it to life by sculpting it for me from my drawing. I make each one by hand right now, but I am looking into having them mass produced. I also make exclusive brooches and cameo necklaces hand sculpted for me. Also available are stickers, pins, purses, coaster sets, mirrors, etc. These items can be purchased on my etsy shop http://www.posiez.etsy.com as well as the store Halloween Town in Burbank, and Ipso Facto in Fullerton.
Queenie with her creations
Oddities: Where did your inspiration for this particular work (the dolls and related artwork) come from and how did it get started?
Queenie: One Halloween I was in a big chain store and they had their Halloween decorations out. I thought at that moment, “I want to make cute characters like this”. I went home and started doodling out a character Hortencia. I just kept coming up with more and more characters for fun. I kind of hoped it would go this far, but that wasn’t the plan initially. After I had a group of characters that I had named after flowers and plants, Pocket Full of Posiez seemed to be a really cool name for the group. The story behind the “ring around the rosies” rhyme is a bit morbid and mysterious, yet it’s such an innocent game when you are a kid. Along with the dark side, I love being surrounded by vibrant colors that really inspire me. Over the years my artwork has become a lot more detailed and fun as I grow. I try not to look at other artists work. That may seem to sound like I’m being selfish in a way, but it really is self preservation for me. I used to compare myself to other people all the time and it did nothing but stop me from creating. I had to force myself to focus on my own little art world only to keep it fresh and original. Especially in the small ‘dark art’ community. There’s a fine line between influence and soaking in too much information from other artists.
Oddities: Can you explain a little bit about the dolls, how they are made and what they are made out of? Are they all hand made, or do you have them produced?
your website or do you have stores that carry any of your work? Do you go to shows and if so do you have any coming up? This issue will be out in Feb, so it would be anything following that.
Queenie: I do art shows from time to time, but I don’t do them as much as I used to. Right now I am pretty much exclusive to doing them at The Parlour in Halloween Town. There will be a show around Feb/Mar there. I vend every year at The Bats Day in the Fun Park Black Market. The next Black Market is Saturday May 7th 2pm – 10pm Free Admission Located @ DoubleTree Guest Suites Anaheim 2085 South Harbor Blvd. I also have an internet live cam chat show with my boyfriend every Wed at 7pm PST on Ustream. We talk about our current art work, chat with fans, and just whatever happens to come up. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/queenietv