Here’s the first in a series of interviews… Sammi Resendes, with the help of her boyfriend, is Geek Central Station. They make the most amazingly detailed amigurumi characters, all crocheted with felt clothes and polymer clay accessories. She also maintains a great blog of geek crafts she’s found around the Internet.
1. What is your first geeky memory?
I would have to say that watching Star Wars is probably the first really geeky thing I remember. I remember my parents watching it on TV, and how grossed out I would always be at the scene on Hoth when Han cuts open the tauntaun belly–I was probably about 12 at that time. I also remember being all excited to see the 1997 re-releases in the theaters.
2. Were you a geek first or a crafter first?
Seriously, I would have to say a geek first. I mean, I learned how to sew when I was really young and I have always sort of been inclined to be crafty (through my mom, who encouraged that kind of thing), but I didn’t put my crafty powers to good use until recently. Star Wars, on the other hand, well I can’t remember a time when it didn’t influence me.
3. Do you have a favorite geek genre? (TV, movies, comics, etc.)
Well, I like certain movies (obviously) but I probably follow TV series more closely now. I love watching stuff like the X-files, Firefly, Bones, House, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and other stuff like that. I think I like the depth of characters you can get on a show like that, as opposed to just a movie. It’s interesting to see things play out over a course of years, instead of just a couple of hours.
4. What is your favorite geek craft you’ve made?
It’s so hard to pick a favorite! I would say it would be one of my amigurumi dudes, obviously, but I don’t know which one! I do like Gandalf, but I also like Princess Leia with her little hair-buns. Indiana Jones is really cute too, and I love Superman’s little jerry curl. I can’t pick! It’s hard when you’re so invested in all of your creations to pick one, it’s like asking to pick a favorite child.
5. Tell us about what you make.
My boyfriend and I make little amigurumi (just a fancy word for crochet) people that are decked out to look like our favorite geeky characters from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Futurama, Superman, Firefly, etc… with endless possibilities. We use felt and Sculpey to make their clothes and accessories. We like to make the little guys as detailed as possible, and we spend enormous amounts of time studying pictures of clothes and accessories to make sure that we don’t miss anything.
6. Why do you make geek crafts? (For yourself, gifts, to sell, etc.)
Well, we started out making these for ourselves, and it sort of just evolved into making them to sell. Whatever we sell we always make a set for us, though, and it’s a lot of fun for us to work on these together, so I guess we probably do it more for ourselves than for any other reason.
A grocery list from a Rapture (Bioshock‘s undersea city) citizen would probably look something like, “bread, Hop-Up Soda, Incinerate Plasmid, cream-filled cakes.” It would also probably be stuck to an art deco-inspired refrigerator with one of these awesome Rapture Relics magnets.