(crowd bustling)
(happy synthesized music)
- So right now, we are talking to
an amazing artist, Cat Staggs.
If you have not seen her work, no sass face.
If you have not seen her work, you are missing out for sure.
She's here at Celebration, she has prints.
But that's only the surface of the kind of stuff she does.
Do you want to tell us the big things
you're working on right now?
- The big things I'm working on right now
are Ore from Black Friday W., which is a blast.
- And it's gorgeous.
- And it's really fun too (laughing)
- And I can think, safely say, I'm working
on Wonder Woman 77?
- Awesome.
So I know that you love space
and pop culture and all things.
- Yes.
- What was the magical thing that
made you want to do Star Wars art?
What was the first thing you drew?
- First Star Wars art I drew?
- Yeah.
- The only clear memory I have of
Star Wars art as a kid, was making a
shoebox movie.
- I love it.
- Was where you drew a bunch of things,
taped them all together, then taped them
to pencils and scrolled it through a shoebox.
- That's how artists are made.
(laughing) - It was inspired by
The Atari game that we just went like this.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- I love it.
Everybody check out her stuff.
Where can they find you?
- Catstaggs.com
- So easy. Do it.
(happy synthesized music)
So one of the coolest things about
being at a convention like this,
where it's all Star Wars all the time,
is that you get to see really cool ways
to share your fandom that you may not have thought of.
And that's where this guy comes in.
This is Keven Liell from Norse Legion,
and he designs amazing jewelry for fans to wear.
And its not just Star Wars that he does,
but that's what we're mostly going to talk about today.
So, how did you end up in this line of work?
- Well I was, I've been a 3D artist more in the
housing development background, but I've been
a Star Wars artist for a long time, doing illustrations.
And then my company, which I work for,
Norse Legion is my company where I sell
Star Wars jewelry that we have.
But my company that I work for is SalesOne.
They design for Marvel, DC, Sons of Anarchy,
and a bunch of other lines.
I've worked for Mary Fraggy for the
past three or four celebrations so
I know a lot of people.
Lucas Stone, we came up with some
design ideas, sent it out to them, so we'd
like to get a license and work for you guys,
and they were like "ok."
And then about a year ago, we signed a
contract with them, and we've been
making jewelry ever since.
- And I know you've been working on
super secret stuff you can't even talk
about because it's about the new movie.
- We have, I can probably say we have
about 30 Episode VII pieces of merchandise.
- I'm gonna cross my fingers for a BB-8 necklace.
- So you wanna see a BB-8 necklace?
- Yes.
- Hmm. (laughing)
What an idea.
Kevin, thank you so much for talking with us.
Where can people find your amazing jewelry?
- Norselegion.com
- Cool.
(happy synthesized music)
- Alright so, we are now standing in
what might be the most dangerous booth at celebration.
But in the best way.
These are the people that make
amazing armor for fans, and it is so cool.
We're at the Anovos booth, and this is Joe Salcedo.
A big wig at Anovos.
Joe, tell us what you do.
- Well, I'm one of the co-founders of
Anovos Productions, and I guess we make really cool things.
- Seriously what we do is we do life-size costume replicas.
And to a level of exacting quality,
so that it looks like you stepped right off a stage.
- And these guys are amazing, I can attest.
They've had people walking around in the costumes.
It looks so beautiful, even right up close.
- Thank you.
- So how did you end up working on Star Wars costumes?
- Well, it all started basically being kids.
This is something that we've always wanted to do.
It starts with just basic dress-up.
You know, when you watch Star Wars
for the very first time.
And it later evolved to doing something more serious.
Where we said one day "Why don't we try
"making these costumes for real?"
Using large manufacturing and licensing.
And so that's when we approached Star Wars
and said "You know what? Let's try to do
"something that no one else has really tried to do."
And that's bring armor to a grander-scale consumer market.
And so that's what we're doing here.
- So, here's a question.
Getting ready for Episode VII stuff,
what was your lead time to develop
these and to have them ready for the floor?
- That's a very interesting question.
(laughing)
- Originally, this was not supposed
to be released until late into Christmas.
- Right.
- Right, but because of Lucasfilm's excitement,
to make a big splash at C7 and reveal the big trooper.
We were very appreciative, and completely
honored to be approached about
making this piece in multiple formats.
One, as a display piece, and another as a kit
to start inviting people to build these with us.
And those are some of the people that you saw.
And they're part of the 501st Legion,
of which, they're part of a marketing event,
in order to, a large marketing event
in order to release The Force Awakens trooper.
- It's so amazing, gorgeous up front.
- Of course. - Thank you.
- So, if people want to know more about
Anovos and what you do, where can they go?
Well, you can try our website, www.anovos.com.
That's a-n-o-v-o-s.com.
Or our Facebook.
And we also Facebook/Anovos, and our
Twitter handle, which is also Anovos.
- Perfect.
And I know you're gonna wanna visit,
cause everybody wants to dress like this.
- You check it out.
- Thank you so much Joe, this has been awesome.
- Thanks so much for having me.
- Alrighty, see ya later.
(happy synthesized music)
(piano key)