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Thank the Maker This Artist Is Creating Squishy STAR WARS Porgs

Thanks to the reveal of Star Wars: The Last Jedi images we have a new character to fixate on leading up to the movie’s big release in December—all hail the porg! The cute (yet possibly fierce) little creature has big eyes you can get lost in, is incredibly cuddly, but as with most things Star Wars you never know if it’s capable of turning on you.

The mystery behind these inhabitants of the planet Ahch-To makes them all the more coveted. Fans will have to wait to see if porg toys will hit the market come Force Friday—the annual big Star Wars merchandising event—on September 1st. Until then, artist Toby Markham has taken porg obsession into his own hands by creating life-size cuddly porgs for fans to have of their very own.

Like all of us Markham caught his first glimpse of the creatures in the behind the scenes footage that was released during the D23 Expo, he immediately noticed their bird-like qualities, “those little faces really stood out to me. Last year, while in Iceland, I made it a point to visit their aquarium. It’s known as the place where you can hold a puffin. Being a bird lover, I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. So it was a combination of birds and my desire to create that made me want to make one.”

The porg experiment started out as a sculpting exercise but since there were no specifications, Markham had to improvise, “My sculptures generally just start as a rough buildup of shapes. Usually if it’s something like a mask, I just build up over a casting of my head. So in this case, there was nothing to build upon.”

The process became a series of steps, “After the clay sculpt is completed, I add a few coats of silicone, until it becomes thick enough to stay sturdy. Then that gets a rigid mother mold, so the emptied silicone retains the original shape of the sculpt. So once everything gets demolded, resin is poured in and slush cast.”

Markham created his little porgs in both resin form and an irresistible squeezable rubber version. Since rubber doesn’t take well to paint the squishy porgs are left as is, while the painted resin sculptures take on a much more lifelike quality, “once the castings have cured, I break out the airbrush, mix the proper colors, and paint away. Those initial five castings must’ve taken about two hours to get through. Luckily it’s a fast drying paint, so once I’ve gotten through all five with one color, the first one’s paint has set and I can continue onto the next color.”

Suddenly, more squishy rubber #porgs were ordered. #starwars #porg

A post shared by Toby (@sithcamaro) on

Since we know so little about porgs, detail is key for the curious creature. Markham said, “Luckily it wasn’t a very unusual shape, so it really just became more of an exercise in texture. I almost skipped the teeth, but I’m glad I didn’t! They really add character.”

Markham has sculpted creatures inspired by each of the last two Star Wars films and hopes to create more in the future. We’ll have to wait and see how this whole porg obsession turns out, fingers crossed that Episode 9 will be titled, Revenge of the Porgs!

If you’d like to own your own custom porg, you can find them on Markham’s website, www.sithcamaro.com.

Do you think porgs will be magical or mercenary in Star Wars: The Last Jedi? Give us all your porg theories in the comments!

And for more The Last Jedi, check out our theory that Porgs might be the key!

Images: Toby Markham
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