Sillof is pronouced "Si" (like Psi or Sci-fi ) and "llof" (like cough or pilaf) and no it is not his real name. He's a high school history and film teacher.
Sillof has no formal art training, other then a few art classes in middle school. If something turns out good, he says it is just from years of practice, or luck. Personally, I think it comes more from an extraordinary amount of talent and has little to do with luck. He started building custom figures and dioramas when he was just a kid. He opened a website in 1999. It was then called "The Wookie's Workshop" and "The Wook's Workshop". before he had his current website
www.Sillof.com.
His work has been featured online on blogs, websites, and online news services, newspapers at the local, national and international levels, in books and magazines nationally and world wide. His customs have even been featured on television in local news, national news, cable, and overseas, in independent films as props, costumes, and set designs. His action figures have been publicly displayed at contests, fairs, & conventions including four of the six Star Wars Celebrations. Most recently his work has been seen in Toyfare and Star Wars Insider Magazines.
Sillof, is a seasoned builder in the
Diorama Workshop, who recently organized the Star Wars Custom Action Figure Panel at Star Wars Celebration VI. It was really nice to see his customs on display.
Sillof's customs are really unique within the community and stand out in a signature way. Yes, he only makes the same core characters over and over again, but don't let him fool you...his
interpretations of these characters are out of this world! Unlike most custom action figure artists who work in the 3 3/4" scale,
Sillof works in a 6" scale. In his art, he reinterprets our favorite Original Trilogy characters in various different ways. Unlike other customizers,
Sillof has gotten away from faithfully creating characters and has begun to redesign these figures in various time periods or aesthetics.
Sillof has reinvented Star Wars in his own image ranging from themes such as "Steam Punk" Star Wars to "Western", or Star Wars as what it might look like if it occurred in 1942. My personal favorites of
Sillof's is where he envisions our favorite Star Wars characters as samurai warriors and his recent Mad Max - Star Wars mash ups. I'm definitely a big fan of this artist and his work has even found its way into
my own custom collection. His
Toy Wars stop motion film and his recent
Noir Wars film are worth a look too. True labors of love.
He starts with a general concept or direction (samurai for example) Then he brainstorms what he wants. This is mostly done in his brain. Then he makes a list of adjectives and descriptions of the character, maybe a little back story and the physical elements he wants to include in the figure. He then begins the actual construction. He usually works on all of them at once. So while the glue or paint is drying on one he works on another. Some parts of the figures are recycled from existing toys. They are cut off and glued together. Sometimes he sculpts over the old toy parts. Sometimes he dremels down the part using it more as an armature and sculpts over it. Often times, he will sculpt an entire new piece. Some of the figures are completely built from scratch. It really just depends on what he wants, needs, and what he has on hand in his various drawers of parts.
He sculpts using a 2 part epoxy polymer sculpting compound called Apoxie Sculpt by Aves Studios. You mix 2 parts together and then in few hours it is hard a rock. It is not as easy to work with as sculpey but more then makes up for it with it's durability. Sillof says it gets easier to work with practice.
Prepare to be blown away!
