$145

This is the first flute froglet I have ever made. More flute froglets will be similar. I will make changes gradually. If you like collecting, this is the first of its kind. :)

Flute Playing Froglet #1

• flute froglet with other musicians
• flute froglet
• flute froglet
• flute froglet 1
• flute froglet
• flute froglet

To see more images of Flute Playing Froglet #1 and to read about it, click here.

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Yes! I want to buy Flute Playing Froglet #1 for $145.

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Sorry I did not have a nearby ledge to take a picture of this guy on. But you might. Hint, hint. Available or will be available in the Frog ‘n Froglet SHOP! .

Early January, I started writing down all these ideas for different kinds of frogs. I came up with a list of more than a hundred. It actually might be more than two hundred now. Anyway, this is a keeper. A definitely good design that works, people like.

You see how the top of the head, in front of the eyes – what do you call that area? – I started putting another piece of copper over the first piece so as to add some texture and give him some – again I don’t know what to call them – hole shapes? Anyway, that’s new. Haven’t always been doing that.

I make a point to point out this kind of stuff because I want to show that my frogs are collectable – collectables, you might call them (especially the smaller ones, and the froglets).

I like the texture.

The gang’s all here. I call them “Froglets”. I started making these during Covid. I was rather heading toward working in this size before Covid. I don’t know why. But one reason, which became more apparent after Covid struck, was that I do not have a LOT of materials on hand. Plus, everyone wants a cheaper frog. I tell them, you tell me what you can afford; I will tell you what size I can make. Size does translate, to some degree, into cost. Obviously, it takes less time to make such a frog. Also, I find it satisfying to get big results from small actions. Hopefully, the Froglets will translate that way as far as a marketing thing. (A marketing thang.) But, who knows. I do not know yet what all this “New World” via Covid has in store. I know artists such as me are suffering. We are simply a small segment of the larger segment of unemployed or semi-unemployed or maybe unemployed people out there.

With these small guys, one thing I liked when I heard it: The virus can last only 4 hours on copper. Copper related materials, such as I work with, that is, bronze, are similar. So, I’m thinking, this is a nice gift at this time. I do think folks are still buying gifts, maybe not as big as they have been buying: a gift on a budget. That is what these little fellows are.

I make them one at a time. Well, to be exact, I may make them in small batches. But, that said, they still get singular attention. Here is a group I started working on:

I make them kind of like a comic strip artist would make characters. It may be the same character with different expressions. That is what I am going for here.

I actually tried, well, I thought I would make a comic with my metal frogs. Then I thought otherwise. My focus is on making the frog, not on making a comic. So I stopped doing that. But it was a valuable experience to get a feeling for what I was trying to accomplish in the look and feel of my work.

I am very pleased with my froglets. I will continue to make them. Now, you have to know that I have been making human sized frog sculptures for as long as I have been making frog sculptures. So this is a nice change. I get a nice feeling because I can get more done – I can finish a frog sculpture. I also get to focus on details. In these size frogs, everything is a detail. So that is why I like to take close-ups of these frogs, similar to close-up nature photography. So you can see the detail with which I work.

Every frog I make one at a time. Even when I work in batches, still, each frog gets one-at-a-time attention, as if it were going in a comic strip. Each frog gets its own features. So this is not how someone works who sells a copy of the same thing, making it over and over. Each time I make it, it has its own personality.

It is especially not like a cast. It’s original art, in other words. These days, so many people sell saying such and such a thing is “handmade” or that it is one-of-a-kind when it really is not. It’s production line, assembly line… Well, it can be schlock. It doesn’t have to be. But it is not original art.

Some of these froglets can be found in the Frog ‘n Froglet SHOP! on this site.

Early small squat frog with legs. This is a recent innovation. (For more, check out Musical Froglets.)

So there is this thing my dad would do with the squat frog design. He would simplify it to the point where it did not have any back legs. No back legs. Very minimal. And it worked, although some folks did not like it. Others do. They like it a lot and are willing to put their money where their mouth is. They pay good money for such a frog sculpture.

But as I was working on these squat frogs in early January, I found myself changes things up. What if, God forbid, I put hind legs on these creatures? I started doing that. A fellow that sells my work told me they looked WAY better that way. So, I continued, and that is the way I make them now. And I will have pictures up of the latest thumb-sized squats. As I made the squatting frogs smaller and smaller, I finally got to a design and over-all look and style that was really, really great. It looked like a comic book character. It looked really finished.

small squat frog with legs

small squat frog sculpture

Here is another early squat frog with legs. Look at all my squat frogs, you will find them all to be different. The eyes, the gullet, the position of the hand, the feet – everything gets changed up. I don’t change everything for every sculpture. But something gets changed. None of them are alike. I tried that, recently, actually. It didn’t work to try to make them all the same and do an assembly line type of thing. Actually it was not at all an assembly line because it was just me working on them. But you get the idea.

This was my try at a self imposed assembly line type of frog where I tried to make as many frogs as I could the same way. It did not work. I learned a few things, though. They look kind of like grandma or grandpa without dentures.

Here is a batch of them:

They did not turn out that well. And I worked hard at this. Even so, they have a certain charm, a certain… je ne sais quoi. Perhaps.

I am reminded not to put all my eggs in one basket. I made these around Easter, and the body looks like an egg. I formed each body around an egg shape I built out of steel. It was quite a production. All for naught… And yet, it is true, with the frogs, that the homely ones – I won’t be so cruel as to call them ugly; after all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder – they have their charm as well. Character.

Compare those frogs to this:

Ok, this one is what I finally got to when I took my time and made one single small squat frog just how I wanted it after I made all the other ones. I was going for the control and quality of a comic or 3D animation. I got that with this frog. It is the first of its kind. It is a terrific frog. No one else can make a frog like this.

Before I made that frog, I made this one:

You may notice that this one is not as, uh, finished as the other one. He looks kind of bewildered. I was just trying to get certain aspects down, the general idea, before I made the polished one after that. The polished one I call thumb sized squat frog 1. So this one, the one that looks bewildered, is thumb sized squat frog 0. He’s actually a great frog, as well. Just not as finished. More like a sketch.

This frog is bronzed entirely. Working in this method, I can get a lot of shape. This frog is comparable to a bronze. It takes time to work this way, but the effect is very desirable.