In T.H. White's classic tale of the life of King Arthur, The Once and Future King, Merlin the Magician turns young Arthur into a variety of animals to teach him about life in all its dimensions. Although artist Melody Peña didn't have a Merlin in her childhood, she did have a very fertile imagination. "I really always thought I was an animal when I was little, such as a horse," she tells us. "I didn't know I was a person."
Recognized today as one of the outstanding artists of fantasy figures, Peña's hand casted gypsum sculptures include families of dragons, wizards, unicorns, griffins and more. And like the animals of her childhood, they are very much a product of her own imagination. "I don't copy or mimic anyone even when I'm creating a unicorn, mine are different," she says.
Animals have always had a place in Peña's life. While she earned a degree in art, her college studies included courses in biology and zoology. She's always had a bevy of pets, and she's amassed a personal collection of more than 250 animal skeletons and skulls - ranging from mice to gorillas. The artist draws on these resources to turn her fantasy imaginings into distinctive hand cast-stone figurines that are manufactured and distributed by Windstone Editions, a company formed by the artist and her husband, John Alberti.
Since childhood, Peña has been creating some kind of artwork, whether from aluminum foil or tissue paper. She was a successful cartoonist and sand painter when she began creating leaded glass mirrors for Alberti Design. Alberti's company responded to the tremendous interest in unicorns in the 1970s by reproducing and selling prints of Peña's fantasy paintings. "We sold tens of thousands of them," says Alberti.
"In 1984," he says, "a friend with a ceramics business told us there was a huge market for gypsum-stone animals with glass eyes." Not afraid to try something new, Alberti and Peña founded Windstone Editions that year and soon knew they'd made the right decision. In the fifteen years since then, they've introduced some three dozen fantasy animal sculptures and, today, have about 45 employees and a 30,000square-foot manufacturing and marketing facility. Peña remains the company's only artist, and her fantasy figures are Windstone's primary focus, while Alberti Design continues to sell her fantasy prints.
Peña's 30-plus sculpted pieces range in height from about 3 to 13 inches and sell for between $20 and $300 each. "I create about three fist-sized new pieces a year," Peña tells us, adding that she may do up to five a year if the pieces are smaller. 'We don't flood the market. It can take anywhere from five months to a year to go from having a new idea to the actual product. Usually I'm working on more than just one thing at a time, but with the Emperor Dragon, all of us worked a year just on that." The stunning foot-tall Emperor Dragon stands in a regal pose and looks at the world with fiery eyes. He has hundreds of individual scales, each of which was hand carved by Peña and are now hand painted by in-house artists.
A Windstone Editions' figurine begins with a sketch, which Peña refines over many weeks. For each piece, she says, "I take a real animal and go from there. I've always had a knack for putting fantasy animals together." That's where her collection of skeletons comes in: They lend anatomical accuracy to Peña's imagination. She then sculpts the creature in clay, sometimes also doing a paper cutout and/or an aluminum-foil version to see how well the emerging creature stands. Finally, she carves all the details by hand.
After a hard plaster model is created, it is then painstakingly painted, then rubber production molds are made. Custom painters apply as many as eleven separate painting treatments, using the highest quality acrylic and metallic paints available (they cost up to $125 a gallon) to create the rich, vibrant color finishes. Of the 50 employees, 17 are master painters; 13 others cast. All the detail work is done by hand. Accent pieces, including taxidermy-quality glass eyes, lead-crystal jewels and gold-plated pewter horns, are then hand glued to the sculptures. "We don't scrimp on any detail," Peña notes. "Our sculptures are the best we can possibly make them. We put a lot of hand work and much labor money into each piece." At every step of production each individual piece is inspected for quality. The high quality has been there since the first few pieces. Each artist prides himself on being the best there is.
To date, only the Cherubs have been retired, although a particular shade or color may be discontinued or changed. Peña's unicorns come in black and white; her wizards are available in several colors; her dragons in three colors; her griffins in two. The company's newest issue is an Oriental unicorn titled "Ki-Rin"; it's three inches high. About this creature the artist says, "I just made it and then found a fantasy animal that really seemed to fit how it looked - the Oriental good-luck Ki-Rin."
Click here to see the collection of Melody Peña's Dragons - Unicorns - Ki-Rin - Frogs - Wizards - Pegasus - Griffins - Cats - Dinosaurs and Gargoyles.
Because of windstone's reputation of super quality products, Gary Kinsella chose Windstone to produce his line of quality collector castles. Price had nothing to do with his choice, only the quality of their products, there are none better in the figurine industry.
Not only are their products of the best quality, their shipping containers follow the line of excellence. In the hundreds of pieces we have received only 1 was damaged and the container was completely smashed by some freak accident. You can be assured that your purchase will arrive safely and in the same condition it was sent. Because of the weight, packaging, and insurance cost, there is a $10.00 minimum shipping cost per item. Please allow 2 weeks for packaging and shipping after order is placed.
Click here to read about Windstone artist Gary Kinsella and see his exquisite castles.
Click here to go back to Jim Says, the Front Page, or Jim's article on Wizards.