“A Well Crafted Tale”

Our one-of-a-kind figure “ElviSan” – a Japanese Elvis Impersonator, was accepted in the Florida CraftArt juried exhibition “A Well Crafted Tale” a fine craft exhibition focusing on imagination and storytelling.

The beginning:

Inspired by a black and white magazine photograph of a young Japanese man sitting in profile on a deserted dirt road. He was wearing American style clothes consisting of black jeans and a white, sleeveless undershirt. What caught our eye was his large sideburns and massive wave of hair and that would have made the “King” envious. This is how “ElviSan” came to be.

“ElviSan” – his story:

Elvis is alive and well and living in Japan, or so Hiroshi Nakamura would want you to believe. He is the most popular Elvis Impersonator in Tokyo. His soulful rendition of “In the Ghetto” leaves his audience weeping with deep despair, and just when their emotions can’t take anymore, Hiroshi slaps them into a frenzy with a hip throttling “Viva Las Vegas.” Elvis, The King, never left — he just relocated.

About the figure:

The foundation of our figures and automata are machined armatures using brass, nylon and metals. “ElviSan” has an articulated, postionable armature — hinges and swivels are used in the arms allowing a wide range of motion and to retain position when posing the figure. The neck, wrists, left hip and ankle are ball-joints that have to be tight enough to hold the figure securely in off-balance positions.

The right support leg is steel that was bent in a jig and mounted to the base which has a heavy metal plate mounted under the wood to counterbalance the figure. These dramatic poses gives the illusion of movement to a static figure and adds theater in the same way actors use their bodies tell a story.