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Eden Small
He says that if he had the opportunity to invite his favourite people to dinner, it would be John Bonham from Led Zeppelin and Jimmy Hendrix.
A recent highlight was when Eden sculpted the gift Weta Workshop gave to Sir Elton John on his New Zealand visit in 2006. Eden says it gave him a great sense of accomplishment to see the final model after it was painted. 'I had to look through 48 pages of images on the web just to find one where he wasn't wearing glasses to get his eyes just right', he remembers. 'When we put the glasses on him, I was stoked - I thought 'finally - it really looks like Elton'!
Sculptor
Eden's interest in art as a child led to a natural progression into paint, pastel and pencil work. As he expanded his range of skills, he became inspired by sculpture and turned his hand to it. He was working on the back of a garbage truck in a steel factory when his father suggested he send his portfolio to Weta Workshop. Eden was in Sydney on a building site when he got a call on his mobile from Richard Taylor (with drills and jackhammers in the background), who asked him to jump on a plane to New Zealand.
Eden started at the Workshop working on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He was set the task of making the feet of Mr Tumnus and was soon moved onto creating the Weta Collectibles line for the movie, as that was his area of interest.
There's a lot of creative energy here at Weta - that's number one, and it's a lot different from a building site', laughs Eden. 'But it's also the discipline aspect to the work; when you do it as a hobby you don't have to really get anything done to a specific time, so you get that discipline put into your work when you've got deadline's - that's a good thing. Also the opportunity to sculpt some really cool stuff is fantastic!'
Eden also worked on the V-Rex vs Kong Collectibles piece and the Narnia bookends. 'Getting the Kong piece finished was a major milestone', he remembers. 'It was a really challenging piece to complete and it had changes going on all the way through. I was chuffed when it was finished.'
He says much of his inspiration comes from the natural world and biology. 'It comes down to the science of the skeletal and muscular systems and how they work', he says. 'Nature itself is most inspiring thing to me to work from - animals and especially the predators!' Eden is also an avid music fan.
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