Here to kick off SimsVIP’s September Community Spotlight is talented Sims 4 Crafter, CottoneeSocks! In a brief introduction below, Jojo gives readers a chance to learn a bit more about her work in the community. Take it away Jojo!
Hello everyone! My name is JoJo and I’m an animation student / part time sculptor from England. I’ve been playing The Sims since 2005 and it’s amazing to think the game is still such a big part of my life almost 15 years later! I was only 7 years old when my parents gifted me The Sims 2 on PC (and I played it almost everyday) but it wasn’t until The Sims 3 arrived a few years later that I discovered expansion packs, mods and the wonderful online community!
The Sims helped me through a lot of school stress and loneliness, beyond what words can explain. To ease my mind from anxiety I began making stories and posting them online, which lead me to discover how much I truly loved writing. Legacy challenges were my favourite! I posted under the name of Kipper123 and I had the chance to meet so many amazing authors/simmers during these years. I’ll admit when the Sims 4 launched I was underwhelmed by the base game, so I decided to stick with TS3 a little longer. Meanwhile, (totally separate from video games) I decided to branch out and try some different artistic mediums – so I stopped writing and started sculpting!
Pretty soon I fell in love with miniatures, mostly crafting with polymer clay and occasionally felting (sculpting with wool). But I think my love of figurines always came from those precious memories of The Sims 2! The quirky characters and famous family stories have always held a special place in my heart. Really, if you think about it, The Sims brought out my creative spark for story telling and its guided me since the age of seven. Even right now, I’ve chosen to study animation at an online university, with the goal of capturing new stories and sharing them through video games.
It sounds so cheesy! But Sims was honestly the start of me finding my passion in life. As you can guess, it was only a matter of time before my sculpting and gaming hobbies started to overlap. I thought it would be fun to have my own a pet cowplant at my desk, so I made one! She’s called Agnes and she lives happily next to my computer. At the start of 2019 I finally had a little catch up on everything I’d missed with The Sims 4 (aka: I bought Cats & Dogs, Seasons, two game packs and stuff packs all in the same afternoon!)
In March I joined Twitter, and by pure chance I stumbled across the Sims Creators Community, just as they’d opened mod applications. Joining their team was like receiving a giant welcome hug back into the Sims community! And when I showed them some of the miniatures I’d been making, they very kindly commissioned me to make one for their next giveaway. The response was so genuinely humbling and incredibly supportive. It turns out a lot of people want pet cowplants on their desk, so I made more. and more. and more! Each one is sculpted and hand painted – they’re all individually made with lots of love and care.
I still can’t believe the little cowplants are now all across the world, everywhere from Canada to Australia. Two of them were gifts for some of the incredibly lovely SimGurus at EA, who reached out to say hello after seeing some of my crafts! If you told little seven year old me that my art would be sitting in the sims studios, where they actually MAKE the game… I wouldn’t believe you. The gurus have no idea how much that meant to me!
It’s been a very exciting year so far and I’m even more excited for what’s to come. I can’t wait to work on more miniatures (and maybe some not-so-miniatures?) soon! And of course, I want to say a huge thank you to Alexis for inviting me to take part in this month’s community spotlight! It’s an honour and a pleasure, and something I definitely didn’t think I’d ever have the opportunity to do. Thank you so much!
Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CottoneeSocks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cottoneesocks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cottoneesocks/
