About Us

The Story of CLAYGUY.COM

CLAYGUY.COM is the business name used by sculptor Barry Crawford for his unique character sculptures. Each piece is hand-made at Barry's suburban Chicago home. Barry has been selling his sculptures since 1992.

As a kid growing up in the 60s, Barry had a collection of Aurora plastic model kits of the Universal Studios Famous Monsters. As the years went on, Barry's interests in sculpting and model-making grew. In 1989 Barry started creating his own sculpted figures using Sculpey Modeling compound. The first two figures he made were Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker from the Tim Burton film. The third figure he made proved to be a turning point for him. Barry's sculpture of Freddy Krueger helped him recall his childhood collection of monster model kits. Barry started sculpting horror characters almost exclusively from that point.

Managing a video store had its advantages and Barry had access to hundreds of horror titles, old and new. The collection grew quickly and Barry proudly showed any new additions to family and friends.

Halloween weekend 92 was Barry's first public exhibition and sales effort. Using his personal collection of figures for display, Barry took orders for 17 sculptures that weekend. Within the next 13 years, Barry appeared at over 100 weekend conventions coast-to-coast. Because everyone has personal favorites, a great many of the figures sold have been one-of-a-kind special orders. These have included classic film stars (Bogart, John Wayne, Clark Gable), musical performers (Beatles, KISS, Madonna), Scream Queens, action film stars, non-celebrities like family members and pets. And, of course, many horror film characters. (PLEASE NOTE: Due to time restrictions, SPECIAL ORDERS are NO LONGER AVAILABLE).

Each character sculpture starts with the same basic steps. First, a sketch is made showing the pose and costume details of the character. A basic armature is made out of toothpicks and wire. The sculpture is then completed by fleshing out the figure and adding surface details to the feet, then legs, and torso. The head and arms are sculpted last.

Barry's most popular sculptures are available as resin cast duplicates of his original work. To make a resin duplicate of one of his figures, Barry makes a rubber mold of his original sculpture. Then, a liquid plastic, or resin is poured into the mold. The resin solidifies within a few minutes, and when removed from the mold, is a duplicate figure, almost identical to the original. More than 90 characters are available as resin cast figures, including: Pinhead, Spider-man, Frankenstein and Edward Scissorhands.

Barry continues to attend more and more conventions, concentrating on regions and cities he hasn't been before. So, if you have a favorite character from movies, TV, comics; chances are it's available at www.clayguy.com Write or e-mail Barry at CLAYGUY.COM, P. O. Box 193, Streamwood, IL 60107-0193. barrycrawford1@juno.com