Our September meeting featured guest speaker Walt Rapacz, the National Sales Manager for Walt Disney Art Classics. Walt lives right here in the Minneapolis area, but works regularly with the creative and marketing team in Burbank. His special presentation included how the special collector's pieces are created, and videos that show how it is done. The meeting was at the Rockford Library in Crystal, MN.

Walt brought a WDAC sales kit that has pieces showing how the special artworks are created. This is a picture of the finished Dopey piece, which stands about 6" tall on it's base. WDAC pieces quite often feature special elements that aren't often found on other fine porcelain collectibles. This one has a real brass cymbal, attached to Dopey's hand with a small leather strap. And it rings!

A piece will typically go through 5 stages of creation. 1. Individually cast parts 2. The assembled figure, in white. (2nd from left) 3. The assembled figure, glazed and fired in white. (3rd from left) 4. Hand painted figurine (left most) 5. Fired and final attachments. Complete! (right most)

Any single piece is really made up of an assembly of individual parts. Each of these parts is cast separately. They are assembled with a porcelain glue that essentially results in a single, final piece. This method allows a fine, collectible work to be created and yet keep the price within reach.

Roxy and Walt. Roxy met Walt at a recent WDAC convention, and they became friends. ------------------------- DID YOU KNOW? If you're going to have a limited edition of 2000 pieces -- you have to create as many as 3000! This is to account for attrition during the manufacturing process and shipping. Things can break along the way! But no matter how many are made, ONLY the published limited edition count are ever sold. Any that may remain beyond the limited edition count are eventually destroyed!