Pharaoh’s Workshop is Arthouse tabletop creation
Hi there, we are Sebastian & Mavis and run this small but fine workshop. Pharaoh’s Workshop is a studio based in northern Germany and partly also operated from Thailand and New Zealand. We are committed to the creation of high quality 3D printable STL files especially in post-apocalyptic, modern and cyberpunk settings. Sounds simple and casual. No, it’s not – Let us explain.
Many creators out there would describe themselves as creators, STL creators or game designers for tabletop games. You won’t believe how long we have thought about what we are actually doing here and how we should „classify“ that. We were not able to find our style among those descriptions for years and we were not able to find our values and interests reflected in any of those „drawers“. But we found them in arthouse movies. In arthouse, philosophy and atmosphere are everything. This is one of the most meaningful parts for us in our work – creating scenes and worlds that look and feel like they are really going to soak you in.
We take a bow – Welcome to Pharaoh’s Workshop, welcome to the show, welcome to ArtHouse tabletop creation and composition.
Actually we are just doing art – Soaking in and experiencing what happens around us and even far away from us and transforming those impressions into something new, telling a story and trying to make people think and reflect. To give our art form, we design and compose. Our medium are tabletop and rp games and we are working on them in a quite cinematic approach.
Homebrew
You can almost call it a family activity. Idea, concept, modelling, painting, writing and world creation is done by Sebastian in first instance. His wife Mavis is doing mainly photography and video. While Sebastian is working full time on Pharaoh’s Workshop, Mavis is a media artist and digital art therapist (mostly music). She is playing out her fantastic skills as soon as the moment for each project comes, to bring things alive.
Who are we?
Sebastian
I´m in touch with RPG-, board- and computer games since early childhood and always loved to create new worlds, characters and stories. But I guess my first big love was LEGO, where I could construct, play and tell stories with. Much later I started to get deeply into the acts of drawing, painting and digital modeling, to be able to express my own visions.
After finishing my studies in economics and following a classic academic career for 6 years, I felt that everything was quite stable, but there was something in the back of my mind that told me „This can’t be it, this is not how I want to live my life“. But I needed a kick to give up that convinient, easy and somewhat safe lifestyle. This kick came in terms of a very serious sickness in my early thirties. While mastering it, I had what I would call my personal awakening and I began to ask questions and to act differently. I understood that time is limited, we never know how much we would have and I would regret not having gone „my way“ later on. I did not want to go on living my life this way, not doing what I love every day, sitting in a golden cage just because it was the easiest approach and comfortable for me. And safety? This sickness told me that real and full safety actually does not exist at all. So, instead I wanted to be free and self-determined, no matter what. I quit my former job as a university lecturer and enthusiastically began to do professionally what I’m living for – finally founding my first studio Awake Arts, which later became Pharaoh’s Workshop. You can imagine, in the beginning this was a very difficult and rocky road to walk with a lot of sleepless and worryful nights. But it was worth undertaking this trek. Ever since my head is almost exploding with ideas and wishes about what I still want to do and create and now I’m at a point where stability is back and I feel free. After being married in Hongkong and integrated into Cantonese culture, this characteristic formed my Cantonese first name literally meaning „Freely traveling bus full of wishes and ideas“, chosen and given by my wife and Cantonese friends. It became my signature, also visible in the logo, appearing in turquoise color. Today, depending on season and mood, we live and work in Germany, South East Asia and New Zealand.
Being a culture and landscape, as well as history and fairytale lover, my art approach is highly influenced by frequently made travel and backpacking experiences and of course other authors, film makers/directors and artists – Hironobu Sakaguchi (Japan), J.R.R. Tolkien (* South Africa), Peter Jackson (New Zealand), John Carpenter (USA), George R.R. Martin (USA) Rola Chang (Taiwan), Yoshitaka Amano (Japan), H.R. Giger (Switzerland), Ridley Scott (UK), James Gurney (USA), William Gibson (USA), Quentin Tarantino (USA), Robert Rodriguez (USA), Steven Spielberg (USA) and Masamune Shirow (Japan), just to name a few. Great inspiration also comes through music, e.g. Dream Theater, Naked and the Famous, Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Iron Maiden, Rammstein and many others are my choice these days.
Mavis
I’m a media artist and design consultant, originally from Hong Kong. At the same time I’m also pursuing to add alternative digital media therapy (mostly music) to my profile. 8 years ago I came to study my Master abroad in Germany and never left again.
My work has been exhibited and performed mostly in Bremen, London and Hong Kong. It attempts to reveal a delicate sense of „introversive“ emotion which reflects the situation of the personal identities being confronted by an immersive ideological ecology carried by contemporary trans-human interaction. Sounds complex – yes, it is :).
During the past time I also became more and more active at Pharaohs Workshop, now mainly caring about everything that is photography and video. But I also get involved in how our projects should feel like and in which way they discuss the topics which they are about.