I’m really enjoying putting together these dolls, ideas can hang around in my sketch books for months before that last ping of inspiration pulls the whole together, with these dolls it was partly reducing the size but mostly just relaxing into the idea of combining materials, so I brought paint and embroidery together to create the faces with no set formula except that each face should take on the combination of mediums best suited to it. I’ve looked at lots of vintage cartoon faces, some animated, some illustrated, others on strange kitsch china or odd-looking dolls for the 1920s to the 1970s, the internet is amazing for this kind of research. I’ve also been looking at my wonderful book ‘Toys of the Avant garde’ I love the  modernist geometric look to a lot of the toys which were largely produced by Artists trying to make a living along side their painting or sculpture, I think this also gives a lot of the work a raw vibrancy, it’s not necessarily about very polished techniques or slick final products.

Todays additions are a little mouse inspired by Micky & Minnie with a little 1920s showgirl or circus performer. A cloudberry doll, his head is always in the clouds and he is always smiling and a little girl doll inspired by the wonderful Betty Boop.