Painted wood

 

So this week I am trying to finish all my painted wood projects, some lovely decorative wooden spoons and standing wood peg dolls, I’ve been playing around with ideas of how to display these little dolls and am developing some little flags and banners, the idea being that you get a choice of flags for different celebrations or you could make your own. The dolls would then make lovely table decorations or even cake topper’s and when not in use they can decorate a shelf or sideboard with a patterned flag. I’m still working out the little flags and I imagine it will be another week before these are available in my shop. The spoons are purely decorative, maybe with a tag attached for personal messages. The last three photos are of little kokeshi dolls with bunny ears, they are available here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Large Oshi doll, kittens and puppies

New large Oshi doll, she is slightly smaller than a Molly Dolly and is for display. Her clothes are fixed and decorated with hand embroidery, beads, silk and felt flowers. Her body and hair are linen, her dress is raw edged cotton and muslin. Below you can see her sitting with a little Oshi bunny and some new puppies and kittens made from linen and silk. Inspiration comes from Japanese kokoshi dolls, wooden peg dolls and primitive cloth dolls. 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy valentine

 

I am working with clay this week as the children are at home and it’s easier to work on a smaller scale, I’ve also got pages of sketches that have waited to be transformed into little clay creatures. These are an extension of the shrink plastic and painted paper clay jewellery that I am working on as well. I have some lovely polymer clay colours that I wanted to work with, I didn’t want to use paint and am experimenting with drawn features. Above is a little valentine love bug. Below are some of the first little characters I made, love bugs, an easter bunny bunbun, a scarlet house mouse and Burgers a moose mouse.

 

 

 

I have also made some magic bean necklaces below, the last image is a close up of Burgers the moose mouse.

 

 

A Dachshund called Gus

 

Today a little Dachshund called Gus has arrived in my shop, he is made from black linen, wool felt and velveteen. Finished off with a dashing red leather collar and cool plastic bead necklace.

 

 

A Fox

This lovely fox joins the white puppy and little rainbow pony in my shop today. She is made from linen with lovely details including a wool felt collar with a bell and beautiful sea green recycled glass bead. I am loving these new animal dolls! it is a lot of fun adding all the little details. Watch this space as more animals are on their way!

 

 

My 2013 so far

I’ve ignored my blog for a while!! not intentionally, I have just been so busy through January. So here is some of what I have done, lots of new designs  and ideas on the work table with some older designs reinstated with a few little improvements. Above is a mini rainbow pony and mini molly dolly bear, below are some knitted pocket animals, I used to make these a couple of years ago and have waited for an opportunity to revise the pattern and add them to my shop.

Above is a lovely new Molly Dolly with a linen and Liberty tana lawn dress and little felt fox purse. Below are a couple of new yoyo baby dolls available here. And a lovely Molly Dolly mouse in knitted pants and vintage cotton top.

The white linen puppy and rainbow pony were just completed today and will be in my Etsy shop soon. I love adding just enough kitsch details, like flourescent bling, rainbow hair and cartoon like features to contrast nicely with the linen, hand stitching and vintage cloths. I’m also working up a lot of jewellery samples, some painted clay, some shrink plastic drawings and some leather and cloth wrist bands. The last couple of photos show me half way through sorting out my workspace, with Ikea shelves and boxes, still a lot to do but it’s looking better organised already! so I hope your new year has got off to a swinging start as well, I’ve got to get back to work now, see you soon.

Penelope Floss is finished

Hand painted cloth doll Penelope Floss is complete and available here. I added her own strange little rag doll, I wanted the little doll to have a primitive rag doll feel, a childhood favourite in a mishmash of outfits. Penelope has a paper boat hat made from a vintage book and a wrap around cotton jacket printed with a delicate water-colour design from one of my paintings, she also wears red velvet ballet shoes.

 

 

 

Molly Dolly hand puppet

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I had lots of fun making this little hand puppet, it was lovely to animate one of my dolls, making her talk and move around. She has the Molly dolly features and is about 12″ tall, made from a lovely piece of vintage cotton. She is called Blossom.

Mushrooms or Toadstools

As well as the Halloween items I’m making up other Autumn stock for my shop, including some lovely mushrooms in different sizes. Made from linen and cotton they have a variety of faces that are similar in character to my Molly Dollies and my woodland hoots who will also be re-appearing for Autumn. I will be listing mushrooms over the next few days here.

Sugar skull softies

Two little sugar skull skeletons completed and in my shop. they are about 5″ tall made from white linen and hand embroidered. I think they look lovely and am very pleased to be getting some of my Halloween creations finished. Still lots more to do.