Ketsy of Foraging for Fab has a lovely write-up on my shop here , Thank you Ketsy!

I was aiming for a crocus bulb but as my eight year old daughter pointed out she was definitely a garlic! and since I already had onion boy it seemed she was indeed destined to become Garlic Girl!! I’m loving making these new dolls, the ideas are flooding in but I will have to stop soon as there are other jobs waiting to get done!

Humpty Dumpty and Jessica Jane join Bitsy Boo in my line up of new dolls, I have a few more to complete then I’m moving on to some painting, small oils, small watercolours and some wooden egg cups for easter….then I want to make a few clay dolls!!! wow I feel tired already, so back to work.

Babiekins magazine has one of my Birdy dolls as a giveaway, check it out here

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.

The children and I have just returned from the cinema, the Muppets was great fun, plenty of nostalgic childhood memories for me, I was only slightly distracted by Kermit’s construction, I made a very similar puppet for a children’s TV series  and I couldn’t help scrutinizing the way  Kermit’s mouth moved  (this was a tricky area to make!)

I also completed my second little bunny doll today, I’m pleased with them and have several more to finish before I start listing them in my shop.

After the hair bands I had pocket dolls on my sketchbook list. Years ago I did little pocket dolls and knitted bears and I’ve thought ever since how to reinstate them in a way that’s relevant to my work now, I wanted a cloth version as knitting is not practical whilst I’m a one woman band. I messed about with a mock-up, trying out different fabrics and faces, my final doll has a mixed painted and embroidered face, this example is a bunny for easter. I’ve gone from square heads to square eyes!

Two of the children came back from their Dads yesterday, Sadie is travelling with him to Glasgow to visit her Grandmother. So the house is reasonably quiet, it’s amazing what a difference it makes just removing one child from the equation. I had worked flat-out over the weekend to get as much done as possible, my brainstorming session has left me with a long to do list!!

I have nearly finished my first batch of hair bands and started listing them on Etsy today. I also listed a couple of paintings. Once items are made and packaging decided upon I then start the marathon task of photographing it all. I cleared the top of a small chest of draws in the kitchen and added white paper, this is my best natural light source. Inspired in part by a box of little toys from my childhood I decided to set up miniature scenes for all my little accessories using these dolls house toys as props. I also persuaded Rosie to model for me, she was great although I had to work extremely fast as she was bored after about fifteen minutes!

So until the end of march there will be a selection of my work displayed in the Aspex Gallery in Portsmouth. They sent me some lovely photos to show me how it looks.