Duckpond Market

Well I did it! My first art/craft market! It was a great day, so friendly and some wonderful stalls. I had a bit of a crisis the night before when I realised that no table was provided, but with some creative improvisation I got around not having anything to use (thank you to Mr Roselullabydolls for stopping me from panicking for long enough to think something up!)

I sold 2 dolls and and plenty of postcards, there was also a lot of interest in my portrait dolls, I'm very glad I put together some literature to give to people about them.

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I didn't sell a single brooch though, which I was rather disappointed about, but I think I need to look at how I present them, I'm not sure that many people realised what they were, and I was so busy talking to everyone about portraits that I didn't explain them.

I'm really looking forward to next week up in Cambridge, and next month back at Duckpond!

Real life places to see my work!

So far, almost all my dolls have been sold online, but over the next couple of weeks I'm going to take part in my first ever art/craft markets!

This Sunday - 21st Feb - I'm going to be at Duckpond Market in Ruislip. I've visited this market a few times, and it's just gorgeous. Started up by a local woman last year it's turned in to a roaring success, with high quality arts and crafts, a farmers market, children's activities and lots of fun entertainers.

Then on Saturday 27th Feb I'll be up in Cambridge at the Made-it Market. This is a brand new event which is taking place in 'The Shop' which is a fabulous community art initiative.

Towards the end of March my work will be part of a group exhibition in a shop window in Camden, and there are other exhibitions coming up around Harrow and further afield.

So I'm very busy trying to get lots of dolls and doll brooches made!

It's a terrifying thing, putting your work that you put your heart into out there for all to see, but even more terrifying is sitting next to it and seeing everyone's reactions!

I've been putting a lot of thought into how I'm going to display my dolls, something which as a trained set designer should come very naturally, but most sets I've designed don't have to be transported on the bus and erected in half an hour!

Currently I'm planning on using two of the cardboard dolls houses I blogged about here as the main display areas for my dolls, but I need to think about how to show off my brooches, postcards, literature about custom 'portrait' dolls (which I still need to create!) , business cards, guest book and of course prices! I'm sure I'll make plenty of mistakes to learn from!

If any of you have wise words on the best and worst ways to display things at art/craft fairs then please pass them on!

If you want to be kept up to date with events my work will feature in then do sign up to my facebook fanpage.

Liberty's and dolls-houses

In a couple of weeks I'm going to be showing my dolls to some of the buyers for Liberty's of London, which is rather exciting and terrifying!
I spent an hour or so in there yesterday wandering around, I hadn't been in for a couple of years and had forgotten what an utterly gorgeous place it is. The fabric/yarn/haberdashery department was predictably the section I gravitated towards, and oh my the things I found there! Vintage glass jars full of beautiful fabric covered buttons, a yarn selection I just wanted to jump into and snuggle up in, a selection of ribbons and trimmings to die for and of course the fabric...Oh the fabric!
I umm-ed and ah-ed for quite some time but eventually settled on a couple of pieces of liberty tana lawn. This is one, the other is covered with line drawings of Elizabethan sailing ships.




I can't wait to use these fabrics to make some special Liberty dolls!

Today my cardboard dolls houses arrived, which I'm also thrilled with. I got them from Oxfam's January sale and they're just fabulous.




I'm going to cover them in ivory tissue paper and use them to display my dolls at exhibitions and shows. I have plans to create a whole village for my summer exhibition, with these as the 3 main houses filled with dolls going about their business, surrounded by lots of little houses with one or two dolls in and some fabric hills with trees on and dolls on swings hanging from their branches.
I've got a million ideas swimming around my head at the moment, I could just do with the time to realise all my plans!