Brixton Village Market

I spent today making finger puppets with boys and girls of all ages at Brixton Village Market 

Brixvill is an amazing magical place, where gorgeous food and drink, fabulous clothes and art meet and melt together in a wonderful unpretentious, unselfconscious way. Something special happens every Saturday between 11am and 6pm, and on Thursday's there's now things happening until 9pm. 

The day ended with an alien, a disco mouse and an orange owl being created at my table while my 2 year old daughter danced to the accordian being played opposite. Fabulous.

And of course, if you'd like me to run a workshop or birthday party for you then just click here to email me!

Finger Puppets

available on etsy and folksy now!

A peek into my sketchbook

These are some charcters I've been doodling recently. I'm thinking of photoshopping scanned in liberty fabrics into more carefully worked versions of them, and maybe developing them for screenprinting...

What do you think? What would you like to have images like this on?

The Etsy 'do'

I had a fab time at the Etsy do at the Fashion and Textile Museum the other evening. I met lots of fab people, and was chatting so much I didn't take anywhere near as many photos as I planned to! It was really lovely to see Mary from Quite Contrary Crafts again, that's her fabulous hand cut card above. I first met Mary at the folksy Christmas do, there were other lovely folksy people there including Forever Foxed and Noisette with the mini noisette bump!

The fabulous sparkly crown pictured above is by Janine Basil. She makes awesome headpieces and fascinators, all sparkly and feminine, but they really pack a punch at the same time. I love them.

I was reunited with Heidi of Polkadots and Blooms. We spent half a day queuing together at the Liberty Open Call. It was lovely to see her again. Heidi makes pretty home wares and accessories using vintage fabrics.

Taking photo's of everyones work and dispensing photography advice was Heidi Adnum. She took some lovely pictures of my dolls, and very clearly knew her stuff. I was the last person who had their photo's taken, because I kept starting to chat to people while I was queuing and drifting away from the queue!

Other fabulous people there were Sannapanda,  Crocuss (who makes very pretty jewellery) and Etincelle Design (who makes really striking tribal inspired jewellery)

And the lovely girl who's owls are pictured above and didn't have a card...I've forgotten your shop name, do let me know so I can link to it!

The only disappointment of the evening was that I didn't get to take a box of wine home - unlike Mary!

Tilda

This is Tilda, she was named by Christell, one of my Facebook 'fans' (I do so dislike calling people that, but that is what facebook decrees them to be...Facebook followers, contacts, acquaintances, those are terms I much prefer...) I got so many brilliant suggestions for her name via facebook and twitter. It was REALLY hard to choose which to go for, I need to try and work out how to have a vote on here, so next time I can put up all the suggestions and you guys can vote for your favourite.

Anyway, I hope you like Tilda, I have a few more dolls lined up to list over the next few days, then we're away for Easter, and I have a show going up the week after (Pirates of Penzance at Wilton's Music Hall) so things may go a little quiet, but then I'll be back.

 I'm planning on trying to list an item a day throughout April. So I'll be making a number of smaller items and creatures to keep my puppet dolls company.

Black Haired Betty

I've just listed Betty on Etsy and Folksy. I really love her hair, and I'm so pleased with the photographs I've got of her, they really seem to capture her well - very thoughtful.

Today's listings

Daisy, the newest in my Liberty dolls collection is now available on Etsy and Folksy.

And Eleanor, who's development you've seen on this blog is now on Etsy and Folksy!

Thanks to Claire and talking beads for providing them with such pretty names.

The bunnies have a new eggy friend!

Easter Bunnies!

Available on Folksy and Etsy now! More coming soon in other gorgeous Liberty's fabrics. I love Liberty fabrics!

and now she has hair and a mouth too!

She still needs a name, so if you have any ideas then do let me know!

She's getting there....

She still needs hair and a mouth, but she's getting there!

Work in progress.

I've been playing around with lots of new ideas recently, and this is one of the results of that. She's very much a work in progress as you can see. I haven't even given her any skin yet, this is just her basic shape constructed from masking tape and bamboo. I think this style of doll could make lovely christmas angels (yes I'm thinking about Christmas already!) This young lady isn't going to be an angel though, I shall post some more pictures of her as she develops in the next few days. Do please tell me what you think about this new style of doll by leaving a comment below!

and the winner is..................

Congratulations!

Blog Giveaway!

Hello all! My blog now has 99 followers... very exciting! to celebrate, and push on into 3 figures I'm going to have a giveaway.

So if you'd like to be the recipient of a brooch made with the hairstyle of your choice then follow my blog and my facebook page and leave a comment on this post saying what hairstyle you'd like!

You can request any hairstyle, any hair colour, male or female,  curly or straight, even bald!

You have until Friday 12th at 17.00 UK time. The winner will be announced on the 13th here and on facebook, and your brooch will be with you in good time for Mother's Day!

Good Luck!

Brooches

My new range of brooches! I'll be listing them on etsy and folksy soon, and I'll be doing custom ones, so if you want one with a particular hair style, or even a portrait brooch then do get in touch. They are crafted in the same way as my puppet dolls, so each is one of a kind. They are backed with hard wearing fabric on to which a 1" brooch pin has been hand stitched. You might recognise the fabric, it's what Ingrid's skirt was made from!

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!