Mr Kettley

This is Mr Kettley. He is getting old now but he is still one of my favourite pieces. His head is made from an old plastic electric kettle, his body is cloth over wire armature and his features are painted in oil paint. His mouth is a collage of fish.

When our kettle died I looked at this large lump of stuff that was only fit for landfill and my heart sank, what a waste! Since Mr Kettley I have collected other dead plastic kettles with the intention of turning them into something other than terrible waste. When I have time I shall show more results.



The Doiley Birds have their own blog

They've done it, they've started their own blog:
http://thedoileybirdsblog.blogspot.com/

caravan under construction

Just the right sized box for frouf slim dolls to go adventuring in.

Doiley Birds' Caravan

While I was walking the dogs in the Pine Forest yesterday I realised that what the Doiley Birds needed most of all was a gypsy caravan to have adventures in. I knew I had the perfect box.

This is Tilly, she is the first Doiley Bird and she is the one helping me build the caravan. We had thought it should keep its cardboard box origins showing but have since decided a real, brightly painted caravan would be even better.

The Doiley Birds are going to launch their own blog very soon and will post photos of their journey as well as telling about their daring exploits.

Sculpture and puppets

Here is another experiment. This is a doll that is for a more grown up audience. I am looking at the cloth form as sculpture and also as puppetry. This poor girl is still waiting body parts and clothes and some beautiful, intricate tatoos.

Unfortunatley a couple of lovely comments about my other latest dolls got lost in the recent Blogger problem. I'd love those people to try to leave them again as all such things mean a lot to me and my humble blog. I also wanted to make a comment on the sock hair question.

New Dolls

This is a sneak preview at my latest dolls. These were designed with the desire to make a simple play doll that would appeal to the child and the adult. I have knitted the hair on two of them and the other two have sock hair. I'm thinking of calling them Doiley Birds because their clothes are made from recycled materials including doilies from the op shop.

I want them to have a wardrobe of clothes that can be ordered a piece at a time, accessories and a carry case.

PhD proposal successful

Yes! At last I've had word that my proposal to do a PhD at the University of New England (Australia) is successful. I have been waiting and waiting to see if I have to restructure my plans for the year. The doctorate will be in an area called Creative Practice and it differs from many PhDs in that you aren't limited to writing a thesis (though that does form a part of it). I am going to write a novel for young adults.

My career is forming beautifully. I began with designing and writing a knitting book, then another and now I have four of them under my belt and three non-fiction, text heavy books (meaning that they are more full of words than anything else).

Having finished the 80,000 word text for the first of these, Textiles: a history for Remember When, imprint of UK publisher Pen & Sword, I realised that I could do it. And that was when I began my plans for putting in the PhD proposal.

It is wonderful watching these dreams come true. It is not a miracle, it is not luck (though it helps to have a sprinkling), it all comes down to hard work and determination. I guess for me the biggest lucky break was making contact with Isabel Atherton of Creative Authors, UK www.creativeauthors.co.uk. She runs a boutique literacy agency and she liked my work (the knitted dolls).

From there it was a matter of building a friendship and a strong working relationship, trusting my agent and following her always excellent advice.

Now, my plans are to become a full time writer, illustrator, artist and toy maker (with my own toy shop called Granny Fi's Toy Cupboard). Let's hope money soon rains down on me to buy me the time to achieve these things.