Babes in the Wool

Nearly Christmas! I've been getting beautiful photos of babes made from my Babes in the Wool book. I have to share them, they are wonderful.

This gorgeous lady is made by Georgia Piotter who has also sewn her a red satin vampire dress in which she looks stunning.

This sweety was made by Karen Zorn. I love the short, pixie hair style.

This beauty is one of the first I saw and was made by the talented Pamela Atherton who has gone on and made several of the dolls. I shall post them soon.

And this morning I received this fun girl from Martyna Kunkel from Poland! I am so glad to see her wearing something warm. In Australia we are supposed to have lovely hot summers but it nearly snowed yesterday!

I want to see lots more photos of your creations, this is my best Christmas present ever!

The second day of summer

Four drawings for an online publication called New Fairy Tales: www.newfairytales.co.uk
Great fun to do, I hope they ask me again.

November is upon us

Here are some pen sketches I have done for a proposed book about Emily and Angus who have to go live with Aunt Adelaide. Her house and furniture are far from ordinary and they may well be sinister. The above picture is of a fairy in a glass dome.

This illustration is a bit of a ring in. It is the toy shop of William La Motte who dies in mysterious circumstances. It is a ring in because it actually belongs to another story

entirely .
Emily and Angus in the library doorway.

Aunt Adelaide's favourite chair.

And this is the aunt herself, is there something a little strange about her?

Etsy shop has one item

My Etsy shop is called 123fionadolls.

I've listed something on Etsy. I'm offering customised versions of my Babes. I've got some other ideas going too. Have just finished this for Isabel:

It's a pea pearls brooch.

Etsy shop and Knitted Queen Anne Style dolls

I've decided to start an Etsy shop. I'm not sure what I'll put in it but some of it will be dolls and dragons. Like everything it will need to be organised: my downfall. I shall link the blog to the shop and keep people informed of new stuff in the shop.

I have been looking at some wonderful things on other people's blogs and in their shops, so inspiring!

At the moment I am in love with Queen Anne style dolls from several centuries ago. There seems to be a resurgance of interest in them and some people are making gorgeous replicas or modern takes on them.

To join in I am busy designing a knitted version, no one else seems to be doing that.

This is my first attempt , the poor naked thing. I think I will dress her in fabric clothes rather than knitted.

I am now making a second version who will be dressed in black as she is in mourning. I will post her up when she is ready along with this lady when she has some finery on.

Izannah Walker style cloth dolls

I have also been looking at some cloth dolls I did some time ago. They are painted to look like early cloth dolls, Izannah Walker inspired dolls. Izannah was a 19th centruy cloth doll maker in America. She patented her dolls I believe.

Still October

More pictures:
Anime boy

Two cloth boudoir girls, getting pretty old now, want to do some more though.

I used to do a lot of dragons.

Gothic girl in tricorn hat

October already

Where has the time gone? Too much to do.

Have finished the manuscript for Textiles: a history to be published next year by Pen & Sword, or rather their imprint, Remember When.

Have sent off my sample knitted vampire to Search Press (got to keep her under wraps). Knitted Fairies has been proofed, can't wait for it to come out, the pictures are beautiful.

Gorgeous, isn't she?

What else have I been doing? Oh yes, I am putting in a proposal to do do a PhD in Creative Practise at UNE, Armidale. I'm so excited about this, hope the idea is accepted. Waiting for more feed back and that is always a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

Drawings: another pen drawing in progress:

Pen Drawings

Here is a doodle in progress. I love playing, fiddling with things when I'm listening or talking. I find it hard for my fingers to do nothing. I thought I would experiement with doodling. I saw some wonderful examples on You tube. Perhaps I will do a how-to-doodle book.

I have been doodling with pen. I overworked this one. It was going so well until I put in the fighting cats. Still I have ideas for it. Perhaps I will do another drawing that can sit in front of this, cut down so it is like stage sets. Still thinking about it. Do love doing this kind of work. Therapeutic.

Book Launch

I know, I know, I should have put the invitation up BEFORE the launch. However, there was a

fantastic turn out, the gallery was packed. Thank you everyone who came and celebrated the launch of my first two books. Let's hope there are many more to come.

Catch up post

Time for some new things to show and tell. Below are some illustrations I did for a book poroposal put together by my daughter for a cookbook of Nursery Rhyme treats.
I really enjoyed working in the black and white medium.

Going through some old folios the other day I found a pen drawing of Little Red Riding Hood and an ancient one of Goblin Market.

Enjoy.

Babes in the Wool

Babes in the Wool, my first craft title, will be released in May this year. I am so thrilled with the look of it. I can't believe I made those gorgeous creatures.
Search Press, UK, have my knitted fairies book as coming out in April and my Aliens in June.

Babes is listed on Amazon and Creative Authors (my literary agents: www.creativeauthors.co.uk ) has links to it.

Softy Dolls

Recycled teddys made from my favourite old jeans and a jackal doll with wings. The jackals proved better sellers than the funky girls below. The girls were an attempt to break out of my usual thinking and produce something in keeping with the latest trends.