Toy books and glass dogs

Are these not adorable? Beautifully ugly glass bauble dogs; they are a wonderful gift from my extraordinarily talented friend and cartoonist Chichi Parish, one of the wittiest, most delightful people I know. They are from this year's Paperchase range and I think Chichi knew that although I love them, I would never venture into a large town to actually buy my very own. Thank you so much, Chichi - they have been keeping me company this long, wet Friday while I have been treating myself to a browse of my toy making book collection.

I've been picking these up for a couple of years now, but sadly my pattern making has not improved. It's so much easier to pick up a felting needle and stab a wodge of merino into shape. However they are full of useful tips and one in particular is my favourite, as I used to own a copy when I was about seven years old. I was just starting to sew doll's clothes and make things when I found a copy of 'Toys for Your Delight' at a jumble sale and it soon became on of my best loved books. Seen here open with the photo of the extravagantly embroidered felt dragon.


The projects then (and now) were way beyond my meagre talents, but true to form, I always aspired to make the most difficult thing - the dragon. Sadly my first copy was *disposed* of, along with most of my other books and treasures, by people who were supposed to be looking after them when my parents died.

I have longed to find it again and found it last year on ebay - as soon as I saw this plate I knew I'd struck gold - it is so good to have it again, even though my sewing skills are still not up to making this chap.

I am not one for reading a reference book from cover to cover - I prefer to dip and dive into my favourite ones.

They range from 1920's/30s editions up to the early 1980's and show that there is nothing new under the sun. Things come around and come around - I know that there is often much fretting about whether making such and such, one will be seen as copying - but there are only so many ways of making, for instance, giraffes...

...or dear little birds with wire legs...

...in fact looking through them is a rather like looking at an Etsy front page treasury of softies. Which is not to say that everyone is copying, but doing what artists and crafters have been doing for centuries - adopting and adapting. Owls, mushrooms, birds in cages, matryoshka dolls, little houses, fish - they have their trends in the ebb and flow of crafting and design.


But it's hard not to get hung up about making things - a couple of years ago I held off making a shoal of stuffed fish, fearing that as there are so many variations on this, I'd be accused of stealing ideas. But here we are circa 1957, a Christmas decoration idea of - a shoal of felt fish.


So I think I will make some little textile birds with wire legs, as they seem to be part of a time honoured toy making tradition. Maybe I'll even be able to do my own take on them. By the way, there are many toy makers that I admire hugely who stamp their own personality all over their work; here are just a few;

Tamar Morgendoff

Abby Glassenberg

Abigail Brown

Kit Lane

Mimi Kirchner

Cary Walker

Anne Wood

Vriad Lee

Ashley Anna Brown

Astulabee

Just a few, mind!

I was terribly pleased to be featured along with other great UK needle felters on the UK Handmade blog - needle felting is still a fledgling craft over here, so we need to spread the good word of stabbing little bits of wool.