Needle felting news

Introducing three circus friends, wee darlings sitting four inches tall. Custard the Clown. (*SOLD*).

Dear little Santa, my Christmas dog - *SOLD* to my amazing furniture painting friend.

Crystal - now *SOLD* (Thank you!)

I was going to be absolutely silent about my two week 'disappearance', but as I was devouring the new and oh-so-beautiful 'Mollie Makes', my heart skipped a beat. Look - under the 'make it' section - click for a larger look. Ooh! That's me, that is, listed in the next issue with my first ever 'making' article. Golly. (That's not me pictured looking slim and glam on the bed though, sadly).

Finally but not least, for anyone living in the Cotswolds/Cheltenham area, I am making two appearances at the Winchcombe Wool Festival. Like most of the Cotswolds, the town was 'built on wool', the earliest record of this being from 796, yes, 796, before the Norman Conquest of 1066) and my friend Katie B Morgan has written the most interesting article about the town and the festival, which, if you love history, heritage, the Cotswolds and craft, is a must-read.

Rams in the Cotswold Hills, resting after a busy season

I'll be demonstrating needle felting at the Winds of Change gallery from 11am till 4.30, on April 14th and later in the month holding a 'Make a Sheep' workshop, on April 27th from 11am till 4.30. Spaces are limited to just seven, and I think one is gone already. We'll be making a needle felted sheep with British wool and there will be a prize for the best sheep, of a family ticket to Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park (of Countryfile fame), which is just up the road from Winchcombe. Price for the workshop includes materials and lunch. And my undivided attention, of course. Contact Jane at the Gallery for prices and availability.

Click on poster for more detailed image

Talking of winds of change, it looks as we are finally moving to pastures new - in fact, a whole new county. For the first time in many years, I am not planting spring seeds.

Headless Hare

Happily, this doesn't happen very often, but occasionally I get halfway through a piece and realise that it is wrong to my original intention. As with this pre-ordered hare, Willow. Yesterday I realised that her arms were going to be too long for her body; cutting the arms down, as I did, didn't help. She needed more neck length. She was looking too tubby anyway - more like a rabbit than a hare. Only one thing to do...find the big scissors...

(If you are Janet of the Empty Nest, you might want to look away now...)

Cut off her head. It gives me a rare chance to look at cross section of one of my toys and see how densely it's been worked.

So the neck extending begins.

Once the wool is taking shape, I can hold the head on with a spare felting needle so that I can work on her more easily, in my hands.

About two hours after I cut her up, she is looking much better, but the joins are still weak and obviously showing.

So I tightly wrap some braces round the weak areas and needle them firmly -

- then carry on patching and smoothing. I also added more at her back, so that she didn't look too oddly tall.

After about five hours, I have a shape I am happy with and pop some black headed pins in her, so that we can say hello at last. Her proper glass eyes will be added later, but I like to have my toys looking at me while I work on them, so pins will do for now.

Much better - see the improvement? (You can look again now Janet).

Three Little Maids

It's that time of year when I deliver my contribution to the yearly Teddy Bears of Witney catalogue.

Only one edition this year, and a bit different to my usual style. I thought it would be nice to have a basic kitten design and call them after sweets, depending on what colours they were.

So this is 'Sherbert Lemon', always my favourite sweet. The design seemed faintly familiar and at first I was worried that I'd inadvertently plagarised the ubiquitous 'Hello Kitty'. (Which of course, I would never do, having quite strict morals about that kind of thing).

Then I traced it back to a toy painting I did back in 2006, 'Koko With Checks' thinking at the time what fun it would be to actually make this in real life.

A little later I used the basic shape again for a Christmas card, 'Angel Cat'.

And then I dug deeper, linking all this to some little Japanese dolls which I picked up for pennies when I was about 16-17. I'm so used to them that I'd almost forgotten about them, but they've obviously lurked in my creative subconscious.

I didn't know until a few days ago that they are Kokeshi dolls and are MASSIVE! Not in size, but in popularity and collectiblility. One is quite old and has a single baby doll inside her. She is my favourite. Or maybe he?

The other two also vintage, but more recent and have two nesting dolls inside. None of them are signed and I'm certain that they are simply mass market items, not the really valuable artist kokeshi.

My own 'Kokeshi Kittens' also have heavy, wobbling, heads and are a devil to stand upright. But they do, with a little care. Just.

Teeny Tiny Toadstools

A new line! Teeny Tiny Toadstools - they do exactly what they say on the box, as it were. Looking rather quaint against this gorgeous vintage fungi book which my friend the lovely Emma sent me last year as an unexpected birthday present.

They are teeny.

They are tiny. (Or at least, very small, but that doesn't trip off the tongue as easily).

And, they *only* take a day or so to make. So I can sell them for less than my larger toy creatures.

Two were snapped up at once. There was one left until this morning. Not any more.

I was really touched by the lovely comments left after my last pity-me blog post; what a sweet company of readers I have. I really am more thick skinned than I appear and was soon back on my feet, if a little tired. It's been a funny old year and I seem to have done a lot of organising for one thing or another. So Andy whisked me off for a reviving mini-break in gorgeous Shropshire, to look at old churches, stunning landscapes and to check out the house prices...

My first stall

Another week of getting my head down and getting on with things - this seems like a long time ago now, but it was only last Sunday that I was taxie'd off to Witney at an unholy hour, to set up stall at the Teddy Bears of Witney 25th birthday party. The team had been setting up the previous day and there were bears and bear-o-memorabilia stacked high.

My little stall was tucked away in a corner, where I could have my back to the wall. I had a couple of hours to sort myself out. The last three of my animals which were brought by the shop last year were waiting to go on display. Nice to see them again.

I set to work and soon had it feeling more like home.

I rigged up an old notice board with a few sketches, and various gubbins pinned to it, including a rare photo of me when I was four, with some of my old toys.

Me looking rather scruffy in my hand me downs and hair cut by dad. I still have a few of these old timers and they came with me to have a special day out.

My precious teddy, Pooh (falling apart now and moth eaten) and little Rupert bear, a bit battle worn and missing an eye. Maisie, who looks a fright but has always been beautiful to me. They sat in the corner, looking after me as they always have done.

My new card rack - I've never seen all my cards together like this and was so pleased at how well they looked. I didn't have any felt animals for sale but I do have a few 'keepers' to show. I'd also spent a whole day archiving about 150 photo prints which I was still assembling when the doors opened and 400 invited guests streamed into the hall intent on bear buying and bear cuddling.

Also out for display, my Moleskine sketchbook, free cards, some merino samples and my felting gear.

The red Japanese bondage rope I found on eBay was just the thing, and I pegged photos to it with rather gaudy plastic pegs which were all I could find at the last minute. It looked a bit like a village fete stall, but it would do. After that the day went by in a blur - several people came over specially to say hello as they had either bought my animals from the last catalogue, or my cards from the shop. It was a bit odd to be greeted by people who already knew of me, but I had never met - I spend 90% of my life in my studio, yet the popularity of the Teddy Bear catalogue has brought me and my work into homes around the world.

They enjoyed looking through my sketchbook and photos, they bought cards and were kind about my artworks. When I started demonstrating I drew quite a crowd of onlookers. I started work on one of the limited editions which will be in the 2010 catalogue. People were intrigued; needle felting is still a little known craft in the UK and I hope I encouraged a few more to try their hand at it.

For several hours I talked and explained until I was losing my voice and was supplied with cups of tea all afternoon. I met some wonderful, lovely people, including a lady who, after admiring my work, asked me if I'd thought of joining the British Toymakers Guild. I replied that I had, but hadn't got round to it and was a bit worried about the selection process. (You have to send in examples of work to be admitted). I almost choked when she reassured me, saying that she was the Chairman of the Guild and was certain I'd get in. So that's next on my list of *to-do's*. As well as learning to drive, so that I can get to the shows!

My first stall - a bit of a jumble sale, completely exhausting and so many nice people. All in all a day to remember.