Needle felt round up

Despite all the various shenanigans which we are putting ourselves through, work still goes on. The first thing I finished in Shropshire was a commission from one of my regular collectors  who wanted a copy of 'Kitty Blue' from my book, 'Mrs Mouse's Cupcakes'. 

She is not 100% the same as the original but as near as I could get her. I know which is which.

I'm doing a lot of repeat designs at the moment and sometimes I need to try a new design.  I have wanted to make a red squirrel for ages.

Betsy sold at once and made her way to America where she is making my friend Janet very happy, I believe.

I've also just finished several doglet orders  - Claudette, who is a copy of one of the first doglets  from my Mollie Makes pattern. (as the originals are all sold now).

Also, a larger clown version of the Mollie Makes doglets, who has gone over the border to nearby Wales.

Henri, one of the original magazine doglets was snapped up by a French lady who runs an online boutique shop.  So he has gone to his spiritual home, accompanied by a specially commissioned girl-friend, Henriette.

She composed this sweet montage of the two 'H's' on her copy of the Mollie Makes issue, many thanks for letting me use this, Savine!

Although I can't really arrange full workshops at the moment, I had a special all day one-to-one session with a lovely needle felter, Jackelien from Holland. No, she didn't come all that way just to see me, but I am flattered that she wanted to spend the day learning techniques from me in the middle of her family holiday. She bought Dutch treats in a pretty tin - I am now addicted to the liquorice chalk sweets. I've had to hide the bag from myself.  The kilner jar is not full of sweets, but little wax shapes  - it's an outdoor candle which I am hoping to light in our new back garden.

 Apart from working on finishing off techniques and fine shaping, we made funny little houses. It was a really lovely day, we talked our heads off  and by the end of it, I felt sure that I had made a new friend. (Her version of the day can be found on her blog here - lots of pictures if you don't speak Dutch, including one of me which makes me realise I have to start running again!)

Talking of little houses, we are now hopeful that we may be properly settled soon - in the precarious world of  house buying nothing is ever certain, but we are quietly hopeful. 

'We are Siamese'

One of this month's completed orders.

 

 Isobel and Phoebe  - best friends forever.

 

Pheebs and Izzy to their friends.

See you ducky!

January seems to have been sucked into a black hole - as I write, I am finally organised for my first (two day) needle felting workshop in Bath and will be away for three days; I'm feeling homesick already. As the trip must be done by bus and train, I am packing two rucksacks full of supplies and hoping it won't be too heavy. My nine pupils will spend the first day making this little duck, designed especially for the session, and I am expecting them to bring some prep work for their own designs, which I'll be helping them with - should they need help - on the second day. It will be a learning curve for all of us, and hopefully jolly good fun. See you on the other side, duckies!

Double cupcakes

My last order before that thing called Christmas was for a set of the cupcakes which appear in 'Mrs Mouse's Cupcakes' - and are of course, my blog header. The new set is of course, a little different to the original, because it is almost impossible to re-sculpt a design 100% perfectly.

Cupcakes mark one

Cupcakes mark two

They all have my logo ribbons underneath.

And signed tags.

Although my order list for larger toys is going to keep me busy until April/May (depending on anything else which may happen inbetween), I am trying to make smaller, 'budget treasures' -such as Santa - on the side. To save costs, these will be offered on my Facebook page first (or you can contact me directly if you hate Facebook) and will be around £65/70 ($100/110 US) plus postage. It's going to be first come, first served, and I hope to have four little things nearer the end of the month. I'm also storing needle felt archive pictures there, and work in progress, so if you want more needle felt bumph or the chance to get a little toy, please *like* my Facebook page.

Gretel Parker

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A bit tangled

I have not dropped off the face of the earth - just getting my head down and working, trying to cram in some extra bits and bobs around my orders. Making some robin clips, (it has been two years since I last made some). Pardon the state of my threads box, I keep meaning to sit down and untangle them all but I never have time.

Willow (who was last seen having her head cut off in a very undignified way) has long since left for her new home.

And now the next hare on my order list is patiently waiting to be finished.

I hope to have my shop updated sometime this week with the four robins, a miniature landscape and three animal head brooches (I am so happy with these, they are quick and rather sweet, if I say so myself). If you are not on my mailing list, do drop me an email to be added, as things tend to go very fast.

Wanda the White

Although I have an ever growing toy order list, I try to sneak in a new design every so often and have been meaning to make a white mole ever since Milly appeared, who was bought by my friend Janet of 'The Empty Nest'.

Wanda too made her Etsy debut, but was only on stage for about a minute before being snapped up.

So she set off on the long journey to America, where so many of my little people end up, to join Milly.

And here they are, photo kindly nabbed from Janet's blogpost, having tea in a most civilised manner. It's delightful to see them brought to life, though I do rather envy them, as I would love to sit down with a cup of tea and chat to Janet.

Pops and Popsicle

To my pleasant surprise I recently found myself the unintentional winner of a batch of 'cake pops'. I had to be educated as to what these were, (it's a cupcake decoration) but once enlightened was only to delighted to accept them from Angel's Kitchen. Cupcakes. Harder than I thought. Had visitors + small children a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd just *whip up a batch or two* while cleaning the house from top to bottom. Silly me. Took a lot longer than I thought to do the most rudimentary decoration. (If you have now read the story of 'Mrs Mouse's Cupcakes' it is not a million miles away from what happens to me when I entertain rare guests, I try to do everything at once with disastrous results).

And although in the end they looked vaguely passable, upon sampling them later - when said guests had departed - I discovered that they were somewhat dense and dare I say, a little heavy? Oh dear...could have done with those highly edible cake poppers.

I should stick to needle felting and leave the cake baking to the grown ups. Popsicle is another commission just crossed off my order list.

I have had some really lovely blog reviews of my book, my head is swollen beyond redemption I fear. So many, many thanks to my friends

Anne of Frayed at the Edge

Janet of The Empty Nest

Aaron Paquette
(one of my oldest blog-buddies - not in age, but in length of time!)

Dolores

Dolores. Likes knitting, port and lemon and smart shoes that don't quite fit her right.




Sits all day clicking her needles and watching the world go by. Has a mean streak.





And a rather disgruntled look on her face.





Is off to America to live with Janet, where she will eat cake and watch Red Cardinals and Humming Birds. Lucky, lucky Dolores!

Yes, I have finally updated my Etsy shop with a few things - it's good to be back in the saddle at last!

Puddletown Moleskine prelims

First Puddletown ideas 11 Feb 2009

(All pictures can be viewed at much larger size by right clicking your mouse)

Goodness Heavens! I was completely overwhelmed at the amazing response to my little book announcement - and so touched to read such kindness, from 'old' blog friends I feel I've known forever, to all of you who commented for the first time and new followers. Thank you does not seem enough, but thank you all so very much anyway!

First Puddletown ideas 11 Feb 2009

It has been a hard secret to keep; I had my first meeting at Templar in February 2009, where it was loosely proposed that together we should create this little world (it didn't even have a name then). And as it was a new approach to all of us, creating models which would fit in a pop up scenario, there was no definite book offer. I simply went away and did some brainstorming in a little Moleskine.

First Puddletown ideas 11 Feb 2009

All I was required to do initially was draw whatever I felt would be in the world, so I set to work First I did little craft ideas for possible scenery and props, (at that point we knew there would be needle felted toys, but not how much of the rest of the book would be physically 'made'). Here I drew several toadstool and fungi models, of which one was eventually chosen to be made for the first book.

First Puddletown ideas 11 Feb 2009

A good many trees and landscape bits were drawn. One tree made it to final production.

First Puddletown ideas 11 Feb 2009

To begin with, I only made a few small 'props' - we didn't even have the main characters then, though we were certain geese would be a main feature. These props and a few toys I lent to the Templar sales team, were packaged nicely as a proposal to show at various book fairs. If feedback was good, I would hopefully get commissioned. If not...

First Puddletown ideas 11 Feb 2009

I also had to design some 'backdrops' and scenery settings. I have to confess, this was the easiest and most enjoyable part for me, l could draw little, lonely landscapes - well for a long time! I only ended up painting one of these.

First Puddletown ideas 12 Feb 2009

Still not decided on story lines, we juggled various ideas - here we have Custard eating trifle at a party he was afraid to go to. Eventually elements of this ended up in the second book 'Peggy's Lost Pennies'.

First Puddletown ideas 12 Feb 2009

More unused landscapes - who knows if they will also make a later appearance?

First Puddletown ideas 16 Feb 2009

This is the first sketch for what would become a much larger and slightly changed artwork that does feature in 'Mrs Mouse's Cupcakes', the background of the first spread.

First Puddletown ideas 16 Feb 2009

I never did get to make this sun - I've always liked the idea of suns, moons and stars hanging tenuously from a thread. In fact, nearly everything I drew in this batch of sketches ended up 'on the cutting floor' and you just have to be thick skinned about it. People often refer to producing a children's book a being 'a dream', but the reality is that it is a business, it is a job, and ruthless editing is often necessary to create something saleable for the market place.

First Puddletown ideas 16 Feb 2009

Of course, these were just the start of a much larger body of work needed, once we had two stories figured out.