Baking Day

12th scale cuddly cook hard at work in the kitchen

Charles the Curio Collector

This is Charles, the Curio Collector.

He is a 12th scale OOAK commissioned figure.

Charles is the fifth or sixth collector doll I've made now, but I especially love this one as he looks exactly like a dear old friend of mine named Charles who was an artist, a collector, a writer and passionate maker of potent cider. He would have found it very amusing this doll looked a bit like him I am sure!! 

I'm rather fond of these dolls which appear to be collecting things...or working in shops or studios with lots of bits and bobs gathered around them. It makes for a lovely display of little things you have gathered up over the years. My little scene contains a few pewter cast miniatures I have painted, but also has some tiny animal bones, jewellery, charms, things from Christmas crackers, cake decorations, and other random curiously shaped bits and pieces that look interesting.

The Horologist

The Horologist is the latest one of several watch-maker/clock-maker figures I have created. This one was commissioned, and is 12th scale ooak as usual, and is now off to his new home. 

I think he is my seventh one :o)

Nanny and Child at Play

Two more commissioned figures now at play in their new homes!

Mad Scientist

Another mad professor type in a laboratory...commissioned figure, ooak 12th scale :o)

Art Deco Couple

A commission Art Deco couple

OOAK 12th scale 14cm or 6" tall

An Old Gardener

Commission figure of an old Gardener

12th scale OOAK

'Downstairs' characters

A couple of servants made as commission figures...ooak 12th scale, mixed media.

Hector Bray...antiques & curio collector

Hector Bray in his taxidermy, arts, vintage toys, antiques and curios shop… he has just returned from a trip to deliver some pieces to London, where he saw the Marcel Duchamp at the Tate, and also enjoyed browsing round the boutiques in Notting Hill. He has acquired some rather nice plaster casts of

some ancient skulls he is about to mount and put out on display.

12th scale OOAK figure

Urnes bodice

Completed my Urnes Dragon-Serpent bodice

...mixed feelings on it.

It ended up being something of a nightmare to work...the fabric I chose to use ( it was some old canvas-denim style material I've had knocking about for a long time) was way too thick and stiff to get a needle through for hand sewing, let alone detailed embroidery. I ended up having to leave the design as a very simple outline as I almost punctured my thimble many times even to do this much on there. Then the clasps I had originally found were out of stock, so I had to use these reproduction ones...although by the time I got to that stage I was rather disheartened !!

Nevertheless...it fits well, and I still like the design...and I think with the kind of skirt and blouse shown top right it will suggest the folk costume reasonably well :o)

Recycled Wool latch-hook rug

This is my third latch hook rug...the smallest of the three...and made to use up all my stocks of wool I've collected over the years to hopefully make more space in my work room! I used to do weaving and needlepoint as a teenager, and did a few textiles modules at college, so you collect up a lot of odds and ends. Most of it is 100% wool Axminster and Wilton waste thrums I used to pick up for £1 a huge bag from our local fabric shop, but there's bits of old knitting wool and a little wool tweed cloth as well so the surface is quite interesting. 

Of course once I was underway I needed a few extra bits to heighten the colour here and there...so got a bag of scrap ball-ends for 99p from age concern, not wool these, but they're only a fraction of the whole thing and mixed through it, so it won't matter.

here are some details...I just made the design up as I went along using bit circles of colour depending on how much I had left of anything...and dotted them about, unifying the whole thing with greens.

views of the front and the back...there are about ten thousand insertions into the canvas...all cut, blended, hooked in, tightened and trimmed by hand individually...so it took me about 2 to 3 weeks to complete it. It's quite therapeutic...although my hands did ache a bit towards the end!

...the finished thing...

Is like a wooly garden beneath your toes in front of the fire! :o)

Lady of the Forest

The Lady of the Forest is a wild boar sow with her Hoglets

wild boar mythology

excellent article on boar mythology in Britain from the Thegns of Mercia

... Thief in the Night ...

A little Boggart, Brownie or House Elf...helping himself to all those things you can never find...

Staithes Bonnet Mk1

My first attempt at a traditional Staithes style bonnet is complete!! Quite pleased but might make the back sun-flap a little longer in another version. This is bigger than the old one I bought, but am still not sure it's as large or 'full' as some of the ones I've seen in other FMS photos.

Interesting side-point...there's a long running argument about whether the bonnet was tied under the chin or backwards to the nape of the neck. I've tied mine to the back which many say is how it was done...but you can clearly see in all the photos of Mrs Ann Scarth, as shown in this one here, that she always fastened her bonnet in a bow under her chin!

Mk1 bonnet...am making the first out of calico given to me by Maddi to work out how they are constructed...mine will have a bow...

basic shapes cut out...2 large 'D' shapes, one folded up to make a double layer through which channels are sewn to carry the cording, and a drawstring to form the shape. Along the back of the cording is a ruffled strip and a large decorative bow sewn onto the back.

I've chosen to hand sew the whole of this one as I was learning and trying things out all along, so needed to be able to adjust and unpick at times...but many of the bonnets were made partly on the sewing machine which would speed things up considerably! MkII will be.

...If I had a ribbon bow

To hide my hair

If I had a fancy sash

My own true love would find me fair...

Staithes Bonnets

My Staithes Bonnet

...am making a new one now...

Sea Witch

As a Piscean and long-time lover of all watery things, this is a return to the Sea. Inspired by a wonderful documentary on the sighting of a Giant Squid by a Japanese Naturalist Tsunemi Kubodera, I began reading about the myth of Toyotama-hime, and created this sensual shape shifting self-portrait as the princess on her Selkie-like return to her sea-home.

Ophelia at the Feast of the Pale Man

Completed most of the scene now

Pan's Labyrinth has always been one of my favourite films;

 it's disturbing at times, but also magical and I love it.

The Pale Man is a gruesome and frightening character, but his feast seemed an excellent way to indulge my love of the film and display my collection of miniature foods!

This is a little bit of fun animating the pale man!

Trying out the scene inside the display case...it fits!

The Pale Man

Have completed the monstrous creature at my luscious red feast...the Pale Man

He's got 'open' joints so I can pose him in a variety of ways so he's looking a little more 'skeletal' than the one in the film...but he's close enough ;)

The Descent into the Underworld....

Those who have seen the movie will recognise who she is now of course!! 

The Pale Man is not quite finished yet...but then he will awake!!

Figures at the Feast...

Working now on some of the figures at the feast...this is the little girl and her two fairy guides...

She is OOAK 12th scale...see my hand for the size below...

This was her earlier at the sculpting stage...and the big hands of the other character at the feast...

Miniature Feast

Working on a 12th scale miniature feast...

Is looking very luscious so far :o)

Trying out the things made so far to check how much space remains...not much!! LOL

Now to make some figures...

Constructed some furniture to fit a case I have...