Studio Notes no.151

dolls in progress and small stories

Hello Everyone,

photo: recent sketchbook pages

I hope you had a good week. Thank you for all your kind comments and emails re: last week’s Q&A. I am pleased you enjoyed reading.

Super busy, feeling chilly, on the edge of autumn into winter - can’t stop now got to sew a doll’s skirt - how was your week? That is how things are feeling at the moment.

I am deep into making dolls - so much so that I often dream their shapes and weight in my hands. So many hand stitches, new calluses on my fingers and finding bits of bobs of fabric that I suddenly and gratefully remember having buried in boxes.

photos: Olivia - a new folk art doll. She has hand stitched clothing including pantaloons. Her hair is wool I dyed with tea. She is quite primitive in style but far from easy to produce - lots of fiddly-ness - just how I like it, to be honest! I am at my happiest when turning and filling doll shapes.

Next week - Sunday 24th November - I will be adding a collection of folk art inspired dolls to my shop. This will be a one-of-a-kind pre-Christmas update. I do hope you will be interested in seeing these special cloth people. They are hoping very much to show their faces to you over the week ahead via Instagram/Flickr/Notes. I will also include a selection of other, smaller, textile things with decorating in mind.

photo: doll shapes - To see the different sizes I am making. Olivia is the smaller size at approximately 26 cm tall. I am making a variety of dolls for my upcoming special doll themed update (Sunday 24th November - next week!)

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I will be updating my shop today, Sunday 17th November at 7pm UK time - I have a new collection of tiny portraits to add to my shop. Preview from midday

photo: a new tiny portrat

No Wednesday update this week.

Sunday 24th November - special doll update

Wednesday 27th November - part two of my artworks on brown paper series - a selection of.

December 1st - launch of my winter tiny paintings (lucky dips) - and more to be confirmed

And just a reminder - autumn tiny landscapes are available until the end of this month

photo: a recent autumn tiny landscape (lucky dip)

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photo: a recent work on brown paper - 16. (I number them as this is a daily project - but some days I do make more than one!) My next brown paper update will be November 27th.

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photo below: sketchbook from 2015

A little poem I might stitch some time -

Winter, Wynter, Winterish - 

Wonder at you so still and bright and dark.

Can I pretend we are friends?

For I am sick of being sleepless in your thrall.

You chill me to the bone, yes, but can I love you,

if only a little, this Winter, Wynter, Winterish?

A few small stories

Ziggy

At this time of year I like to go for spur-of-the-moment, brisk stomping walks in the park and my purpose is plain for all to see: the gathering of sticks, twigs, branches. A brisk walk clears my lungs and heart. I stop thinking and start thinking.

There’s so much crunch in the glowing park today and all the dogs running loose are giddy with excitement. A woman calls to her two: Hendrix and Ziggy. Hendrix appears, racing in circles. Good boy Hendrix, the woman says and Hendrix jumps with pleasure at the offer of a treat. Meanwhile, Ziggy is a much shorter chap who is too good at hiding beneath piles of coppery beech leaves. Ziggy now! The woman calls. But Ziggy hunkers down. I can see just his tail wagging. Ziggy, come here! I walk on feeling sure sooner rather than later Ziggy will want attention; a dog called Ziggy must crave it.

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Bouquet

This mellow afternoon has given me a burst of confidence. I keep walking and looking for fallen treasure. Soon enough I have scooped up a couple of twiggy branches - I carry them like a crone bride ready for her late autumn wedding - and laugh at myself. A man walks along and says: Oh collecting for Christmas already? Maybe a bit of silver spray paint? I say yes to the first and no to the second. Then a couple along the path, smiling at my smile. The woman says: are you going to just stick them in a big jug - that would be lovely! I am grateful for her approval. Yes, yes I am, I say - and point out to her how I like how there are buds as well as dying leaves on beech - how special that it is, we agree.

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Emotional Support Tree

In the supermarket, my shopping bag is full of beech. In the tea aisle: an acquaintance says hello. I should know better, they say, to ask why you have a bag full of branches. This is my emotional support tree I say. Yes, of course it is, they say. They laugh, a genuine, surprised laugh. 

There, you said something almost funny, I tell myself as I walk home.  I feel I have achieved several things today, not least getting out into the cool, clear air. Back in the attic, the beech branches look slightly magnificent and the leaves are quiet rebels. I will keep the leaves on the branches until the first day of winter, which to me and some others is the first of December. Then I will remove the leaves and decorate the bare branches with all the small and twinkly, and wondrous things I might like to give them. 

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