Artwey - launched at pilgrim house, Spirit of the Sea Maritime Festival ...

i spoke to ruth meech about Artwey and she agreed it would make good reading and we will eventually be featured in the dorset echo magazine ... she put an article for us in the echo newspaper, and featured my Shimmery Fish plus a picture of andrea from the files.


remeeber when i started blogging? i was working on three big marine-themed projects, two puppets and a lobster costume. all came back to me to help promote artwey, and my work too.


the tompot blenny's top-knots have drooped a bit in the last two years! Thanks to Coastlink for the loan of puppets and costume.


and here is some of my work at Pilgrim House.
i shall have to show you my new goat sign properly, and the story behind it ...


nopt the plush team cards and the new Artwey postcards ...

woolley headed - thats me!

i had to squeeze in one more blenny for my builder who is also a sea-fisherman ...
he originally asked me to make a sea bas 2 years ago and what with expecting twins and feeling sick i never got around to it. when he heared i had just made a blenny puppet he asked for a blenny softie...

how i made fins for this softie version ... below is a sandwich of 3 pieces of fabric - the lighter fabric is in the middle and you can see the stiching using the same thread in both bobbin and spool ....
three layers of scottish woollen, plus close stiching to give strength .... isnt my skirt pretty?

carefully cut between the stitching thru only the top layer of fabric to leave veins of darker fabric ...

all done on one side - now flip the fin over and do the same onthe other ... lovely isnt it ? i did it the hard way when i made the blenny puppet !!!!

his top- knots are felted woollen jumper again, all rolled up and stitched ...

this long awaited book arrived inthe post just as i finnished this fish ... what a super antidote to all this larger-then-life-marine creatures ..... i devoured its contents and then, by way of celebration, threw the rest of the wool i used for the blenny into the washing machine to felt it .... insert evil laugh !!!

the darker fabirc is shown here with colours belnded beautifully and it hasnt got too thick to work with ....
the lighter woollen is slightly thinker and difficult to sew and but has a gorgeous texture and seems to now consist of stripes ... smells lovely too :-)

a bunny was born ... i might get one more bunny out of the lighter fabirc after tweeking the pattern a bit ....

do i look like that? bunny is based on these in my new book ... he thinks he is cuter - of course ! and he's up for rehoming on bid4bears now ....

Catching up - some recent pictures ...

louise and tompot blenny in the dorset echo last friday night...they didn't mention her name, nor the maker of the puppets. boooh!lobster trousers hanging up in my workroom ...
scarey lobster lady emerges into sunshine ...
saying goodbye to the blenny, matty and daisy give him a few pokes before i have to take him and the cuttlefish along to the marine week launch on chesil beach...
matty has a good look at the cuttlefish - she must be really impressed with the piecing used to create his head ...
sea creatures can die in hot cars ....a yummy jellyfish cake for eating after the mayor of portland has finnished speaking ...
some of the wonderful junk found on the beach ready to be used for sculpting, along with a propper artist.
the echo shelter providing good sunshade and shelter from portland type winds. my car was fitted with a lovely handmade staff parking sign just for the event...
hilda from the echo makes notes while mums, dads and children make some art from the flotsam and jetsam. finbar webster was there to take pics for the paper, and he recognised me. there was i with my hands up 2 sea creatures but did he take a pic? nope. booooh!
i didnt take any more pics after this point as my hands were buried in my puppet creations, and then i had some cake. i will probably take some more next week when i come back with louise and the lobster costume.

Blenny finnished - and moving on to more fishies!

Ran outside in between rains the other day to get some photos taken

i shoved a window cleaning tool (used once to clean windows before the rubber fell off it) up into tompot blenny's head, so i could hold him up for picks. think he is a boy, anyway ... who knows? i havent modelled too closely.





NEXT! a puppet cuttle fish, so i stripped down the blenny wall and changed it for a fresh piece of paper and some useful googled images. i worked out how to do the cuttle fish ''frill'' on waking, which is nice, and involved drawing round a side plate and making something which looks like an awful shirt collar. Opened out and pinned the outer edge undulates beautifully a bit like a full skirt.




Finally, as if i dont need a change from making fish, a challenge from Tami and Wendy from Teddy Talk to make one of these ...




so i drew this ....

and then made this ... which happens to be a bag with a zip under its chin :-)

and heres the local paper - saturdays - with a double page spread detailing the sea fest but not my puppets and costume yet ...

Did you know it was dry for one day - Tuesday wasnt it?

i do get a bit stuck on titles for my blog entries ...

Tuesday seems so far away now but me and the girls had a bit of fresh air and the ants in the garden came out to play again ...

i had a small blenny break sketching some kittens - pity the photo shows that page in shadow! i used 2 colours of gel pens and the smudging was provided by daisy. Both babies likes meowing and signing 'cat'... i have just been toting silly ideas in my head, esp while driving, and thought i would commit some of them to journal/sktchebook ... Church mouse and rat to follow!

Here, for those that have been nagging and saying i havent uploaded any pics, is the top pot blenny as of this morning, his head attached to his body and some amazing lips too made from fleece and bath scrunchie. In the end i didnt make the topnot from feathers as i was hoping, as i thought one tug from a toddler and he wouldn't look like a topnot blenny at all. his frilly bits are made from off red felted woolly jumper and now he looks just like red fraggle ... enjoy :-)

ooh, i believe the big wigs to do with sea fest and marine week have been reading this ... and they have still sent me an invite to marine week opening ... i will take my camera.

Tompot Blenny Esquire ....

yesterday i got storming with mr blenny ....


i finnished those last layered fins - might they be pectoral fins? and in serted them into the wrists or whatever fish call those bits too!









the body - still with no head - has been shaped and partly stuffed with mesh - un-used shower scrunchie jobs, which are light weigh, and a piece of shaped sponge keeps his cross section the right shape. The doral fin and the last pair of fins were stiffened with an extra layer of net - orange shower scrunchie - and some red scoobies, which really seemed to work and the dorsal fin stands up well. I have my own packet of scoobie-doos, i didnt help myself to Louise's huge selection ...






sorry that some of thse pics are blurry, im not using flash and it was so dark and grey and rainy - again. The eyes look really blurry but would make great pincushions! i used scraps of different 'shot' fabrics ...





and finally - an upper jaw - and some mouth parts i didnt photograph yet - and the upper head i suppose i must say! starting to look like a fish head. played with wallpaper again to get the right shape ... there is no centre seam on the front of the face, just a gentle curve, and a small triangular gusset on top of his head, ready for those blenny trees, or top-not thingies !



yippeeeeee !!!!
no laughing at my html, and attempts to post multiple pics that looks easy to follow xxxx

Blenny WIP ... getting to grips with a huge fish ...

The Wall of Notes is changing, the old, old wall paper is disapearing ...



Making patterns out of old wallpaper to try and create blenny markings ...
i chose stretchy oatmeal fleece so i can allow for the lateral line seam on the puppet ... did i forget to say it is a puppet?



Poor headless fishy ... looks like a big fabric herring. i have added the first fins.



Fins taking shape, with layers of bias cut scottish woollens and net and organza ...flappy!

More on lobsters ....

Sent this sketch to a meeting today, i wish i could be a fly on the wall. Jo from IVY collected it yesterday and just after she left the fabric for the project arrived..

Cant wait to get started, might begin with sme big claws to get me going, all fleece and foam and what-not ... as you can see i dont usually make things this big, and i am no dressmaker ....

Now, does that help everyone who wondered what on earth i was going on about lobsters for?

i also have that Tompot blenny on the go too ....