This is Susan, too …

 After carefully taking poor Susan apart and visiting the Doll Workshop in Kinson, it was cleanup time. I washed all her clothes in cool water and used some Vanish for some stain spots, before a cool rinse and spin in the machine. This items were handmade by Nana many years before her death in 2010 so I’m having to replace the elastic on her knitted knickers too. 

And Susan needed a bath too, but being low fire ceramic, and pretty porous, soap and water really isn’t on the cards for her. I found an older paintbrush (not hard for an artist of many years) and also one of my soft, ostrich feather dusters. Ostrich feathers pick up dust using static, then you can shake them off outside. The paint brush loosened a lot of dust. I did wonder who’s skin cells were in there! 

Inside her newly dusted head you can see the eye mechanism. The gentle duster was good to use around her eyes and teeth area. 

The teeth are glued onto a piece of felt, and were poorly attached. Someone got glue all over her teeth but I decided that to try and clean them up might damage the old plastic so I brushed them dry, and used UHU to fix them back behind her bright red lips. 

I think Susan’s face is in great condition, and her colouring very unusual, more like one of my chickens brown eggs than any of the white dolls I’ve seen online. Her eyes seem to be dark grey, not blue or brown. 

Now at  Elllie’s Doll Workshop I bought some new elastic and a new voice. I met another pot doll who was in the shop for a re-string too. I also got Mike’s help to open the old Mama voice and see if we could perhaps hear it again. You can see how I got on in this video on YouTube. I really would like to put her old voice back in! 

This is Susan

Susan is in her 60s and wears aged six-month clothes. She’s been staying with us for a few years. But this year we both became orphans when my mother died of cancer, in March. 

She belonged to my mother, but lived most of her life at my Nana’s house, where sometimes I might be able to reverently hold her. I remember her wearing a pink dress but she came to me some years ago, in this set hand knitted by Nana. Her old head injury was caused by a drop in her early years. It’s got a nice patina on it now. 

Poor Susan was simply made, a post war pot doll. That’s a low fire clay if you are wondering. All of her limbs were held together by elastic which being over 60 years old hadn’t been very elastic for some time, and poor Susan gained a few chips around her joints. One piece of elastic held in everything including making a platform for her voice box, which you can see in the photo below. 

The voice box didn’t work. But I remember Nana tipping her upside down for me when I was a little girl. In her 20s, Susan would still meow like a Cat. But now the little device only goes ‘clunk’. 

So I’m going to do right by Susan. I feel confident to do it now. But I’m heading to Ellie’s Doll Workshop just to check a couple of things, and buy a new voice box and some new elastic. 

Of Serpents …

I’ve loved Ragged Bears since having children and beginning to bring books into the house again. And my first child is now 24! And living in Dorset I’ve kinda made friends with them, I even have a ‘pass’ from them for one of my picture books!

So it’s nice to be able to share some of their books with my teens and with you too. My 16 is currently reading both books. I read them quite quickly, because I really wanted to know how the stories would resolve. Both books are full of beautiful imagery, scents, flavours and rituals, and both have a lot of mystery. The dreams book is the most exciting as it has so much more at stake, but you do need to read both books. I was so glad Ragged Bears sent me both! 

Read these if you like girls coming of age books. 

Prayer flags at the Music festival

Prayers for our time, a lockdown project, are having a surprise outing. As I snuggled down on the sofa on Friday night with a book and my iPad I had a quick look at social media. I was glad I did. Stuart Semple posted that his sister was urgently in need of artwork, after some local artists had to pull out. 

So I emailed right away, just really felt lead to. After finding out it was in the Priory itself, and not say, a church hall, I knew I had to show her my lockdown project. 

We arranged to meet and hubby was only too keen to help out. At the priory, it was he who suggested we use the window bars to hang the pieces using our twine and fishing line. 

Here are the remaining 18 pieces from the full set of 20. And me! 

And my blurb, printed before 8am on a Saturday morning and stitched to a pretty piece of paper! Lastly, here is the leaflet if you fancy some culture this weekend.  Art will be on display on Sunday too. 

I would like to do some more assembled pieces. Looking for inspiration. And time! 

Snuggle Time Easter Stories, and plush rabbits

 It’s always good to have a special friend. And so for my friend Glenys Nellist’s brand new book I felt I ought to suggest she had both of the bunnies that feature on every page of the book. 

I made the little patched rabbit first and hand coloured the markings. 

When they were both completed I told them they were off to meet Glenys, in Michigan and as you can see they were very excited. They have big ears, to listen to the author sharing her stories. 

The book is available in all the usual places and of course it’s perfect for sharing now, during lent. 

Both rabbits popped up in Instagram recently, keep an eye out for them. I love making rabbits and these two are really rather special. Hey, I wonder if they met little Mole? 

Want plush for your book events? Just drop me a line … 

January is cold and dark ...

But in the darkness, hope can always be found. 

And on a cold, cold day you can always put on your warm hat and coat and go outside...

I decided to create in plush Little Mole, because he’s such a dear little character, dreamed up by Glenys Nellist, and drawn so sweetly by Sally Garland.

Interesting to discover that Glenys is Lancashire Lass, like yours truly, and that Sally and I both attended Edinburgh College of Art. Small world? 

I think he likes his book, don’t you? 

I’m going to make something else from a picture book now ... 

The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane

I began making dolls inspired by the book in 2010. A teacher was looking for someone in the Etsy Plush Team to recreate the china doll completely in fabric so the children could put on a play. And recently I was approached by someone looking for a miracle, with a deadline and no dolls. 

And as the person making them some dolls had become unable to make them, I said yes I would give it a go. 

Despite being shattered, because they all left my hands today, I also feel really accomplished and a little sad. There’s something about Edward and this was the first time I made some of the outfits shown here. 

My daughter Mary really wanted to see him as Suzanna and I couldn’t wait to make Malone, using a felted woolly jumper so that it won’t fray on stage. 

I wonder if I will get to see any pictures of these guys performing? Well in any case, it’s lovely to still be making Edwards after 11 years. 

Have you got one of my dolls?