Ancient Rag Doll and a Grand Day Out

Hello to everyone, I have had a busy few weeks, I am on top of my orders now and getting ready for Christmas.  Both Becca and I needed a day to ourselves so we took advantage of cheap tickets and went to the British Museum in London for the day.  Wonderful to spend the day just wandering from amazing room to amazing room, saw lots of fascinating things but this little doll in the Greek and Roman Life room (Room 69) made me hold my breath.  She is a cloth doll from around 100 to 500 AD and she has survived all this time.  Most fabric decays and falls away but to find a little girl's plaything from so long ago is quite lovely.  She is Egyptian made and is formed from coarse linen and stuffed with papyrus and rags.  There are vestiges of wool still attached, so maybe she had an embroidered face and little blue beads that suggest there was hair ornament.  She survived because she was in a particularly dry place in Egypt, which helps preserve organic materials.  When I looked her up on the website, it explained that dolls were as popular then as now and that childrens' play doll could be made of cloth, wood, bone and fired clay.  But cloth dolls are close to my heart and I was very pleased to find her.

Another toy that caught my eye was this wooden cat with a movable mouth. You pull the string up and down, there are even little bronze teeth!  Again he is Egyptian and can be seen in Room 61.  For anyone like me, a child at heart, along with exhibits of great significance and with heavy meaning there are puppets from all over the world, toy theatres, tiny doll's house furniture and incredible kites of all things.  I can heartily recommend the little cafe in the wonderful atrium, they do a very good cuppa and a nice lemon drizzle cake, not too expensive either. 

Sylvie, a little pink miss.

 This is Sylvie, she is one of my Rhoda dolls and this time I have tried a different outfit for her.  I went for a jeans and tunic and I am quite happy with the result.  The denim fabric is wonderfully soft and comes from the Tilda collection and I got it on sale, even better.  Her pigtails and hat were great challenges.  I made so many plaits until I got two that matched it was quite incredible, you would not believe how hard that was!  Her hat was quite a challenge also, I am not the worlds best crocheter and I wanted it to go to a point but not too much to a point, that took several goes as well.  But, hey I am happy with the result.  Her little leather bag was fun to make and it sits quite well. I am just on with a sister for her before I start a fairy tale project for November.  Hope you are all well and enjoying the autumn colours and darker nights.  I have made pumpkin soup for tea with bacon balmcakes and a rhubarb crumble, it just feels so right. Enjoy the leaves!

A great day out at Ruthin Craft Centre, North Wales

What a lovely day we had, I went primarily to see the work of Julie Arkell, it was a huge collection of her dolls, well over 100. The exhibition is entitled 'Away' or 'ymaith'.  I love her idiosyncratic work, they are so beautifully crafted and this time she has created many original dolls rather than using just found dolls.  Nearly all were embroidered with quirky little comments and many had knitted components or wonderful Welsh hats.  I fell in love with her Welsh crows, in all different sizes, some quite large which is unusual for her.  If you can get to North Wales it is well worth a visit, its a great day out.  I can heartily recommend the cafe, which sources local Welsh foodstuffs and has a really interesting menu.  Not too expensive either.  Also on show in the gallery is an exibition entitled 'Is it wood?' or 'a yw'n bren?' This exhibition was so good, some of the pieces on show were just amazing, artists on show included Peter Archer's glorious vessels, the turned pieces of Eleanor Lakelin and some delightful insect forms by Louise Hibbert.  Rebecca fell in love with the work of Wycliffe Stutchbury which was so very dramatic and imposing.  We are lucky we are just over an hour & a half to Ruthin and make the trip to see most of the exhibitions.  If you can manage to get there do try it, it's really worth.

Thank you to the young man who let me take a picture of the gallery.