Tuesday Talent - miia

Totally different than last week this week's talented lady is all about cute.  'miia toys' are the creation of the artist Ivaila, who states that "when I grow up I want to be a child"  a sentiment I can identify with.  Ivaila is actually Ivaila Stoeva from Varna in Bulgaria and she has a very colourful blog at 'miiatoys.blogspot.com' and a wonderful Etsy shop at 'miiaow', which is choc full of her gorgeous girls and interesting artwork.  All her dolls her supercute and original, and are very reasonable to buy.

I admire this lady for her style and for the fact that she has got all her branding and graphics in excellent order.  When you buy from her you get the complete package, everything looks very good, which lets face it is very important now.  I am not sure what GushGush means but her dolls have that quirky Eastern European colour combinations that are so appealing. Have a peep at her on Pinterest too, under 'miia' for lots of colourful creations.

A Grand Day Out - Craft in the Bay

Well, we have found a peach of a gallery for anyone into contemporary craft. Craft in the Bay is a bespoke building in the bay area of Cardiff.  It is a grand location with lots of easy parking nearby and a wonderful range of Welsh crafted items for sale.

We did an overnight so that Becca could specifically see 'Animal Tales' - a collection of animal inspired crafted pieces, sculptures and prints. Artists featured included Jeff Soan's articulated wooden animal sculpture, I fell in love with the gorgeous flowing octopus, Susan O'Byrne's terrific sculpted animals - always a pure delight to see and the haunting work of Holy Smoke aka Helen Thompson who's textile figures were as evocative of smoke as the name sounds. Catrin Howell was also showing some stunning animal heads in ceramic and I fell in love with the delicate birds of Suzanne Breakwell.  There were so many other artists to see it was an exhibition we all really enjoyed.

Also on show, as a members showcase exhibition so only small, was the work of textile/mixed media artist Sasha Kingston who works with thread, paper and found objects to make beautiful wall mounted work of eye catching subtlety - had not seen her before but really enjoyed it.  Her current show is based on place, journeys and maps.  Well worth a look.

And as always we tried the cafe!  Its called The Pure Kitchen and has great views around the Cardiff Bay development including the stunning frontage of Cardiff's Millennium Centre. Great coffee with either traditional cow milk, coconut or almond milk and a lovely lunch, a bit challenging at first but great when you get into it.  Becca had a 'paleo fuel salad' which she really enjoyed, I wasn't as brave and settled for a panini I recognised but great fun and really good value.

If you are in the area I wouldn't hesitate to visit, if only for the amazing building never mind its wonderful exhibitions and craft items.  Had a great day - highly recommended.

Sasha Kingston

Suzanne Breakwell

Tuesday Talent - Olga Mart

 My talented doll artist this week is Russian graphic designer Olga Mart. Her dolls are all hand painted cloth and her style is both unusual and very much her own.  They have a carnival or harlequin feel to them and I find them very appealing.

Sadly I can tell you very little about her.  She seems to have no blog or website and is to be found on the Russian site tilda-mania.ru or on Pinterest.  What little I do know is she if from Pushkino in the Moscow region of Russia, she is a professional graphic designer with an interest in embroidery, decoupage, papier-mache and all forms of painting, dolls and toys.  Her reference on the Russian doll site is mart77.livemaster.ru but sadly there is little further information there, so I can only admire her from a distance.  If you look her up on Pinterest you will find lots of beautiful hand painted dolls as well as odd little fish and cats that are just so cute, she is definitely worth exploring.

Tuesday Talent - Sandy Mastroni

So utterly original and by the same part odd, I love Sandy Mastroni's dolls.  Be they the direct gaze of her little girls or the grumpy lumpy ones that look so cross.  It is the stare that holds you but look beyond to notice all the subtle painterly details that make up her folk art dolls.

Sandy is from Connecticut in the US and according to her blog has one husband and four cats, a splendid ratio . You can find lots of her work on Pinterest and more information on 'smastroni.blogspot.com'.  She makes a variety of doll style, from these starry eyed youngsters to more challenging ruddy nosed young ladies that hold your gaze with an intelligent glare.  Sandy paints both canvas and plates, makes beautifully painted cloth girl and boy dolls as well as lovely cross cat dolls. All her work has a certain style to it that you can recognise easily and a charm that is all her own.  She has an Etsy shop that is chocked full of all kinds of work, really worth a peep and very affordable but sadly doesn't ship outside of North America,

She describes her work as Contemporary Folk Art and indeed has a painting in the permanent collection of The Hurn Museum of Contemporary Folk Art but also as outsider art.  Well odd or not I genuinely enjoy her work and am delighted to share her with you.

Tuesday Talent - Svetlana Krylova

My talented lady this week is Svetlana Krylova from Moscow in Russia.  She is a homemaker, has golden retrievers and makes the best frogs I have every seen.

Have a look at her blog 'svetlana-krylova.blogspot.ru' there you will see that she makes the most adorable little girls as well.  Very sweet faces with lovely outfits and accessories but it is the frogs that I cannot resist. I admire her prim painterly style, the grubby homespun dresses and their wonderful woeful expressions always raise a smile.  I am collecting frog dolls on Pinterest for a commission later in the year so if anyone can recommend a frog doll person I would be grateful.

Her photographs I admire greatly, subtle faded tones and very good settings.  If this little collection has whetted your appetite have a peep at her blog, it is in Russian but there is a translation button. Looking through her blog you will find, as I said, more frogs, lots of lovely dolls and sometimes she shows you photographs of the countryside and wildlife around Moscow - really interesting.

All my warmest wishes to all you ladies for International Womens' Day today.

Megan - a lady chaffinch in winter blue

 This is Megan, an LBJ in all her glory.  In birding vernacular I understand LBJ stands for little brown job and describes all those subtle lovelies out there who don't go in for glam.

The more I watched the humble female chaffinch the more I liked her spirit and watching her stake her claim to sunflower seeds on a frosty winter morning I decided I would like to make her in soft winter blues.  The fabric of her dress is the evocative Tilda 'Bird Mist', it truly is a lovely colour and teamed well with other fabrics in my stash.  As always she is tiny for one of my dolls only nine and half inches tall.  Her plumage is embroidered in fawn, greys and creams - when you really look at a lady chaffinch she may not be as colourful as Mr Chaffinch but her colouring is very delicate and pretty.  I used couching, random cross stitch and fern stitch, which make lovely feather patterns.  She even sports a vintage broderie anglais underskirt and pretty organza ribbon to finish her look.  Her wings are also embroidered and dressed to coordinate with her feathery face.

I am really pleased to share her with you and I do hope you like her, I think she is sweet girl.  Well up here in the north spring is starting to show its face, we have been having some sharp sunny days and they are much appreciated.  Our snowdrops have been out in force for a couple of weeks and the daffodils are coming along nicely.  Its a blessed relief from all this rain.  So we'll keep smiling but not put the brollies away yet!

Tuesday Talent - Frederica at Countrykitty

Countrykitty is the home of Italian artist Frederica who now lives in the south of England.  I stumbled across her work on Pinterest and was enchanted.

Her webpages at www.countrykittyland.com are a treasure trove of dolls, stitching and all kinds of crafts. She had made the most wonderful dolly travelling house, the colours are just gorgeous and would make any little girl very happy on a long journey.  I like her tildaesque dolls, they have their own characters and again the colours are just so gentle and appealing.

She makes to sell and updates her pages regularly, however just at the moment she has the best reason in the world to a short break - the birth of her beautiful little girl, Adele in October.

So for bags, bears, babies and so much more have a peep at her webpages.  I hope you enjoy.