Little Jenny Wren

This is a commission piece for Roos, a lovely lady in  Zwolle in The Netherlands and she was quite keen to have it included in the blog. So thank you for that.  The photos are not great but the light today is not good and she has to be packed and sent off straight away.

So this is Jenny Wren and she is a tiny bird doll, the smallest I have made at just eight inches.  The commission was for a bird doll to be given as a birthday gift so included the request for a card to be made with the same fabrics.  The doll had to be delicate and so I made Jenny.

It was interesting to work embroidery onto a cloth body form with no painting, I have done this with the crows and enjoyed it so this is a style I must explore further. There was a lot of embroidery and the photos don't do the doll justice.  Her dress fabric is a really old piece of William Morris inspired fabric, teemed with an Oakshott plain - Oakshott is a company based in Brockworth, Gloucester and make some of the finest quality plains I know of.  Her body is also an Oakshott fabric and took embroidery really well.  Her outfit is finished with a fine piece of embroidered lace from 'zettayotta' an ebay shop based in South Korea and really worth checking out for amazing laces and trims.

Her lavender bag had to be tiny and the finished piece was just over an inch square, worked on 32 count linen evenweave.  Had to work that with a magnifying lamp but I think is finishes her off nicely.  Roos didn't want a typical card but a little something that could possibly be framed after.  I wouldn't of chosen to make the card motif so dark but it teamed with the doll so had to be.

I greatly enjoyed working this doll and for once it was good to be able to show a commission piece.  I hope you like her and I will be making more to this scale because I love the size and the finish you can achieve.

The Lavender Bag  - just one inch square

Lace Trim Detail from 'zettayotta'

A sense of scale

Detail of Back Finish

The Card in Progress

The Finished Motif