Tuesday Talent - Soeur Alma Fanteria

Soeur Alma Fanteria is the French nun who authored the book, Poupees A Coudre, which I highly recommend.  The book is based on the pattern for her doll, 'Brune', she is a 30cm doll and all the clothing and knitting patterns in the book are based on this doll style.

Soeur Alma blogs as C'estDimanche and on the Nun Studio blog to be found at 'www.nun-studio.com/fr'. There you will also find her delightful dolls Anastasia and Angele with more patterns for them.  From this site you can buy patterns, knitting patterns, doll books and booklets, also you can adopt a doll.  Remember everything is in french so at the head of the blog look under 'Boutique' and then 'Poupees a adopter' or 'Boutique' and then 'Livre et Livrets' for patterns. You will also find dress patterns for women and children.

Her world is stylish, delightful and gently French!

Frances, in Liberty Lawn Wild Flowers

 This is Frances, she is one of my Agatha pattern dolls so she is quite tall at 17inches.  Her face is hand painted and embroidered with her hair being handstyled blond wool tops.

Her dress is a wonderful pattern by Su Blackwell in her Wild Flowers series for Liberty.  Based on the drawings of Victorian Wild Flowers books it reminds me of the delicate book plates of Isobel Adams in her English Wild Flowers series. The Wild Flowers fabric is just a patch of summer meadow with buttercups, wild strawberry and cornflowers to name just a few scattered across the cloth.  It is a joy to work with and I think, makes a very fetching dress.

Tuesday Talent - Cath Roy

Cath Roy is a Canadian artist who works under the name
Guenilles et Boutons.  She beautifully describes her work as 'poupées de chiffons fait main'.  I first became aware of her dolls on Pinterest and later found her shop on Etsy at 'guenillesetboutons' - all one word.

Her girls are disturbing yet deeply attractive, I find her style is unique and her devotion to detail very appealing.  Cath is by training a graphic designer and you can feel the strong sense of design in her dolls.  She found herself wanting more than an image, wanting to make something that she could hold in her hand, hence the dolls.  Her girls are little cloth souls, she says, waiting for someone to hear their whisper.  I can stongly empathise with that need to have something to hold in the hand, that is the very satisfying nature of doll making.

 

Harriet - A Folk Art Rag Doll in Liberty Lawn

This is Harriet, she one of my Ida Doll Patterns so she is quite small standing 13inches from tiny shoes to hand styled hair.  As always she has a hand painted face with embroidered features. Harriet has a rose quartz heart and lavender in her stuffing for a gentle fragrance. She carries an embroidered sampler style lavender sachet and is finished with organza ribbon with little buttons.

Her dress fabric is beautiful, it is a varient of Su Blackwells Wild Flowers for Liberty.  Su is a well known paper artist but has designed textiles for Liberty.  This range is based on victorian wild flower books and is stunning.

Harriet's colouring and tone of fabric gives her a calm feeling and the gentle scent adds to her sence of calm.  To create more fragrance you just squeeze her tummy and sniff.

Tuesday Talent - Sarah Strachan

I first discovered the joys that are Sarah Strachan's dolls in Selvedge Magazine and have followed her journey both on her blog and on her Etsy page.

Sarah is primarily a puppet maker, trained at Central St Martins in London and who even worked in Jim Henson's Creature Shop.  So as you can imagine the finish is excellent. Sarah is a working mum of two small children and lives in Totnes, Devon.

This garden series is my favourite, particularly the little sweater land girl, but there are many different incarnations of her little ladies.  Her first series was of high end fashion dolls featuring period fabric and couture outfits.  The dolls, however, take on many styles both contemporary and period. I don't think I have seen any dolls quite like these

On her Etsy shop you will also find the little dogs that are crafted so sweetly.  For more information visit Sarah's website at www.sarahstrachan.com

Variations on a Theme

 I have been working on commissions recently and have made several wrens.  I was intrigued on looking back at how one hand using the same pattern and being as careful as I can be could produce such a diverse result.

I always make each doll individually, never making as a batch because the dolls loose their individuality.  I like to think that each of my girls has their own personality and looking at these three wrens I find myself thinking that is the case.

The slight variation in the embroidered pattern is nothing next to the profile of each girl. Only when you take a photograph and compare them do you see the diversity of form.  In the Autumn I am making a set of four bridesmaid girls and each doll will be a different bird but dressed in the bride's choice of fabric.  If ever I have to make multiples of the same species for a commission it will be interesting to see the variations as a set.  A steadier hand would be required for uniformity but I have to confess I like the variety.

A Winter Visitor

By Stephan Burch

 Having taken part in the Great British Bird Watch last weekend I suppose I have been taking more notice of my garden visitors. Well, I was rewarded today with a welcome winter visitor hidden among a flock of Chaffinches. I definitely saw a male Brambling, at least one and possibly a female but they are hard to separate from female Chaffinches at this time of year.  I am thrilled, he seemed quite comfortable and stayed on and off all afternoon so I am hoping he will linger.

We are so lucky with our garden, we back on to Astley Park and have woodland behind us.  We have several feeders in the garden and while I am working I can look up and see all kinds of visitors. The Woodpecker is always great to see and now we are getting regular visits from a pair of Bullfinches, not common around us, but Bramblings are synonymous with a British winter for me.

By Emily Sutton

Seeing him made me think of the wonderful Brambling sculpted and embroidered by Emily Sutton in an exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park a couple of years ago.  I adore her sculpted birds but the Brambling stayed with me being more heavily embroidered than many of her sculptures.  I have to make a Brambling now, a lady Brambling in Liberty fabric.  The male has such lovely colours but the females have a pretty orange and grey cast to them, making for a delicate subject.  I am working on a Wren in pink at present but will start searching for Brambling fabric right away!