Playing with my dollies

Daisy , 7 inches high Well the festival is over and good fun it was too. In the meantime I have been making some new dolls ... I have called this batch 'Plain Janes' , as their dresses are made from plain cottons and I have simplified their faces ( I've realised that they can look a bit 'spooky' with too much detail in them. ) I have given them glass beaded eyes and softly painted lips and eyebrows ... they are all properly dressed with white cotton knickers ( no one can seem to resist looking up a dolly's dress ! ) Their socks and shoes are painted on ( the latter in a shiny 'patent' black.

The first two girls have one jointed elbow so they can hold their teddy ( which I have made from needle felting. ) Playing with them seems to have brought out my ' inner child' ... being made from polymer clay they have a very satisfying weight about them and feel very nice in the hand.

Trixie , 7 inches high

Rosie , 4.4 inches high

Minty , 4 inches and Meg , 4.5 inches

Milly , 5 inches high

Lucille , 5 inches high

Meg and Smarties

Dora , 5 inches high

Hove Festival House

Here are the details of the new Open House in Hove where I'm showing all things fairy !

Nina Green who has set up Cherry Picked For You is using the Festival as an opportunity to show people some of the work she has on her exciting new web site and I'm looking forward to meeting some of the makers. I'm splitting myself in two with showing in two houses, so May will be even more hectic than usual, but good to get work out of the studio and have an airing ...

and me too for that matter.

My dolls are being let out again ...

And the folk fairies are going out for the first time ...

Also showing will be some of my embroidered pictures ...

So do came along and say 'hi' , if I'm there !

Festival Flyer

Well May is fast approaching and with it the Open House season. This year my work will be in two new venues and this first one is part of the Dyke Road trail and I'm at 53, Kingsley Road in Brighton. It's my friend Joy Fox's house ( queen of the button jewellery scene ! ) Her house is a lovely Victorian one on three floors with wonderful far reaching views over Brighton at the back. Other exhibitors will be Jonathan Alden; art boxes, Tina Balmer ; paintings, Carol Butler; hand embroidery, Joss Davis; ceramics, Judy Dwyer; Dangerous Dolls, Sarah Lock; painted lamps and shades, Peter Neuner; wooden sculptures, Victor Stuart Graham; driftwood boats, and Jo Sweeting; sculpture. Joy will also be showing her new textile pieces made of felted wool.

The house for brochure purposes is called the Artful Fox and so some of us are including some foxy pieces ... as a natural development of my cats and dolls here is a sneak preview of my contribution ... they are all  approximately 7 inches high, fimo bodied, button jointed figures , dressed and sporting  wired and brushed felt tails !

Fennella Fox

Fennella is joined by Rita ( they both wear vintage lace bloomers ) and Rita has soft red leather boots ( Fennella's are brown velvet. ) 

Here come the boys ... Oscar on the left and Arnold on the right.

Oscar sports a blue flowered waistcoat with pearl buttons, a wool check coat and velvet breeches. Arnold wears a kingfisher blue silk velvet suit, paisley waistcoat with glass buttons and a flower in his button hole.

They all get a little work with the paintbrush ...

 

As well as my foxy friends I shall be showing my oil flower paintings and some large garden embroideries. Just so there is no confusion I am under my proper name of Lesley Buckingham at this venue and all my fairy friends are going to be showing in a house in Hove under the name of Betty Bib. This will be the home of the Cherry Picked For You website that I talked about in a previous post ... more of that next time ! Happy Spring days in the meantime !

New fairies

Have recently got back from Thailand where I fell in love with the bowls of floating flowers the hotel regularly refreshed. What colour and attention to detail - just my kind of thing !

People often ask if I get inspired in my work by going away to the Far East and of course it is all wonderfully stimulating but I think that fairies seem so quintessentially English and all my other influences like afternoon tea and gardens are also so rooted here that I have to say that, no I'm not particularly, though I'm sure that all the colour soaks in somewhere. 

This Christmas tree-like Buddhist shrine does though share a passing resemblance to some of my things !

And here is a green fairy to prove it ! 

I have been making some new fairies with the thought of the May festival coming up. These

little ladies come in a box with their name in the lid and are £18 each.

I have embroidered the net of their dresses on the machine and then embellished them with sequins bought in Thailand. 

The newest of my girls are these 'folky' fairies. They are made from cotton ribbon, silk organza wings and their hair is made of silk too. They also come in a box and are £15. All featured fairies are approximately 8cms high. I am particularly pleased with their long socks !

Oops !

Well at last I have managed to hobble up to my studio and make a post ... slipped own the stairs at home three weeks ago and broke a bone in my foot ! Jolly painful at the time but since then it has been mostly frustrating as first I spun around on crutches ( literally ! ) and then I mastered the art of manoeuvering  up two steps which got me into Brian's studio where I camped out for two weeks and now crutch free I can hop up the garden path back to my own patch and very nice it is to be back ! For just a very small bone I have a rather large cast which is coming off tomorrow and I can't wait ...

I must say the perks to having to slow down or even stop altogether have been to discover the delight of scoffing sweets on the sofa whilst watch Deal or No Deal - a late afternoon habit which I must be prepared to quit soon . The pretty petit fours below were given to me at Christmas by a friend who hand made them herself - I meant to put them up in the last missive and forgot. Have also caught up on some reading and have been much entertained by Mapp and Lucia by E F Benson, South Riding by Winifred Holtby ( a classic that I've long been meaning to read ) and Moby Dick by Herman Melville - another hefty read but well worth it.

Had my longest walk on the week end and bought these treasures in a junk shop. I love Honiton ware with it's lively little spots and stripes and this hand dyed ribbon poking out from it will be put to good use in making some fairy skirts.

Now I must confess life hasn't all been about languishing and snacking - once I got myself set up in my old spot in the other studio I managed to get back in to some painting and found I'd loosened up a little in the time in between. There is a fine line between lively painting and it just looking a mess and then I always have to stop myself from bering too literal and yet I want to be true to what is in front of me - all very absorbing and frequently frustrating stuff. I'm painting in oils by the way and rather like the time you have to allow for layers to dry a little before applying the next layer - it curbs my tendency to keep on going when I should step back from it and take stock. 

This painting of gerberas is 8 inches square - I'm working my way up to bigger pieces as there are even more problems to juggle with as you go up in scale - composition being one of the biggest for me ... I'm enjoying the jewel like quality you get with this size - it's scary to start something bigger !

The winter jasmine in a slip cup is 9x7 inches.

  The anemone in a Honiton vase is 7.5 inches square and I felt a had a bit of a breakthrough with the surface of the canvas in this one - I fell the the paint has got a more brilliant quality.

This the one I'm working on now and will post it up when it's finished.

I rather like the very simple sketchy beginning but am not brave enough to leave it there and call it naive !

This last one is one of the series that I did early last year and having had the space to look at it again I have continued to work on it with a little more confidence ... how strange that you can think a piece is finished and then see it as flat and lifeless after an interval and fresh eye. I think Bonnard was known for never feeling a piece was finished and touching it up even when it was hung on somebody's wall !

Lacecap in glass 7x5 inches.

One last thing before I go is that I have recently joined a gift website called cherrypicked for you  it's got lots of lovely work on it and it will be building up it's numbers of  artists this year as it is relatively new, so do check it out.