Oh hello, I’m late again, aren’t I? Sorry, much is afoot at the moment and I’m having trouble keeping up… Let’s have a sherry and a chat, this may take a while so settle in…
Can you keep a secret? Please don’t let the little houses in on it. They will only kick off and we don’t need that at the moment. So, I have been doing a little bit of work on the side and I thought I would show you a sneak preview…
I have always been a collector. A gatherer of beautiful things. I greatly admire those who live in uber-chic, pared down spaces and the beauty of that simpleness. But, much as I have tried, I just can’t do it. Now, don’t go away with the idea that I’m untidy, that is far from the truth. I usually know exactly where everything is. It’s just that it’s not possible for magpies to contain treasure sparsely. It spills out. My brother once said stepping into my home is like walking into Steptoe’s Yard, all that is missing is the human skeleton hanging in a corner. I’m working on that, but they’re expensive you know…
As a child, once old enough to brandish scissors, I would snip images and words out of magazines and keep them in a box. I still do this, but now they’re glued into sketchbooks and pinned on a floor to ceiling pinboard. Oh ok, there are boxes too… But they’re all necessary. They are inspirations…
The reason I’m telling you all this pertains to one particular snippet that I kept for years. I believe it must have been taken from a catalogue and was a flat lay of 6 or 7 rag dolls. How I loved them. I was never able to afford them but I hoped one day to make my own little doll family. In my childish scrawl I had named each doll in a list that corresponded to their catalogue number. Gayle, Rosalie, Stephanie… I don’t recall the others.
That set of dolls was never made. Over the years I made a few singular dolls but never quite scratched the nagging itch. The notion has never left me and raises its head every so often saying ‘what about me?’
So… Yesterday I almost finished the first doll and, whilst she is nothing like the original rag dolls, she is the beginning of something… Sneak peek… Feet first, as the saying goes… More next week… xxx