Brighton Doll Festival 2012

Oh wow, I can't believe I didn't get around to doing a write up about my day at the Brighton Doll Festival... I managed to get my lovely hubby to come with me to keep me company, I decided that it was worth a night at a Premier Inn so that we didn't have to do a really long drive early in the morning.  I don't do 5am... not if I can help it, as someone else said very recently 'I didn't realise there were two 5 o'clocks in the day'.  

So after a very relaxing evening, a wonderful hot shower (love Premier Inn showers, I swear I stay in them just for the shower) and a good nights sleep in a very comfortable bed. Different room this year so we didn't have the annoying hum from the generator on the roof and a cracking breakfast in the hotel restaurant, we set off to set up at the show.

This year was a new venue, a totally different area of Brighton to the Racecourse, I have to say that even though it was a bit chilly in the hall, not that we weren't warned about that and I was wearing a fairly toasty fleece, it was a nice venue, easy to find, a big airy open hall.  Hopefully next year there will be more stallholders which will help the hall to feel a little smaller. But spacewise there was plenty of room and no one could complain about being cramped. 

Ceinwen Clark - Looks innocent doesnt she!

This is my stand set up on the day. 

As usual the event ran like clockwork, Ceinwen had everything organised and under control and running with military precision. I swear she was a drill sergeant in a previous life! But in organising shows this trait can only be a good thing!

A full slideshow is available on the Discovering Dolls and Crafts website.

Diane's new toy

I did giggle watching my friend Diane snaffle her new baby a vintage pram, she had the biggest smile. Heaven knows where she is going to put it!

Ceinwen has said that the show in 2013 will be held in the same venue which I can say I will be looking forward to, another night in a Premier Inn and a great day out with dolly friends.

First Group Teaching Experience

I had my very first experience of teaching in a group setting just before the recent Brighton Doll Festival. I have to admit to being quite scared beforehand.  I mean I have taught in a one on one setting and although nervewracking being one to one with someone you don't have to be so concerned about timing the class or rather running out of time. 

I was lucky enough to have three lovely students for my first group lesson, all three were keen, motivated and open minded about what we were going to do with our two days. We were blessed with excellent weather, it's always so much easier to be creative when the sun is shining!   And also blessed with a wonderful venue for our workshop. 

Ceinwen Clarke played host to the workshop in her light airy workroom, light and airy but also a treasure trove of crafting goodies... the urge to go for a rummage is always difficult to resist in that room.  We were working on an Ember sculpt, a very cute sleeper kit.  On the first day we managed to do the bulk of the skin tones on our kits and it left us in just the right position to concentrate on the fine details and to be able to have rooting demonstrations from myself, Ceinwen and Donna Wells.    As well as Donna giving an excellent weighting demonstration which just showed how different everyone's techniques can be. 

By the end of the two days the three students went home with completely painted and assembled babies and very full tummies from all the excellent food Ceinwen plied us with.

Future classes are going to be held in Brighton, Wellingborough and Whittlesea, for details feel free to contact me, Ceinwen or Cathy Read.

Kimberley Beth

A sweet friend of mine and fellow doll enthusiast Christine Derry asked me to reborn one of the Bethan Rose sculpts, I knew she liked what I had done with the prototype for the sculpt but was really honoured to be asked to do one specially for her.   I think reborning for a friend is possibly more daunting than doing one for a stranger as when its a friend you really really want to give them the baby of their dreams even more...disappointing someone you care about is very hard to swallow after all.

Christine was incredibly patient with me as I worked on Kimberley Beth really slowly and was really precise in what I was doing... plus there was all the hassles of winding up the magazine etc which kind of brought me down.

I was finally able to present Kimberley Beth to Christine at yesterday's Discover Dolls fair and it really made my day to see her reaction and I managed to get a couple of fantastic pictures of just how pleased she was with her new baby.

Brighton Photo Booth

One of the hardest parts of Reborn Art is the final photography, the photographs that we use for our auctions and to show the quality of our work on our websites.

We are always striving to create a natural, realistic photograph. A lot of what we do as artists is about illusion and the photographs at the end of the process are as important to us as the creation of our dolls. That is not not an easy task.


At the upcoming Brighton Show I will be co-womanning a photography stand with a dear friend Cassie Peak of Baby Dust Nursery where we will be taking quality photographs of visitors dolls.

We will be bringing along proper lighting equipment, backgrounds and props so that we can create beautiful photographs.

Examples of Photographic work:

There will be a nominal charge for photographs.

3 Photographs for £5
10 Photographs for £10
20 Photographs for £15

Photo sessions will last approximately 20 minutes, pop along to the booth (Stand 27) and book your session.

Make sure you bring the outfits you want your photos taken in and your email address.