Sutton Coldfield - August 2013

Even though the weather was not the best as the recent Christines Doll and Teddy Fair in Sutton Coldfield, inside we had a lovely day,  great chance to chat and meet up with other dollmakers and get our gossip on.

Below are a selection of photos that I took on the day... Enjoy!

Bruge Doll Show - August 2013

A year ago I booked to go to my first ever overseas doll show, seemed like a good idea at the time!  And you know what, it was a fantastic idea.  It was really hard work, kinda terrifying driving onto a ferry, another first for me and even more terrifying driving across two countries to get there... ok bit of an exaggeration there, two bits of two countries.   But I did it and to be honest it was quite a liberating experience, made me realise actually I am much braver than I thought I was.


A good friend of mine, Morny, stepped in at the last moment to come with me and saved my bacon.  We had a blast, we laughed so much during the trip there, we sang to loud pop music and we generally put the world to rights.  Morny for Prime Minister!!!

After a very very early start and a long... but fun... drive we arrived in the fantastically beautiful ancient city of Bruge, although let me tell you, the one way system is a BITCH!!!

We went around the city one way system 3 times.... all three times we found the venue and the hotel but couldn't approach it as we were being wildly gesticulated at by people telling us we couldn't approach the venue, "no cars allowed"!   Eventually we just thought sod this and approached anyway and finally arrived at the destination. 

Ceinwen (my partner in crime) and her husband were already half assembled when we arrived and from there on in the weekend was just a blur of doll show, faces and laughter.

I took a lot of photos of the show and the city so I hope you take a moment to watch the slideshow and enjoy some of my moments from the weekend.

Andrew Ready Just In Time!

Got a big show this Sunday, Discover Dolls at the Holiday Inn in Peterborough and I have just managed to come in under the wire with Andrew, reborn from a Braydon by Nicole Russell sculpt. Measuring 17inches Andrew is a sweet little handful. I think he will be taking pride of place on my stand this weekend

 

 

 

 

Doll & Teddy Show ~ Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham

Had a lovely day at the Motorcycle Museum at the weekend even though the weather was atrocious there was a good turnout and everyone seemed quite chipper. 

Cheese eating grin!

Below is a selection of photos taken on the day by myself and Cathy Read. 

Discover Dolls - Peterborough June 2012

Wow what a weekend it was a brilliant one, we were lucky the weather actually cleared and we had our first rain free days for a while.  Someone liked us all very much.  The show was busy, this one is the longest doll show of the calendar, two full days of dolly heaven.  It was so good to see so many new faces and so many more familiar ones ( I was going to say older ones but I bit my tongue). 

I loved my L shaped spot beside the door in the main room and I was really happy to have Shirley Jones from Sugar Plum Nursery next to me, we don't get to chat often enough so 2 full days of nattering was just fabulous! Ok granted we did talk to lots of other people as well.

 

There was a full turn out of stands, with all the babies, tools, kits, clothing and accessories you could possibly want.

I sold a doll, my sweet little Philip was lucky enough to find someone who wanted to take him home.  I kind of knew this lady had fallen in love, the 5 visits to look at him were a big clue but it really made me happy to see someone so excited and inspired by my work.

There was some amazing dolls on display at the show and I was really inspired watching the skill demonstrations at the PLBD stand.

Philip

 

I was really pleased at how well my customised mini babies sold at the show, but that's for another post.  Can't wait until the next show when I can see all my friends again.

Christine's First Bloxwich Doll Show - May 2012

I'm not a morning person, I'm really not, my family will tell you that they often have to crowbar me out of bed, which gives you some idea of how bad I am. I often drive to dollshows in remote control, but this Sunday I was up and about, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Yes, hard to believe I know, but nevertheless... true!

It took me an hour and a half to drive to the venue and I really enjoyed the drive, most of the time when you are driving up a motorway you have to concentrate so hard and keep your eyes on what the other drivers are doing you miss out on what's going on around you. But it was so quiet on the roads I actually got to look about and enjoy it. Obviously taking pictures was out of the question... I'm not suicidal but I was passing such lush green fields and fields full of rape seed blossom, it was truly beautiful.

My friend Christine held her first doll show in Bloxwich on the 6th May, I have to say I was blown away by the venue, it was this lovely modern building set in the back of a residential area, looking at it from outside you could tell it was going to be nice inside.  There was plenty of free parking and easy access into the hall for stallholders, so getting set up was literally a breeze.

The hall was bright and light with lots of windows and high ceiling and a lovely bouncy laminate floor, fancy a tango anyone?

There was plenty of stand space available. The venue had the benefit of a staffed Bistro serving great food, I had Fish, chips and peas for the very reasonable price of £2.50!

Not to mention the very nice seating area in the Bistro looking out onto the piece de resistance, a canal complete with peacefully sleeping ducks.  It was just a beautiful idyllic setting for a doll show.  

Obviously running a stall meant I couldn't take advantage of a sit down in the Bistro nor the chance to chill out by the water and watch the ducks. But I really really wanted to. 

 

I mean, come on, a doll show, a fabulous setting, great food, all in one place. What is not to like!

The Bloxwich venue has already been rebooked for next year, 12th May 2012, put the date in your calendars and come and enjoy this show. I've already booked my tables!  Well done Christine on such a cracking show.

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.

Discover Dolls Show - Peterborough June 2011

As always the Discover Dolls Show was a busy and full weekend.  The summer version of the doll show ran over two days. On the first day as well as the stands there was also demonstrations by Doll Artists showing different painting and rooting technique over several hours during the middle of the day.

I was really impressed by the generosity of the doll community as was shown by the tables laden with prizes for both the Make A Wish Foundation fund raising and the Tombola.

My own donation to the Make A Wish table was Fraser who was lucky enough to be won and went off with his happy new owner. 

For me however, the best part of the weekend was having a visit from our friends Sam and Garry,  Sam who was a star helping me out over the two days but also just the fun we had over the entire weekend.  Friends do seem to make any event so much better.

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.

Discover Dolls - Peterborough - October 2010

What an amazing day! The show was great, lots of very familiar faces and lots of new people,  I got to see a lady who I used to live quite close to but had lost touch with since my move, so that was a bonus! I also got to spend time with Sam Brown, a fellow reborn artist and good friend, who spent the day with me on my stand and was saleswoman extraordinaire, which gave me time to take lots of pictures for people at the photobooth,  I will have to post a selection of the photos I took (including some incredible ones of Ceinwen's fairies) in another post because I have too much here just talking about the show!!

Sam and Ceinwen

I was really fortunate in that I had three babies adopted on the day, which really pleased me, Finn and Georgia both found new homes so I was really happy with that as well as Christine picking up her custom baby Kimberley Beth.

Christine Collecting Kimberley Beth

Sue collecting Finn

At the next table to me was Ceinwen Clarke who was displaying her amazing fairy creations and they were truly eyecatching and the amount of effort and time Ceinwen had put into not only the dolls but their individual outfits was wonderful.

There is something really satisfying about watching all these people who have come with such expectation and empty hands leaving with their new babies either wrapped in blankets or in presentation boxes and baskets with huge happy smiles at the end of the day.  As an artist knowing you have given that pleasure... well to be honest, there's not a feeling like it.

I did take a lot of photographs of the stands, the visitors and the dolls on display and below there is a slideshow selection for you all to enjoy.

Maya

Maya is another of the dolls that I will be displaying and with luck rehoming at the Discover Dolls Show this weekend.  Maya has been created from a Deshawn sculpt by Jen Printy.

Maya measures about 19inches and has gorgeous baby blue german hand blown glass eyes.

Come along and meet her at the Discover Dolls Show on Sunday 17th October at the Holiday Inn, Peterborough.

Motorcycle Museum Doll Show - 26th September 2010

I had a fantastic day at the Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, I joined Cathy Read and Lisa Dawson on the Discover Dolls stand for the day, thanks ladies, it was great to have such good company.

Shows are always so much more fun when you have company to share the day with.  The Show was its usual mix of teddies, vintage dolls, reborn dolls and OOAK's and as usual the customer turn out was excellent, and customers seemed very enthusiastic about the artwork on show.

I was particularly delighted to have one of my babies adopted on the day, Charlie was rehomed to a really lovely lady who loved him on sight. 

Teeny Tiny Finn

I will also be presenting for sale this sweet little morsel at the upcoming Discover Dolls, Finn was created from a Tamie Yarie sculpt,  Quinn, at 12 inches this little sweetie fits into your hands so well.  But even being so tiny Finn is wonderfully detailed.

The tiny delicate limbs have all the detail and beauty of a full sized sculpt. 

Finn will be available for a cuddle at  Discover Dolls on Sunday 17th at the Peterborough Holiday Inn.

Come along and say hello.

Georgia

The sculpt I used to create Georgia is one of my favourite sculpts, there is something so endearing about the cheeky face that Evelina Wosnjuk has created for this sculpt.  Everytime I look at Georgia's face I find myself smiling, it's something I just can't help doing.

Georgia will be one of the dolls I will be presenting at the upcoming Discover Dolls Show in Peterborough at the Holiday in this coming Sunday 17th October. 

The Discover Dolls Show is a great show with 3 rooms full of wonderful dolly art and supplies.

Christines Doll and Teddy Fair - Weston Super Mare - July 2010

Going to Weston Super Mare was a first for me, never been there before. One of the things I am loving about the Dolly World is the fact that I am getting to visit towns I have never been to and didn't even know existed, it's a fantastic experience and it's definitel widening my horizons.

As Weston Super Mare was quite a trek for us, almost 3 hours and was almost half way between myself and my friend Natalie Milne we thought it would be really fun to make a long weekend out of it. So off to Weston we went. I was as excited about seeing Natalie and her family as I was about the show!

My stand on the day.

The room that we were all displaying in was large, bright and well lit, with lots of space for the stands and wide aisles between the stands giving visitors plenty of room to look around and browse.  As well as reborn dolls there was kits and supplies on offer and teddy bears. 

More photos of the day below.

 Natalie Milne and her daughter Sophie