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

Mini Magic

I fell in love with the second set of Secrist mini sculpts when they first appeared on the scene. I missed out of the first set completely, they sold out very fast but in some ways I don't actually mind that as the first set were in truth more difficult to do. On the first set you didn't have any pre-done eyes and painting realistic eyes onto a tiny 6 inch mini sculpt is a challenge to say the very least.

The second set featured 3 sculpts, one sleeping and two open eyed of which Belle, pictured here was one. This time the eyes were already done, which I imagine lead to more than one sigh of relief.

You would be mistaken in thinking that creating a doll from one of these tiny sculpts is any easier or less time consuming than a full sized sculpt, of anything they are more so because the tiny little details really require close attention and care when working on them.

although the mini sculpts came with their own very cute little outfits, it's always nice to add something individual and handmade and as luck would have it, I got that opportunity when I tested out a crochet pattern by Ceinwen Clarke that was going to be featured in the December 2009 Issue of Hello Dolly Magazine. After making the snuggie pattern up twice in full size i was inspired to make a mini version to fit little baby Belle.

Belle has recently gone off to a new home in Lithuania but I can see more minis in my future they are so much fun to do.