Doll clothes and a scarf/snood.

Hi, It has been a long time since I have written. Christmas was really hectic but things are settling down now and have made a couple of items for my on line shop. I have knitted a scarf/snood  and an outfit to fit a 18"doll. The pattern for the snood came from the Craftseller magazine and the doll outfit was from the pattern by Jacqueline Gibb. I love the Craftseller magazine it has some great ideas and patterns. I am back to teaching watercolour painting at my local college and its nice to get back to teaching after the Christmas break. I have also been asked to make a wedding cake for friends which is very exciting.

Advent Calendars and Doll Clothes.

Hi, I haven't written for ages. I am back at work teaching watercolour painting and have made lots of items for very fast approaching Christmas fairs. I have made advent calendars, embroidered cards and  knitted dresses for dolls. Lots still to be made. I have cut out felt to make gingerbread men and rudolph the red nosed reindeers. Here are a few pictures of some of the items I have been making.

The doll dresses are knitted from a pattern by Jacqueline Gibb for Jacknitss Design. The patterns are really excellent and are very easy to follow.

Gardening, painting and fashion doll dresses.

Hi, does'nt time fly. I have spent a couple of weekends working on my garden with my husband. It had become so overgrown it needed a big clear out with some replanting. Its only a small garden but it took a lot of hard work and I have replaced some shrubs with hardy perennials. I hope that
when they establish themselves I will have some lovely flowers for painting.
        I had a lovely surprise this week. I went to buy the Artist and Illustrator magazine and found my painting of an orchid printed in the portfolio section. It was great to see it in print. The only problem with photographing botanical paintings is that the white paper often looks blue or grey.
        I have also been stitching some dresses to fit 11.5" fashion dolls. I found a lovely mushroom/toadstool print fabric that made up into a two lovely dresses. Thats all for now folks.

The background paper is white. Orchid splendour.

Painting on holiday

Hi, I have just got back from my holiday in Cornwall. The weather was great and we had a lovely time. I enjoyed making a few pen and watercolour sketches of some lovely coastal scenery. I sketched the view in pen first and then added some simple watercolour washes finding this to be a much more successful approach than drawing and then painting in more detail. I found that on a family holiday you don't want to spend a long time painting but just create the essence of the places you visit quickly. I have taken lots of photographs so that, with the sketches I have made, I can now paint the lovely scenery of Cornwall at home.

Lanic Bay

Porthluney Beach

St Michaels Mount

Talland Bay

Bedruthen Steps

Painting Orchids

I have just finished my painting of an orchid. I loved the colours of this Orchid and thought it would make a lovely painting. Because Orchids have long stems I decided to approach the flower stem and the leaves seperately and overlay the leaves with the flowers. The masking fluid worked well and enabled me to achieve balanced washes across the leaves. I thoroughly enjoyed painting the markings on the petals. Very nice painting project to do.