Eloise
Whitewashed walls and old wooden doors fill the small cottage where Eloise spends her days and nights. Muslin drapes cast ghostly shadows as they billow out from the draughty windows with many panes of thick distorted glass made butter yellow by their sunlit glow.
All colours are pale and hazy, all except the trail of wonderfully coloured buttons that litters the floor and winds from room to room, ending in a corner where a rickety old sailor’s chest overflows with collections of these candy tinted delights. Eloise adds a new pair of buttons every day to add a touch of vividness to her otherwise faded attire, a simple delight to brighten her day.
Hello friends!! Well I am so behind in blogging my 'list of things past/present and future' and the list is ever growing so I thought I had better at least make a small attempt at getting through it.
This doll was actually completed a wee while ago and I am only now getting around to editing the photographs and writing the stories. She is part of my very exciting collaboration that I may have mentioned a while back with my very good friend Debbie Bryan who has recently opened her own shop and studio in the historic Lace Market here in Nottingham. We had discussed working on a collaboration some time ago and these dolls are the result (with more to come!). As well as beautiful knitted scarves, Debbie also works with resin, creating buttons, brooches and cufflinks to which she adds the most wonderful textures and inclusions. Her larger brooches contain hand remnants of the past and other wonderful delights - go to her website to see! Anyway as I had been using vintage buttons for a wee while on my dolls it just seemed the perfect opportunity to use some of Debbies hand cast buttons, which are completely unique and just add that extra dimension to my characters both in their costumes and in their stories. Currently they are exclusively sold in Debbies Shop & Studio.
As a celebration of our collaboration, Debbie is holding a 'meet the artist' (Me!) event and tea party on Sunday 13th September - see here for more details. I will be there working on some of my characters, there will be tea and cake. I would really love to see you there.
(PS you can see more photos of Eloise and other characters here)
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