Furgeous.

My my we have had a busy day, Her Ladyship has had a commission to make a stack of calendars for a Gentleman with some pictures of his two beautiful Maine Coon cats, so we have been sticking like mad all day.
They are called Pearl and Jasper and are brother and sister...

Now it's almost home time (I don't always stay in the studio at night in this cold weather, I go home with Her Ladyship and have a warm house to snuggle down in instead) I must tidy up before we go however, there are bits off of the double sided sticky tape all over the place...

...I wonder what's for tea?

Better late than never...

At long last here are some of the Oil Pastels Her Ladyship was painting last month.
They are rather fun to use, a bit like painting with lipstick (not that I ever have painted with lipstick you understand, but you get my drift!).

This one rather reminds me of the heather moors on the Isle of Lewis...

and these are three of the seascapes.

We do live in such a beautiful part of the world...such an inspiration, especially as that dreadful Goblin has gone west with His Lordship so we have peace and quiet today without any of his inane questions like "Wot would 'appen if I was to put this crayon in the toaster?"...really!
That said, I shall put the kettle on to celebrate his absence, a little toast and some Lady Grey is called for I think...without added crayon.

Artistic licence.

Gosh I have had a busy summer.


Firstly I must apologise for not writing sooner but Her Ladyship gave me a leave of absence as I had been commissioned to paint the portrait of one of our Elfin royal family.
Now a commission would normally be most welcome but when it is to paint Prince Grogbot one is faced with a bit of a dilemma.
The Prince is not...how shall I put it...much of an oil painting, therefore how much artistic licence should be used in order to make the painting acceptable to all ?
To that end it took several attempts and numerous working sketches before I dared show him anything.
This is one of the earlier working sketches…

…as you can see I had my work cut out to make him as regal as he would expect.
However with perseverance I succeeded and the finished work now hangs in his private chambers.

I was therefore relieved to get back to the studio…much less stressful pottering about in here helping Her Ladyship…I believe she has just ordered some more oil pastels and we are to do some painting when they arrive…thankfully not a portrait !

I felt that!

Oh my goodness what fun we have been having.

The felting machine arrived along with a huge mound of brightly coloured wool roving and Her Ladyship and I have been having a ball making all sorts of things to try it out.
We have made a veritable bouquet of flower corsages which are now festooning the studio.

It has been most interesting finding out how to felt the wool both by needle and with soapy water, the latter being rather messy but such fun.
I wonder what we shall make next.
Perhaps some wall hangings or something else…there are a selection of cookie cutters in the felting box and I’m not quite sure what they are for…I guess we shall have to wait and see.

Golly it has been a busy month since I last wrote, the trade fair is over and Her Ladyship has been tweaking and cutting and sewing and stuffing as a new batch of bears comes to life.

They are rather jolly, if a bit fiddly to make as they are only a few centimeters high.

I think this one is rather fetching in its blue and lilac flowers.

I thought I might gather together all the scraps and make myself a waistcoat, although it may take some time as the scraps are also rather small. Perhaps I shall have enough by the autumn then I can spend the winter sewing them together.

We are waiting for a shipment of wool to arrive soon and Her Ladyship is going to make some felty things...there is even word of an embellishing machine to help...I do hope she lets me have a shot of it as it sounds most intriguing.

Perhaps I could use it to decorate my waistcoat.

The making of a Fairy.

We have been beavering away like mad things here at the Studio, the trade show is only a week away now and we are just finishing up the last minute bits and pieces.
The place was full of Fairies last week,  much to Bramlings annoyance (he hates Fairies for some strange reason...I dare not ask), so I took some photographs of them being made for you to peruse.

This is a rather naughty one as the little Fairies are undressed!

That's better now they have their frocks on.

A new hairdo and some party shoes and they are dancing round the Studio.

Finaly a tiny Fairy wand and they are ready for anything...including grumpy Goblins!

Time for some tea before hanging the jewellery on the new stands we made yesterday I think...

Busy Busy...

It's been a busy week or so.
Her Ladyship had just started making the stock for the Trade show in April when she put her back out, so I have been doing lots of extra fetching and carrying to help her out. Picking up things she has dropped, fetching things out of low drawers or off high shelves, making soothing cups of tea and ensuring the batteries on the Tens machine were fully charged!

It has been a busy few weeks what with the extra work but hopefully her back will be better soon.

The workshops are also in full swing with  people beavering away every wednesday making, drawing, painting and photographing.

His Lordship has kindly allowed me to sit in on his photography ones so I can learn how to take better photographs now that I am allowed to use the camera.I can't wait for the "studio photography" session when we get to play with the studio lights too!

Well it's past time for elevenses so I had better go and put the kettle on...toodle pip.

What a Motley Bunch...

Her Ladyship was playing today...she has now caught His Lordships cold and wasn't feeling up to doing any serious work so we spent the day finishing off the Needle Felting she has been experimenting with over the winter...they are a rather motley bunch.

They have been made using different techniques and with wool from different sheep to see which worked best, do you know you wouldn't believe how many different flavours of sheep there are out there and there was me thinking they were all white!

Aah...mint sauce.

Is it spring yet?

Yawn...stretch...hmmm...

I think I must have fallen asleep, I do hope I wasn't snoring too loud.

Apparently the snow that was here has gone and there is new snow here instead. I was not entirely convinced that I had been asleep that long but Bramling dragged me outside to see the snowdrops just pushing their little heads through the ground so I guess I must have nodded of for quite a while.

I also seem to have missed the first workshops of the year so I made up for my absence by helping Her Ladyship tidy up the last of the Christmas stock and dust the shelves before rearranging the shop display for spring.

It can be quite a dirty job especially when there's snow outside and the floor gets wet so all the dust gets wet and sticks to my feet as I pad about the floor. I shall have to fill the bucket with some warm soapy water and wash them later on.

His Lordship is snuffling away in front of his computer with a head cold…I do hope I don’t catch it…not with a nose like this!

Never mind the oil burner is steaming away in the corner with some tea tree and eucalyptus oil in it, so hopefully that will help, it makes the place smell lovely too…perhaps I could use some on that smelly old goblin.

“Bramling…oh Bramling…are you busy?”

Chilly for June...

I do like a good toddle along the beach but it's proving a little difficult at the moment...it's so cold the sea has frozen!

I do feel sorry for poor Heron...it must make it well nigh impossible for him to catch any fish.

I wonder if I should take him some hot chocolate and a doughnut?

Perhaps some sardines would be more appropriate...then we can have the hot chocolate and doughnuts ourselves.

I shall just go and put the kettle on...

A good excuse...

By golly it's cold out there.
There's not much doing in the Studio just now so He Ladyship suggested I put on my socks and wellington boots and went to play in the snow, so here is a photograph I took of my good friend Wheredid enjoying this frosty weather.

I'm not a great lover of snow...far too cold and damp for my old bones...however it is a good excuse for a steaming mug of hot chocolate when one returns indoors.