inspired by fairy tales

i feel that a post about fairytales, dolls and creatures was almost fated. every conversation recently has had some reference , be it my friend caroline searching for vintage scraps for dollmaking.

or an entry to our birthday cake competeition from the fabulous rebecka of vintage fairy tales

which sparked a lovely email conversation about gardens and flowers. everything seems to be feeling fairytale at the moment! do go and check out rebecka's stunning creations and amazing photos on her blog.

Anyway all this reminded me of a great exhibition Jo and I went to see at the museum in the park in stoud a few years ago, called folk art and fairy tales. It was filled to the rafters with amazing characters and creatures, such as this lovely character by samantha bryan who blogs here all of her creations had little personalities, almost as if they had a voice.

Jess Brown is a textile artist who has been featured in selvedge magazine, she creates dolls with character and beauty but without tweeness, they are simple and pared down.

The most beautifully elegant of dolls are those created by pipsqueak chapeau, the fabrics used have such a simple grace.

su blackwell is an artist who Jo and I have admired for a very long time, she inspired Jo's amazing christmas cake. Again I think her work has this almost secret beauty, almost as if you are sneaking up and seeing something that has escaped from the pages of the book.


Apolline has that same quality, you must visit their website, don't whatever you do skip the intro, and do make sure you have the sound on, on your computer to enjoy a secret peek into a magical world, it is one of Miss B's very favourites!

More of su blackwells magical creations

when Jo and I went to see folk art and fairytales we were both (along with all of the children) completely mesmerised by this piece by Lucy Casson. This is just a detail, but there are lots of little pictures of the piece here, click on the thumbnails. Again the artist had managed to create a little vignette of characters all working, the piece is called 'the upholsterers studio' and it is a chair being worked on by a cast of little creatures, you can almost hear their conversations tinkling as you watch.

one can't write a piece about fairytale creatures without a mention of the amazing julie arkell, I am hoping Jo will one day post the pictures of the family she made when she went on one of Julie's courses in stroud. Julie also does a course at les souers anglaise in Briancon each summer, and I am very envious of Sam and Rebecka who went last year.

finally my other favourite from the folkart and fairytales show (these photos were found on flickr) was the work of textile artist Jayne Lennard, who seems to have no web presense, so all I can tell you is that this piece was called 'thumbellinas trousseau' and it was an exquisite collection of little garments in pale linens, which looked as though they had been made by fairies!

Anyway I hope you enjoy a little sprinle of fairy dust on this grey february evening.......