Holiday Mode - yay

Good morning lovely people

Can I firstly say that something strange happened during writing last week's blog post and somehow I managed to publish way before I had finished. I un-published it but not before 6 people had seen it, presumably some of you lovely folks that have an automatic link. So as blogger probably wont then have told said lovely folks that the finished version was published, may I advise, if last week you got a very strange unfinished blog, then please go to the bottom of this blog post and there you will find it complete. Sorry for any inconvenience and thanks. Ally

There's a Starman waiting in the sky.....

or actually waiting on our record player.

Good morning world, hope you are all fab on this incredibly warm Monday morning. It's hot here in England, and we are just not really used to it.

Exciting new delivery today

Good morning you internet lovelies  

So the postman knocked on the door this morning and I crossed my fingers because I have been waiting for this particular parcel for a while now as it was being sent from China, and that can take a bit of time.

legs, legs and more legs

Good morning internet sweethearts,

hope everyone is ok and enjoying spring/summer or autumn/winter, depending on where you are in the world. It's a little rainy here today, but at least that means the garden is being watered and I feel I can stay in and sew and not feel I ought to be outside. (Although sewing outside, is by far the best.)

Breena - The Makers Medley Challenge for May

Morning all you internet lovelies.

Last week was the May reveal for the Makers Medley Challenge (it's on the 16th of each month) and the challenge was Spring/Forests, which is lovely. I really love spring, as the weather warms and the blossoms appear everywhere, I can easily imagine little fairies everywhere too.

Experiment with a doll face

Good morning all you lovely internet bods,

Firstly let me apologise for misleading anyone. When I posted this little snippet on Instagram yesterday, I was just showing that is was an old head and that is why it had a neck hole instead of a mouth, it never occurred to me that people might think I was making a two headed doll. My bad.

Exhibition news - a chance to see my dolls in person so to speak.

Good morning all you internet lovelies

Hope you have had a lovely weekend and are raring for another week?...... No…..

Oh well? Here is a little of what’s happened in the Honey Pot last week to take your mind off it.

Two things to report this week, drum roll.…………….

Spring Cleaning the Honey Pot

Good morning all you internet beauties.

I hope you are all well and those of you based in the UK are enjoying the long weekend.

Today I have switched the Beeskneesartdolls.co.uk to the Honey-Pot-Creations.co.uk website, to tighten up on marketing and make things more streamlined. It is a work in progress, with a fair way to go, but just don't be surprised that if you type in Beeskneesartdolls.co.uk you end up in the honey pot. All the information has been transferred over too.  I'm hoping that it will be easier to manage and there will be more continuity.

Scotland and Mediating Angels

Good morning internet lovelies

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter break, and didn’t eat too much chocolate. I’m more of a Haribo fan myself, yummy.

But on with the blog. As you will know if you read my last blog, myself and the good Dr. J. were off to bonny Scotland for our Easter break, and we had such a wonderful time there. 

 Trying to take a photo of the dog was tricky, she runs ever so fast.

The weather was surprisingly good for us, considering the forecast before we set of was for rain the whole week. We had rain, yes, but we also had sun and warmth. There was only one morning of heavy consistent rain, but as it happened that was the day we had pre-decided we would stay in one place and we used it to recharge our batteries so to speak and stayed in and read and I worked on my newsletter plans. (I’m afraid the only bit of business related organisation I did, so much for big plans to come back organised. haha). The rest of the rain was dramatic and heavy but over in 5 minutes, like somebody was turning on and off a switch.

As for Scotland it was beautiful, dramatic and wonderful. I hope some of these pictures do it justice. We pottered around, Loch Lomond, on to see the Highlands a little, Ben Nevis from a distance, towards the coast at Glenuig, and back via Inverarey. I attempted to keep up to date with my sketch book but to be honest we walked so much there wasn’t time. (The dog loved it.)

I had hoped to find somewhere dramatic to do a photo-shoot with my angel for the Makers Medley April Challenge, but I was spoilt for choice, everywhere was gorgeous and dramatic. 

In the end, I decided on the hills above Glenuig, a woody mysterious area, covered in moss of every description, dripping from trees and covering everything on the floor, to such a depth your hand could almost disappear inside. 

We found some remains of old tumbled down stone cottages up there too, which made a perfect backdrop. The whole place was fairy-like and ethereal, just perfect for a meditating angel.

So, in conclusion, I love Scotland and hope to go back soon and see more.

And if you should get the chance I’d advise the same.

Don’t forget to follow The Makers Medley for more photos and details from the other artists on their angels and all the dolls from the challenges, there’s some serious talent. Next is Spring Time/Forest, exciting…

Until next week.

 

Hugs and Kisses

Ally

The Maker Medley - March Challenge - Strange and Unusual

Good Morning all you internet lovelies,

I do hope you had wonderful weekends.

Today I thought I’d show you the doll I made for The Makers Medley Challenge for March, which was titled ‘Strange and Unusual’.

The Creative Doll Artists Project

Good morning Internet Lovelies

Today I thought I’d introduce you to another awesome group I am part of.  This one is on Facebook and is called the Creative Doll Artists Project, the work of a wonderful doll maker called Lacey Michelle Hayes who creates these gorgeous little critters http://www.Instagram.com/OddlySweetDolls. She is so talented you really need to look her up.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheCreativeDollArtistsProject/

 

Anyway the group has brought together a brilliant bunch of makers of all types and abilities and we all help and support each other, if you make dolls and haven’t joined I highly recommend that you get over there now.

The brilliant thing about Lacey and her group is that all are welcome and no one is made to feel inadequate as happens fairly often in other groups.

A number of the art doll groups on Facebook don’t see cloth dolls as art at all and although perception is slowly changing some don’t even allow cloth dolls in. Personally, I don’t see a sculpted doll that has no moving parts a doll at all but actually a statue, but that is a whole different point and can make a blog post in its self.

Lacey keeps up encouragement and inspiration by arranging monthly activities. In February we had an Instagram post a day challenge #tcdapFeb. I am afraid I didn’t keep up with every day’s post but did quite a few and enjoyed see everyone else’s photos on Instagram. Search for the hashtag on Instagram to see what was going on.

This month, March, is a doll challenge. After holding a vote on the Facebook group, of which Circus won hands down, we are all challenged to make a circus themed doll and post work-in-progress photos on Instagram and the finished dolls’ photos will be made into a slideshow. All very exciting and you can keep up to date with it all by following on Instagram the hasttag #tcdapMarch for everyone or just my bits on www.instagram.com/honey_pot_creations.

Here is the start of my doll. I'm working from bottom up and have tried a new technique of wrapping the cloth foot in paper clay and sculpting directly onto the leg.

Well that's all for now, till next time

Hugs and Kisses

Ally