Sunday, January 06, 2008

Happy New Year

A new year is like a blank canvas, just like these Russian dolls I got for my birthday. January is a great time to decide what you will change this year and to reflect on the past year. I don't make resolutions but I have decided that I need to make time for myself to do crafty, creative things in my spare time. I have lots of craft projects which I never got round to last year so I am going to make sure I do them this year, I MUST! I have want to make cushion covers, a sock monkey, a jewellery stand, recover my noticeboard and also do some illustrating.
My first project is to paint these brilliant Russian dolls. They are quite small- the smallest doll is about 3cm high (or should I say short)!

One of my Christmas presents was this beautiful book illustrated my Mary Blair and published in 1961. I love the illustrations which are quirky and stylised and yet I think they still look fresh and modern too.
I love the sweet little song sheet at the back of the book!If you are interested, you can see some more of Mary's gorgeous work here. Mary was an American artist who did work for Walt Disney, working on Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. She also illustrated packaging and greetings cards. It's really lovely stuff so do look if you get the chance.

3 comments:

Monkee Maker said...

Happy New(ish) Year, Pea, it's good to see you back.

And thanks for the memory .... I'm sure I had a book just like that years ago.

Good luck with those dolls, I'm sure they'll be stunning.

:)

natural attrill said...

Hello and happy new year!
Great to see that you're still blogging.
Cant wait to see what you do with those dolls.
Thanks for the Mary Blair link, I love her illos.
Penny.
x

Deb said...

hello pea. happy new year and thank you for the gifts you sent me. a very late thank you i know-please forgive me! snap-i also have the smae book and a set of blank russian dolls. i have had mine since september and darent paint them! dx.