I have been promising to write more about the job that has taken me away from my felting in recent months, so here we are at last! But first a bit of background...
In a past life I studied Illustration at Harrow Art School and worked in publishing for over 30 years, free-lancing as a writer, illustrator & designer and ending up specialising in children's craft books. I have always considered this to be my job - it's on my passport - that is up until a few years ago when the recession, new technologies, cutbacks in schools and library services all contributed to a general downturn in the publishing world and work dried up, almost overnight...
But it did give more time for my felt making which quickly developed into an exciting new way of life as is well-documented here at Felting Matters...
And then life changed again, as often happens, and last year I was contacted by a children's publisher and asked to develop ideas for a craft series - I was back at the drawing board...
The first two books in the series were to feature 'Jungle' & 'Safari' animals, showing children how they could make models following simple step-by-step instructions. I was asked for samples and first made a lion from a margarine tub, card tubes and scrunched-up newspaper, with chunky pipe cleaner mane & whiskers. He was used for this cover mock-up, although he's been through some colour changes since then....
Each book features 15+ projects and these were designed using basic materials found around the house - recycled packaging, cartons, tubes, plastic bottles & containers, newspaper, kitchen towels, etc.
The projects also had to have a function where possible - so there's a Giraffe CD box, Lizard fridge magnets, puppets, pop-up cards, mobiles, spider badges and a Warthog money box made from a plastic drinks bottle (my personal favourite!)
All the models have step-by-step instructions which were written as the projects were designed and all the steps are illustrated. There are also pages of template shapes to follow and eye sticker sheets, which is a really useful extra as they are the most difficult things to cut out.
It was quite an undertaking, which has taken many months to put together and wouldn't have been possible without KC's involvement. He made some of the models, putting my instructions to the test and ironing out many 'technical' problems. He also photographed the whole process so we had good reference for the artwork, which consisted of 6-8 steps per project and took six weeks to complete. He took shots of the models just before they were all packed up and sent off, just in case... Work in transit is always nerve-wracking!
Here's just a selection of some of the projects...
And now it's all gone to production and books should be available later on in the year - hopefully in plenty of time for Christmas. I will post up the publication dates as soon as I hear...
Will there be more titles in the series?
I do hope so as it's been a great job to work on - so everything's crossed!