Presenting…Dot and Ethel

This week I am working towards a career first. I started up a new Theatre Company with the gloriously talented director, Heidi Vaughan. We are called Dot and Ethel and we had the opportunity to come up with A Family Christmas Show for pre school children and the story of 'The Little Match Girl' has been close to our hearts for a while.

The show is being performed daily at 2pm at The Wardrobe Theatre, above the White Bear Pub in Cotham. To book tickets, email tickets@thewardrobetheatre.com

Apart from taking responsibility for the general look and design of the show, I have designed my first publicity image.

I only found out later that Hans Christian Anderson had been a paper cutter by trade as well as his story telling, but I loved the feel and quality of paper, wood and other natural products to reflect our approach to creating this show.

I have attempted imitating Rob Ryan before, and loved discovering artists inspired by his work up in Edinburgh this summer, but now the image is out there, I thought I'd show you a few images that didn't make the 'cut'…please excuse that awful pun!

until we settled on our final and favourite combination…and a little sticker design!

we hope to see you there!

Design your own collection Competition!

We learnt this month that Issue 20 of Cloth Magazine is to be it's last. Ros and I have had an amazing time helping to create and shape the magazine. It has brought us lots of new exciting ventures and introduced us to some wonderful people. We look back with pride and real fondness.

Back in January I was commissioned to create 'Rose', Cloth's very own vintage inspired Paper Doll, to wear illustrated version of the actual creations advertised in the magazine. Here are some of the first outfits for Rose's wardrobe.

You can find more of Rose's outfits on my website. It was then opened up to readers and designers to create their own outfits for Rose and our favourite ones were printed each month.

Why not print off Rose and do your own paper doll fashion creation and send it back to me on fixuplookchic@gmail.com

I will post my favourites on the blog and give you a follow on Twitter!

Reading Room: Cressida Bell's 50 Fabulous Cakes

Books are a huge inspiration. No surprise there, but it is often the unlikely sources that give me the greatest pleasure. Therefore I am starting a new 'bookspiration' feature and what better way to start than with CAKE.

I assure you this is a design focussed post.

Whilst in product design, fashion, interiors, the standards have been constantly raised with groundbreaking ideas and techniques, the world of cake decorating has remained pretty twee and nostalgic. Cressida Bell, a descendant of the print obsessed Bloomsbury Group admits she is no baker, but when it comes to cake decorating, she approaches it with the focus of a high end product designer. Taking inspiration from fabrics and wallpapers, her cakes are simply inspiring. Here are some of my favourites.

Cressida Bell’s Cake Designs: Fifty Fabulous Cakes (Double-Barrelled Books, £25)  Commissions taken at Cressida Bell

Photographs by Sonja Read