I love England.
I absolutely adore cream teas in my anorak, sitting on the front seat upstairs on our double decker red buses, seas of umbrellas, the flag blowing in the wind outside Buckingham Palace against a grey cloudy sky, breakfast in bed under a super cosy goose down duvet, underground station tiles arching over the tube, carboot sales (especially very muddy ones), red cheeks from a blustery walk on the pebbly beach or through our beautiful rolling green grass hills, all our creepy crawlies, our national (shared) obsession with Moggies & Doggies, our Cockney rhyming slang, a pint in front of a roaring fire in my local, playing poo sticks over the stream in our woods, a slap up roast with apple crumble for pudding with pals on a Sunday, British street fashion and especially a double rainbow.
I would use my three wishes to have lived in Victorian times, sailed with Charles Darwin and asked the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland to please come to have a cuppa with me. So because of this as well as being Made In London myself I am bit obsessive about making all my bits and pieces in England too. Day after day and starry night after night I sit under the glow of a street lantern in my studio in Hampstead daydreaming, doodling and designing surrounded by a menagerie of animals from Henry my rabbit, to George my stag and never forgetting Mavis my long standing Flamingo friend as well as a cornucopia of vintage treasures I have picked up on my wanderings. Once finished my Intricate Ink Illustrations wing their way to Stoke On Trent situated right bang slap in the middle of our enchanting isle to what you may originally expect on first sight to be a dwelling of elves. Terracotta red bricks piled into the form of shapely chimney stack groups where actually inside David (a keen fisherman but definitely not an elf) hand makes each and every candle pot amongst other things which are then hand decorated with my Intricate Ink illustrations then baked again and finally hand painted with 22 carat gold detailing just because I love some sparkle too.
I hope you enjoy my characters as much as I enjoy making them.