The Times

Sorry it was a bit quiet on the blogging front last week. We've been out & about talking to people about the competition. We met up with Susan Hancock, founder of Royal/T who was over from LA to discuss details on the exhibition of winning dolls.

We also spotted that the contest was in The Times. Look, there we are just under the one about, er, The history of Tube maps.

Thanks for all your emails about the contest. Hope your dolls are coming along well!

Marilyn Neuhart Dolls

We first stumbled upon this great story via Sprayblog. It's the tale of designer and writer Marilyn Neuhart who worked closely with the legendary Alexander Girard and Charles and Ray Eames. In 1961 Alexander Girard asked Marilyn to create 100 of her beautiful dolls for his Textile & Objects store. Back then she used Mexican cotton from a family-owned mill and when asked recently asked to create four new designs by House Industries she used the same supplier.

Maximo has lots more details about Neuhart and her work. I'm sure this quote from her will strike a chord with many of you:

"I sew because I have to-it is just that simple. After a long day hunched over my computer dealing with the vagaries of English spelling, clumsy syntax and wayward grammar, not to mention computer crashes and arbitrary and demanding clients, I look forward to time spent with my needle and thread, the tactile delight of cloth in my hands and the pleasure of working with color and form-nothing is more life-sustaining and yes, it has to be said-more therapeutic."

This picture of the dolls displayed on the wall is wonderful, it's exciting to think about our Momiji doll exhibition at Royal/T!

So, Marilyn used simple yet stylish print techniques on cotton to create her dolls. Which techniques are you guys using for your Momiji Couture dolls? Or is that top-secret?

photo credits: House Industries

Welcome

Hello!

Thanks for stopping by.

All the information you'll need about how to enter and our glamorous panel of judges can be found here www.lovemomiji.com/couture. We'll also be updating this blog with news and info as we go along. Add us to your favourites and sign up to RSS to make sure you're always up to date.

The Momiji Couture Contest was launched at New Designers in London last week. Thanks to all of you that stopped by and said hello.

Our stand at the show was a triumph! It was created by Zoe and Mat Murphy who did an amazing job. They've also worked with us to create flyers and posters for the contest (if you'd like one to spread the word, just let us know.)

Here are a few shots of us setting up. Sorry they're a bit hazy we took them on our phones, but Mat took some great pictures on his posh camera so we'll get those up as soon as we can. Zoe and Mat screen-printed up amazing blocks of colour and pattern aswell as jumbo buttons and scissors.

Here's Zoe fixing up photographs of Royal/T in LA where our top ten finalists will have their dolls exhibited.

Zoe's best handwriting...

Check back for more news very soon!