Into the Woods

Mabyn Mossback is Welsh. Like all Welsh people she is descended from the Celtic tribes which existed in Great Britain before the Romans came, before the Anglo-Saxons, before the Vikings, and before the Norman Conquest.

I love Wales and Welsh culture. I tried to do it justice with this witch of 'Good Witches Bad Witches™'. You can read more about her and see the concept art as I developed her character design in a post about her here.

Today she took her ram-led cart (which is carved with Welsh dragons in a Welsh love-spoon style) into this misty forest I created. On the back of her cart are her provisions including woolen clothing, leeks, potions and bones. She wears a type of Welsh stovepipe hat and colors of the Welsh flag. A Welsh mining lamp lights her way (I put a tiny bulb in there and the amber glow it casts is real). She is of course in one inch miniature scale and conceived, designed, hand-sculpted and photographed by me. ;)

If you follow Tall Tales Productions on Instagram you may have seen my live broadcast as I photographed and filmed her in this magical setting. The video was live and disappeared moments later, but if you caught it you might have also caught me accidentally turning the camera on myself whilst attempting to end the video(!!!) Still learning this Instagram live video thing...

Enjoy the photos.

And also, update on Hortense....! If you follow the Facebook page then you'll know that the countdown has begun! I get the prototype back very soon, and after I hand-paint it, I'll photograph her and start accepting pre-sales! It should be by the weekend...

Stay tuned and don't forget you can also subscribe to the newsletter (here) if you want updates such as these.

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Rare Welsh Bits...

A little while back I wrote about my design process for the character Mabyn Mossback, who is the Welsh witch from Good Witches Bad Witches ™ and also the latest character addition. You can see the post here.

Finally, here she is!

Mabyn Mossback is a 1:12 character sculpt - handmade by myself using clay, wire and mixed media. She'd be about 5 foot (5 inches) if she stood upright. Mabyn dresses in old fashioned Welsh attire complete with red wool shawl, green knit open finger gloves and a Welsh stovepipe hat. Her cart is carved like a wooden love spoon (again, read more about the design here) and there are dragons carved into the cart - a tribute to the national emblem for Wales - the dragon. Finally, Mabyn's cart is pulled by a black ram with a copper cattle bell around his neck.

I added a flickering light to this piece, just like the lantern I made for Captain James Hook here. This lamp is a Welsh miners' lamp. They're amazing objects, don't you think? Growing up back in my English village, we had a brass Welsh miners' lamp hanging in the kitchen and it gave such a wonderful glow.

Enjoy the photos of Mabyn below! As with all my witches you'll be able to learn a lot more about them and see more working photos in my book - out later this year. Explanation as to why the book is delayed is here.

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A Strange Dog, a Flood and a Man...

A strange dog, a flood and a man walk into a bar....

...no, not really. This Welsh proverb sounds like a joke at first glance. I like it and since this blog post is about something Welsh, I include it.

"Three things it is best to avoid - 

a strange dog, a flood, and a man who thinks he is wise."

~ Welsh proverb.

If you're disappointed and wanted a joke, scroll to the end of this post for my standard joke I tell in pubs. Few enjoy it as much as me.

This post is about my design process and how I arrive at something I am happy with.

Almost two years ago I designed and sculpted a Welsh witch character called Mabyn Mossback for 'Good Witches Bad Witches'  and showed her here on this blog. 

This was the initial sketch.

I had to include a sheep because Wales and sheep are inextricably linked. I had the sheep led by a leek on a string (naturally) and gave her a traditional Welsh stovepipe hat and red wool shawl. Also, she's knitting. I was never convinced this was the right design though...

Here's her sheep.

So a year later (April 2016) I found time to sketch her again - still riding her white ram and dressed mostly the same. This time I added an umbrella and a mushroom to her hat. It still wasn't right for 'Good Witches Bad Witches' so I shelved her again and worked on others.

This was the watercolour sketch.

This year I sold her since she never quite belonged to the 'Good Witches Bad Witches' world.... she was detailed and nicely made, but the design didn't work for me. I re-imagined her, this time without the leek on the string... and this time I suddenly realised that of course her ram had to be black, not white. I kept (but changed) the Welsh stovepipe hat and red wool shawl. I kept the umbrella. But this time, I designed her not riding the ram, but sitting in a modest cart, pulled by the ram. The cart is carved like a Welsh love spoon. Balls of wool sit packed up at the back of her cart. 

Here's the design...

And here it is as a better sketch...

Check back at this blog soon as I'll share images of the new sculpted maquette... the finished Mabyn Mossback (Welsh witch) and then in a few weeks there will be a video all about making her at the Tall Tales Productions YouTube Channel here. Please subscribe to the channel if you're interested in watching me work and stay tuned for tutorials to be added this year as well (that is, if interest is there!)

A glimpse at her and her ram...

And finally, my joke.

Two chemists walk into a bar. Bartender asks "What can I get you?"

The first chemist says, "I'll have a glass of H2O."
The second chemist says, " I'll have H2O too."

The second chemist dies.        tall tales productions, caroline mcfarlane-watts, cs mcfarlane-watts, animation, stop-motion, scale models, miniature models, miniaturist, concept maquette, maquette sculpting, sculpting figures, character design, laika, tim burton design, aardman, miniature characters, mackinnon saunders, peter lord

Leeks, sheeps and Stovepipe hats

So this ought to be my final witch of the British Isles, as part of 'Good Witches Bad Witches', since I have made an English witch, an Irish witch, a Scottish witch and now, a Welsh witch. ....However, I am not at all satisfied with the Irish witch so I will sell her and remake her with a very different design. So stay tuned for that!

Now then. When I think of Wales I think of a seriously beautiful language I can't pronounce (Cymraeg), daffodils, leeks, stovepipe hats, wool and sheep. I've told you I don't want any of my witches to be boring stereotypes, plus I want them contemporary albeit a bit stuck in the past, but this Welsh witch has actually ended up riding a sheep, whilst knitting from said sheep, wearing a Welsh stovepipe hat and yep, there's a leek in there too.

Just as with my other witches, you can see the design and making process in the photos below. Email me if you have any questions or are interested in following the project! Don't forget you can follow it all by Facebook or Instagram too.

As a side note, thank you to everyone who offered me feedback about me putting my ram's horns on upside down. I corrected the error! And for those who didn't see it, you can see the incorrect ram's head on the Faecbook and Instagram pages. :)

Next week there will not be a new witch as I have to work on something else, but I'll share it here on this blog and I think you'll enjoy it! Then when I get back to it I will remake the Irish witch and proceed making witches from around the world for 'Good Witches Bad Witches'.