Hey, Look What I found!

Hello everybody!

I am (still) in the process of having a clear out here at home. Such a lot of stuff and so little storage space! Amongst my collection I came across these:

Gene ‘Avant Garde’ outfit from 1999. Still in box.

Gene 5th Anniversary Limited Edition ‘Bolero’ outfit from 2000.

I can’t remember where they originallycame from but since I no longer collect Gene stuff, I decided to put them up on e-bay  There are lots more pictures of them there.

Each outfit is complete and neither looks as if they have ever been out of their boxes. So, I thought it would be good to pass them on to someone that really wants them. Hopefully they will both find a home with another collector and make somebody’s Gene doll very happy.

 

I have a BRAND NEW on-line store!!

Hello,
 
I have just opened a brand new on-line store at E-bid.
 
At the moment I am working hard to add as many of my in-stock-and-ready-to-send miniature dolls as I can. Several of these dolls are listed at below my normal retail prices and will make excellent Christmas presents for your friends……or why not treat yourself?

I plan to add quite a mix of miniature dolls from ordinary every-day characters to fantasy and fairy folk.
 
If you would like to see my new store please go to

http://angelique-miniatures.ebid.net/

 
Be sure to check back often to see all the new dolls that I add over the next couple of weeks!

Hope you enjoy your visit!

ANOTHER BRAND NEW DOLL. YOUNG HENRY VIII: A NEW KING FOR A NEW ERA.

 

On 21^st April 1509 the elderly King Henry VII died and his eighteen year old second son became King Henry VIII of England. Young Henry was taller than the average Tudor man, athletic, creative and handsome with a love of music and a keen interest in the latest fashions; quite a change from his dour, dull and penny-pinching father.

Thus started the reign of a most memorable and famous King who, through his decisions and actions

would determine the course of English history……….the turbulent Henrician era had begun.

The young Henry VIII. The eighteen year old fashionable dandy of his time.

 Having created my Young Katherine of Aragon doll first (see previous post), I wanted to match and tone the colours of Henry’s costume to those used for Katherine. I also wanted to give the feeling of youthfulness and hope which is why I kept the colour scheme light and fresh. It is also true that at this time (1509/10) the dour and dark colours of Henry VII’s reign did briefly go out of fashion for younger people. However, darker colours did return to fashion within the next few years although they were mainly used for accent rather than for a whole outfit.

(After the frugal Court of the elderly King Henry VII, the older courtiers must have had quite a shock when the vivacious new teenage King spent a fortune in brightening the ‘old place’ up for himself and his young, exotic Spanish bride. Henry VIII would become known for his lavish spending! )

In deciding the style of Young Henry’s costume, I designed it using a mixture of styles found in costume reference sources in books and on the internet . I also found the the following portrait of a very young Henry:

Portrait of a very youthful King Henry VIII.

 Henry’s hair style is typical of the very early Tudor era, worn long and straight; very different from the much shorter styles of the mid-Henrician era that we are more familiar with. The hat in this portrait is still quite Medieval in style being round with a turned up brim, decorated with brooches. The robe with its heavy and wide fur collar would continue for many years although in this early period, it is not as padded and large as it would become mid era. Below is a close up picture  of the top half of Young Henry:

Top half of Young Henry showing detail of hat, hair, 'fur' robe collar and jewellery.

 I chose to make a slightly different version of the hat with a more pointed crown but still with the turned up brim. It is difficult to see in this picture but the brim is also notched as was the high fashion of the time. As described in many contemporary descriptions, Henry has the auburn hair that he (and his children) were so famous for, styled loose and shoulder length as described before. You can just see the top of the fine silk shirt with its fancy gold band, over which there is a jewelled gold necklace with diamond shaped peridot pendant. I chose to make the V-necked doublet in pale almond green silk brocade to tone with the colouring on Katherine’s under-gown. The heavy jewelled chain around Henry’s shoulders is made from a metallic gold braid with flat backed pearls and crystals added to each section and joined at the centre front with tiny golden jewelled filigrees. Below is a close up of the lower half of Henry’s costume:

Close up of purse and (nervous cough!) the required codpiece!

 You can see from the picture above that the doublet finishes just below the waist and there is a fancy cord belt tied over it to hold the decorated leather purse. During this early Tudor period, the hosen (leg coverings) were still very Medieval in style and full-length, very much like our modern day tights (panty hose). (Later on the hosen would become more like stockings). During the 1500s it was still very fashionable for younger men to display their shapely legs fully. Although quite a delicate subject nowadays, the codpiece was also very important part of the gentleman’s costume. At this time it consisted of a triangular flap laced to the main part of hosen and was not padded or emphasised as in later fashions. It was merely practical to cover the privates but convenient enough to undo in order to pee.

I used a fine silk jersey fabric for Henry’s hosen and hand-dyed it to tone with the colour scheme used for Katherine. At first I dyed it to match Katherine’s under-gown but felt that the paler colour was too feminine for Henry so I decided to re-dye it a few shades darker. The codpiece caused me quite a lot of trouble regarding trying to make it look right and not ridiculous! Without any form of ‘filling’ in it, it looked wrong and with too much, it looked equally wrong. Having tried tiny amounts of cotton wool and then toy stuffing, I was about to give up when I noticed a little scrap of the silk jersey on the floor that had missed the bin. A few minutes of rolling, scrunching and hand stitching later, Henry’s annoying codpiece was annoying no more! Below is a close up of Henry’s leather shoes:

Close up of Henry's fashionable wide-toed leather shoes.

Once the problems of the hosen were overcome the shoes were quite simple to make. At this time, the slim, more pointed shoes of the Medieval period had given way to a new German-style fashion of very wide-toed shoes. These shoes were very flat and could be worn either with or without a strap across the instep and were often slashed to reveal a different coloured leather through the slashes. The width of the square shaped toes was often highly exagerated and much wider than the foot of the wearer, often being padded out inside………something that would also become popular with the robe and doublet of later times. Below is a close up of the robe and doublet sleeves:

Close up of Henry's slashed doublet sleeve and split hanging robe sleeve.

 I chose to make Henry’s robe from cream silk jacquard as I wanted to emphasise the freshness of youth and also not have him clash with the fabric used for Katherines gown. The length of the robe is fashionably short to just above Henry’s knees and the cream ‘fur’ trim (made from chunky chenille yarn) extends into the typical Tudor fur collar around the shoulders (you can see this better if you scroll back up to the full-length picture at the start of this post). I also added a fancy cream and gold braid for more opulence.

At this time, the sleeves of the robe were often very long (past knee length) and unpadded. If worn long, they were slashed about half way down the length for the wearer to put his arm through comfortably. Henry’s robe sleeves are also lined in a biscuit coloured silk which you can just see in the above picture. Slashing was an extremely popular German fashion and continued to be much favoured for most of the Henrician era. It was often seen on doublet fronts, shoes, sleeves and also in ladies sleeves later in the period too. You can see that Henry’s doublet sleeves are fashionably slashed at the elbows to reveal the silk of his shirt underneath.

Whilst Henry took a very long time to design and complete, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of his making. It is with poigniancy though, that I look back over the reign of this most memorable of rulers. For me there are so many ‘what ifs’ about Henry’s life. For example, what if his first son with Katherine had not died in infancy……..would that have made Henry different, I wonder? The start of Henry’s reign and also the start of his first marriage seemed to hold such promise for the future, such triumphs and victories. I have always felt that it was very sad that this particular love story ended so sadly and bitterly.

Henry and Katherine (together again if only in doll form)

 Until next time, bye for now!

A match made in Heaven?.....sadly it was not to be.

Brand New Doll: Young Katherine Of Aragon.

Hello! In between orders, I have been working on the latest doll to add to my Tudor miniature dolls line. Please let me introduce to you my ‘Young Katherine Of Aragon’:

Young Katherine of Aragon, dressed circa 1509/10.

 I have always felt rather sorry for this grand lady, whatever her faults may or may not have been and wanted to be able to portray her in her youth, in happier times. As many of you may well know, Katherine of Aragon was the first wife of the infamous King Henry VIII of England. However, Henry was not her first husband as she had been first married to Henry’s older brother Athur. The match between Katherine and Arthur was arranged by their parents Ferdinand and Isabela of Spain and Henry VII and Elizabeth of England when both were just toddlers. When Arthur reached the age of 14, Katherine, shortly before her 16th birthday, travelled to England for the marriage in 1501. Sadly the young prince died less than six months later, leaving Katherine a widow. Unable to return to Spain, the young teeneager was stuck in England under the protection of her miserly father-in-law Henry VII, who by all accounts, left her barely able to clothe her ladies in waiting, let alone herself.

During those difficult years, Katherine formed a strong friendship with Arthur’s younger brother, the robust and lively Henry and, by the time the old King died in 1509, that friendship had turned to love. The 18 year old Henry, now King Henry VIII of England, married the 23 year old Spanish princess and it is well documented that he was most taken with his young bride. It seems fair to say that the early years of their marriage were very happy with the young King being most attentive and openly romantic towards Katherine.

So, when I created this new doll, I wanted to try and capture the youth, hope and happiness of that early married life. In researching the young Katherine, I came across the fact that, she had pale auburn hair, NOT as I had always assumed for a Spaniard, black or dark hair. I also found this lovely painting of her, painted between 1501 and 1509 by court painter Michel Sittow:

The Young Katherine of Aragon.

 Since this portrait was painted before she married Henry, she is wearing more sombre colours than I have used for the doll. Henry VIII’s Court was very lively and vibrant, like him. Very unlike the dour seriousness of his father’s Court. Therefore I chose a rich gold silk jacquard for her over-gown with a paler, more youthful green for the under-gown, both popular colours for Royalty and the elite at that time. The style is that of around 1509/10, with the Medieval influence still visible alongside the more typical Henrician Tudor style. I have kept the head dress or ‘coif’ similar to the style in the painting and this would more than likely have been black for most married women.

Here is a close-up of the coif, jewellery and gown bodice. The tightly fitted over-gown bodice is open to reveal part of the green under-gown. Around the neckline, you can just see the edge of the lace from the shift she would have worn next to her skin. The lace is gold-edged, (Yep……..I painted that by hand!…….time consuming but worth it). There is also some more gold-edged hand-painted lace around the front of the coif and at her wrists.

Showing the individually applied jewellery, bodice detail and coif.

 The long hanging sleeves of the overgown are lined with a rich brocade of cream and gold. These long sleeves were typical of the late Medieval and early Tudor era and eventually developed into the wider, turned back sleeves of the middle Tudor period. 

Close up of the over sleeve lining detail.

 At this stage the sleeves of the under-gown were still tightly fitted but these developed into the large padded and fancy false under-sleeves more commonly associated with Tudor costume.

Close up of the end of the tight-fitting under-sleeve, also showing the gold edged lace cuff from the shift.

During the early 1500’s, ladies could wear either a tied belt around their waists or the more elaborate jewelled hanging belt. Since Katherine’s gown is rather an elaborate Court gown, I felt it looked better with the more formal hanging belt. The pearls and crystals were all individually applied to fancy black and gold braid with the addition of jewelled gold filigrees at the waist and at the end of the belt.

Close up of the jewelled hanging belt.

 I thoroughly enjoyed designing and creating this new doll and she is proving very popular, with collectors placing orders for her already. Of course I shall now have to work on a young Henry VIII to accompany her but for now it is only right that she has the centre stage and spotlight all to herself.

Until next time, bye for now!

AND THE WINNER IS……………..?

Hello everybody, it’s me again, Baby Fairy! And just in case you wanted to see another picture of me….which I know you do, here is a new one:

Me riding on Esmerelda's head.....she really enjoyed this and so did I!

Oh what HUGE excitement here because we had lots of lovely competition entries to try and win me! Some of them were absolutely correct and some were……ummmm……… how can I put it?…….very good but……..ummm…….not quite right! But of course I am DELIGHTED because all of you who entered wanted to win ME!…..I knew you would! Oh yes, I knew that you would all recognise a good thing when you saw it!!!!….Yes I did!!! And I told all my friends so and they all agreed with me too! And I was jumping up and down so fast about it that all of a sudden I went all funny and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor flat on my back with all my friends looking down at me………but they all thought it was very funny…. so that was alright.

So, without further ado, onto the subject of the competition. Now because I will be going to live with a new mummy, my present mummy, (who was a bit cross at what I had done…but she has well forgiven me now because I am just too cute to be cross with for long) has appointed a per…….permin……perman………an ‘all the time’ competition secretary. Mummy was actually very impressed by my fantastic idea to hold a competiton and has decided that since there were quite a lot of entries ( even though not all of them were right…heeheeehee!) she would quite like to run other competitons from time to time and help people to have fun and enjoy themselves.

 She has chosen the resident House Gnome, Holdsworthy to be in charge of all further competitions as he is very old, very wise and very trustworthy and Esmerelda said she would help him too….so that’s all sorted out now. Anyway, we couldn’t find a suitable hat to put all the correct entries in and Holdsworthy’s hat wasn’t big enough so I suggested we used Mummy’s best Minton porcelain bowl as it is so pretty. The only trouble was, it was full of pot pourri but that was no trouble as I suggested we tip it all out and then try and pick it all up later and put it back without Mummy noticing……..so far…so good….she hasn’t noticed that half of it is missing and the rest is under the settee.

Now you all remember the question you had to answer was: WHAT DOES A DRAGON HAVE TO DO WITH THE MONTH OF APRIL? And then you had to look on the previous post to find a clue to help you get the right answer and the clue was: 23RD OF APRIL.

The correct answer was either ST. GEORGE or ST. GEORGE’S DAY and all the people who mentioned either of these were entered in the draw. Holdsworthy wrote all the names on little pieces of paper, folded them up and put them into Mummy’s lovely bowl. Then I was lowered into the bowl by my ankles and I had to grab one of the pieces of paper before I was pulled back out again……..I felt quite dizzy being upside down but don’t worry because I am fine now….and I am touched by your concern for my wellbeing.

So I suppose you want to know whose name I pulled out don’t you? Well here it is………drum roll: drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…………trumpet fanfare…….tatattatatatatatatataaaaaaaa!!!!

I bet you've never seen a unicorn, a gnome, a baby fairy and a dragon all in the same place before, have you??!!

 Congratulations to ………..PAUL SMITH! You have won ME!!!!!!!…..your very own Baby Fairy and I’m going to come and live with you really soon……..how lucky are you!? Now even though I’m only a Baby fairy I can see from your name that you are not a lady human so I can’t say ‘Hello Mummy’ to you. So instead I will say HELLO MR. MUMMY! I am so looking forward to living with you and bringing absolute joy into your life. You and I are going to have so much fun and I just know that you’re going to love me.

So, my mummy will be contacting you very soon so that I can be sent to you as soon as possible.

Big hugs and lots of kisses to everyone who entered the competiton and I hope that you will sign up to mummy’s blog so that you will know as soon as the next competiton is announced.

It’s goodbye from me now and I hope that you have all enjoyed yourselves and had lots of fun and giggles.

Bye bye.

Love Baby Fairy x.

WIN A BABY FAIRY!

 

Well hello there!

Let me introduce myself………I am, as you can see below, a baby fairy. I bet you’ve never met one of those before, have you? No?……Well no time like the present then, is there?! Anyway, just so you can see what I look like, here I am riding on my unicorn friend:

‘Hey look at me! Aren’t I clever?!’

 Now you don’t see a sight like that every day do you? But we have a lot of unicorns in Fairy Land. They are quite a common sight there.

 I know I look a bit silly on such a large magical horse as I’m so tiny….less than an inch tall but one day I might be big enough to ride properly….without falling off all the time!

I don’t know if you saw my mummy’s last blog post…..the one about the wedding gowns….and before you say a word, yes I know that Louise is not my real mummy……my real mummy was a fairy. But fairy mummies have a bad habit of leaving their babies amongst the flowers while they flit off to do their work, then they forget where they have left us….so we end up being rescued by kind human mummies……I just wanted to straighten that out before we go any further.

Anyway, about the last blog, you may have noticed at the bottom of it was a picture of a lovely dragon (my best friend and she’s called Esmerelda) and a question about what do dragons have to do with the month of April. It is just a fun question but nobody has answered it yet…….. and my mummy is rather miffed about that.

So, I have stepped in and am offering myself as a prize to the lucky winner who gets this question right. Before I tell you how to enter the competiton to win me, here are some more pictures of me having fun. This is me relaxing after rock climbing on this lovely piece of ama…….amy…..ame…… ameth………purple crystal.

These pointy bits are a bit uncomfortable in the you-know-where!

 I promise that I will be a very well behaved baby for the person who wins me and that I will no trouble at all to them. And bye the way, it is totally not true that fairies are very vain…….that was just a nasty story put about by a group of goblins a very long time ago. Now, I bet you are just dying to see another lovely picture of me….yes you are…….you know you are! This is me looking absolutely beautiful in some lovely cris…..crys…..crysan…..thimm….mummmmies…….pretty flowers:

I know.......I am an absolute sweetie....but please.....don't praise me too much or it will go to my head!

 

Now about this competiton to win me. This is what you have to do: Below is a picture of my friend Esmerelda the dragon. The  question is WHAT DOES A DRAGON HAVE TO DO WITH THE MONTH OF APRIL?

Esmerelda.......a very friendly dragon....and the only one we could find to be photographed.

If you think you know the answer, click on ‘leave a comment’ under this blog and a box will appear for you to put your answer in. Please also leave a little message with your answer and if you wish, your first name so that my mummy can tell you apart from other people and contact you if you are lucky enough to win me! You must leave your answer BEFORE THE END of May Day (1st May).

All the correct answers will be put in a hat and the winner will be drawn on the 2nd May….when Mummy has had a chance to recover from the shock of what I have gone and done!…….I am hoping that Mummy will want to do more competitions in the future as she is a very nice lady and loves to make people happy.

The winning entry/message will be posted on the blog (along with a picture of me again). The winner will then be contacted by Mummy (or asked to contact mummy if she can’t contact them!) and she will ask them for their address privately so that I can be shipped to them as soon as possible (I am getting very excited!!!……….and I’m jumping up and down ever so fast!!!).

(Deep breath)….In the meantime, if you would like a little clue for the competition then you can visit the  post before this where you will find one.

I am looking forward to meeting my new Mummy and seeing my new home soon. Until then, bye bye from me.

Baby Fairy xxx.

PS. NONE OF YOUR COMPETITION ENTRIES WILL BE DISPLAYED ON THE BLOG SITE UNTIL THE COMPETITION IS OVER……..SO YOU CAN’T CHEAT BY PEEPING AT SOMEBODY ELSE’S ANSWER!!! HAH!!!

WARNING: THIS BABY FAIRY MINIATURE DOLL IS MADE FROM BISQUE PORCELAIN AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN TO PLAY WITH.

BRAND NEW DOLL: ‘THE FAIRY FLOWER SELLER’.

I was happily dyeing dried flowers recently when I was inspired to create another of my fairy and unicorn ensembles. I have no idea where the idea came from but it popped into my mind in full glorious detail and I just had to create it.

Whilst I was making the Fairy Flower Seller herself, a  little poem about her suddenly took form in my mind and before I knew it, this little character and her unicorn friend had come into being. Below is the poem:

The Fairy Flower Seller with her unicorn companion and helper.

THE FAIRY FLOWER SELLER.

Come decorate your castles

With my mystic, magic flowers,

Come deck your halls with greeneries

And blooms to top your towers.

 

Come smell the scent so heavenly,

Of lavender and rosie,

Come one, come all to purchase

By the garland or the posy.

 

I’ve blooms of pink and purple

With yellow, blue and white,

To brighten up a rainy day

Or scent a lover’s night.

 

Come buy my pretty flowers,

To soothe you while you rest,

There’s plenty here for everyone,

I only sell the best.

 

COPYRIGHT ANGELIQUE MINIATURES 2010.

 

 

 Below is a description of this pretty pair and also some other pictures:

 

 

An enchanting hand crafted one-twelfth scale miniature porcelain doll and unicorn ensemble.

 

The lovely fairy flower seller stands just five and a half inches tall. She wears an over-gown of lavender silk with golden lacing at each side and down the centre front.

Showing the lacing detail at the side of the dress.

 The gown is edged in pretty floral braid and is worn over an under-gown of pale rose silk. On her feet she wears matching lavender silk pointed-toe slippers, decorated with crystals and tiny faux pearls. Underneath her gowns is a delicate ivory cotton lace petticoat and lace-trimmed knee length cotton pantaloons.

Showing the opposite side and the flowers in her hair.

Her long ash blonde tresses cascade over her bare shoulders and she wears a ring of colourful dried flowers, silk roses and greenery on her pretty head. In her hand she carries a bouquet of dried flowers tied with silken ribbon. The fairy flower seller is partially wired for ‘poseability’ and is supplied on a removable doll

A veiw of the back of the dress, wings and hair.

Her lovely unicorn companion stands approx. six and a half inches tall (from floor to the tip of his horn) and measures approx seven inches long (from tail to nose). 

Side view of the unicorn.

His hooves and horn are painted glittery gold and on his head he wears three shimmering crystals above his nose. He wears a lavender silk ‘coat’ embellished with floral braid to match his reigns. Across his chest hang three little golden bells from fancy crystal flower filigree decorations. Two large removable straw baskets hang over his back, laden with dozens of colourful hand-dyed dried flowers.

A front view showing the two flower baskets.

I have to admit that I thought I would never finish all the bunches of flowers for the baskets. It did take rather a long time to make each individual bunch and arranging them in the baskets was no mean feat either but I was very pleased with the outcome.

This ensemble is currently for sale so if you are interested please contact me for the price, remembering to let me know where in the world you are so that I can send you the price in your own currency.

Ribbons are a big hit with the resident dolls!

Hello!

I had a lovely surprise this week when I found out that I had won some beautiful ribbons from Crafty Ribbons 

The competition was held last week and was to win seven bags of coloured ribbons, all with the theme of jam pots. Each bag held enough metre lengths of coloured ribbons to fill a jam pot and each bag was colour-themed ie: a bag of pinks, a bag of reds, a bag of purples etc. etc.

Anyway, the prize  arrived mid-week and I was amazed to see seven plastic bags, absoloutely stuffed full of beautiful themed ribbons.

Seven wonderfully colourful bags of gorgeous ribbons!

There were gingham ribbons, organza, looped edge, polka-dot, satin, narrow, medium and wider, stripy, fancy, glittery and even gross-grain. The colour schemes of each bag were: orange/yellows, reds, blues, pinks, purples, greens and peach/creams. 

So I thought it would be a good idea to photograph the ribbons in jam pots so that I could show a friend

Ribbons displayed in jam pots.

Well, just as I had finished photographing the ribbons in the jars, the phone rang and I had to leave the room. I was gone some time (you know how it is when you get chatting!).

The dolls are busy playing dress-up with the new ribbons!

When I came back in, just look what I found! Absolute  mayhem!!!

The ballerina doll has made herself a make-shift tutu with some of the pink ribbons and is busy twirling around with them. Whilst her friend next to her has decorated her own pink corset and made a most unusual hat with some of the purple ribbon. She is also busy pinning another of her creations in green to Mei Lin’s head whilst tiny Ann has actually climbed right into the pot of peach and cream ribbons!

Meanwhile, pretty blonde Emily is helping young Marley select some lengths from the blue and orange pots. Heaven knows how Little Miss Pink Hair will ever disentangle herself from all those lovely red ribbons she is playing with!

Of course, as soon as I came back into the room, there was not one movement from any of them……..but they had all been caught red-handed on camera, hadn’t they?!!

Well, as I said to my long-suffering husband, this is the type of thing that can happen when you live in a house full of dolls.

 Good job the resident fairies never joined in as well!!!

UPDATE ON BALLET STUDENT: KATIE NEEDS YOUR VOTES!

Following on from my previous post about the tutus I made for ballet student Katie’s NYCB ballerina doll, I thought you might like to see some video footage of young Katie actually dancing.

Katie dancing Esmeralda.

Seventeen year old Katie is currenty applying for a New Zealand scholarship to help fund her dance training in Australia. This application involves voting by members of the public. As I understand it, the applicant with the most amount of votes wins the scholarship.

As an ex-professional dancer and ex-ballet teacher, I believe that Katie has an enormous amount of potential and deserves to be given a chance. She is absolutely passionate about dancing and is also very good at it.

I would like to ask you all personally if you would visit Katie’s special scholarship voting page where you can watch her dancing. 

 If you click here it will take you to her page where you will see a box on the left hand side with Katie’s picture in it. (If I have not done this link properly……I am a technical dummy with a computer!….you can copy and paste this link below to your browser)

http://www.doyourthing.co.nz/2010-01186/katie-meltzer-2   

Underneath the picture are some options that will  show you a video of her dancing Esmeralda and also a link to a U-Tube page where you can see her dancing Giselle. You can also see some lovely pictures of her with one of the other options and also read all about her love of dance in another.

According to Katie’s mum Sue, Katie was only fifteen when these videos were taken and I can tell you, from my experience as a teacher, she was doing some very difficult steps very, very well indeed for a fifteen year old! For those of you familiar with ballet steps, you will see near the end of the Esmeralda video a series of releves on one foot (snatching up and down onto full pointe), executed one after the other on the same foot. In the Giselle video there are some beautiful temps leves (hops) on full pointe…..all of which are very difficult to do….and she does them beautifully.

If after seeing Katie dance, you would like to vote for her, you can do so. There is another button on her scholarship page, above her picture that you can press to vote. There is only one vote per person allowed and this lovely dancer needs votes.

I hope that you will join with me in wishing Katie the best of luck with her application. GOOD LUCK KATIE!!