It's now been a full year since I decided on my little venture and started designing what I'd make for the first Storm Kelpie Workshop range. It nearly got called Thistle Witch Toys, however Storm Kelpie sums up my love of the sea and it's wildness better as well as being linked to an existing Scottish Myth that of the Blue Men o'the Minch. Nicely lending itself to 2 Merfolk forms for the range. Considering these were some of the first ideas, the fact we still haven't got a Blue Man figure in stock is rather disappointing, I've just prioritised other figures. Nearly there with the next prototypes so soon!
Also in the early developing of ideas were Gannets, Guillemots and Puffins all of which are currently in Stock as well as Ptarmigan, Capercaillie, the Haggis and Fachan figures. The Wildcat and Capercaillie were especially important to me to develop as I feel our rare wildlife need more general awareness of their welfare and issues and so wanted to introduce this to children through imaginative play.
Lots of set backs when the original sealer I used wasn't passing the UKCA conformity testing soak test stage even when did more coats and a very lengthy cure time of 6-8weeks! After finding a new sealer the colours are much more vibrant, the surface is more reflective but it's also a lot more durable, easier to clean (origanal pieces pick up dust I find) and I think look much better.
Some, actually most are also now more shaped than some of the original experimenting of ideas.
Overall I'm very pleased with how the figures are developing and hopefully will still develop along with new figures. There's a few things I'm still not happy with- the white paint on sea birds and Ptarmigan sits on the wood rather than being absorbed like the stains and so chips and marks more so is harder to work with, thankfully fingers crossed it hasn't been yellowing. The Lime I use as it's easy to work with takes a lot of sanding and even then the surface 'fluffs up' as soon as anything is put on it leading to products not being quite as smooth as I'd ideally like so I'm trying out ideas on methods of sanding and other woods but for now it's Lime and a lot of sanding. There's potential other set backs to but fingers crossed for a productive 2023!
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