Sharon Golding Designs

Hello everyone,  Exciting times!  Christmas is but a few weeks away and things are getting really special.  😊 My little elves (in the form of my grandchildren) arrived as usual to decorate my tree and what a wonderful job they did!  I’m very pleased. This year I decided to make my own advent calendar.  Well, I say make, but I mean decorate and fill a pre-made one and I found this tree shaped wooden advent calendar which really appealed to me. These are sold at various places and in a multitude of different designs and shapes.  I chose this one that is sold at both The Range and Hobbycraft here in the UK. If you didn’t want to paint or decorate your own and just want to fill it yourself, you can also purchase ready decorated calendars and just fill them yourself. Here is an example: There are lots of others available too. I decided to spray paint the outer part with gold paint and then paint each drawer in green acrylic paint.  I then attached red felt...

 So I was given this poor little lady to restore as she had fallen apart, literally!  She is a Denys Fisher Jennie doll, a tiny little lady at 7 1/2 inches. After cleaning off the sticky stuff (seems she was glued at some point), I then set about restringing her. Removing the old elastic which had perished proved to be easier than I expected.  There was a tiny holed plastic pieces inside a tiny cup which the elastic was threaded through.  Could have used a finer gauge elastic cord to replace the original, but I went with what I had at hand and it seemed to work pretty well. Very pleased with the outcome!  Dressed in her original brownies uniform, Jennie is looking a lot more put together!  I’m busy now sewing some new clothes for this dear little doll. Feel free to comment or contact me if you need advice on restringing dolls.  I really enjoyed this little challenge. Until next time! Love Shari 💕

 Hello everyone! When I’m stuck or in need of motivation I always look for a challenge.  It gets me off my butt and making.  It’s great fun too. So with this in mind I signed up to take part in the Find Your Joy challenge this year. So far I’ve only done assignment 1, but my goodness, it’s such fun! Take a large piece of paper.  Using masking tape divide it up into either 4 or 6 sections.  Then using just 3 colours plus black and white, play, make marks, mix colours, have fun.  Paint over the tape disregarding it.  The only limit is to keep within 30 minutes. When finished, peel off the masking tape and magic happens! I enjoyed it so much it became almost addictive and I now have lots of little paintings to use in my journal or as collage or book covers, whatever. I decided to use yellow ochre, ultramarine blue and magenta as my 3 colours plus mars black and titanium white. First try:- Old masking tape gripped paper so hard and ripped it when removed! ...

 I’m revisiting painting landscapes in acrylics and here is the start of my process. 1. Rough sketch 2. Block-in  3. Refine 4. Detail. 5. One thing!  (What’s the one thing I can do to improve this painting?) My set up with acrylic paints - limited palette Rough sketch Sorry forgot to photograph the block in stage! Refine the painting Still got the detail to do, but I’m pleased with how it’s going. Have a great day! Best wishes Shari 💕

 Hello all,  So sorry I’ve been away so long!  Many things happening around here so little time for my hobbies, but I’m now getting back into things. My interest in doll collecting has exploded into a kind of mania 😂 but I’m trying to slow things down a little. I moved from porcelain to baby dolls and then to American Girl and Our Generation before returning to my first love of Barbie! When I was young I didn’t have many dolls, but I did have Barbie and some Barbie clones.  I never really took to Sindy, I don’t know why.  Then recently I discovered Sindy and wow! Have I been missing out!  First I bought a few vintage Sindy and I love them.  Somehow I find their faces so expressive and they move and pose so well.  I always did like the Sindy furniture.  It was always much better made than Barbies trashy stuff.  But now I must admit I’m rather taken with Sindy herself. As a child I hated Ken and Paul, they always seemed so drippy.  A...

 I have decided to try to get back into the practice of producing a sketch a day and I’m using an app to give me daily prompts to help motivate me.  Sometimes I have used their prompts and sometimes I have worked on my own.  I’m really enjoying this. Water soluble pencil Thank you for visiting. Best wishes Shari 💕

Artistically, I am blocked, my mojo has deserted me and I can’t seem to bring myself to do any of my hobbies.  Recent events have contributed to this, but I really want to get out of this funk. I decided to try small steps, no major works… just playing. After the doll obsession (which seems to be ongoing!), I feel the need to get back to my art.  Drawing, watercolour, pen & wash.  These are where I started and where I want to go now… to soothe my soul. Quirky house in moleskine sketchbook  These are just for fun, nothing serious, nothing finished, just quick sketches.  It feels so soothing.  I’m getting some practice without letting myself get caught up in detail or stressing over how it should look.   Contour drawing  I took part in some online workshops in Sketchbook Revival and it helped enormously.  Now it’s finished it’s hard to get the same enthusiasm back.  But I’m determined to try. If you have any tips on how to smash throug...

Hi all Yes it’s back to the Doll’s Hospital for an update.  Bear with me, this obsession will ease up soon, I promise. 😉 Beautiful girl - another throwback to my childhood dolls.     She was in need of a great deal of attention and in a bit of a sorry state when she arrived.  Firstly, she needed a pampering session to give her some much needed tlc.  After a bath and hairdressing session, she was feeling much happier. Her sticky eyes were fine after her cleanup. We then investigated what would be needed in terms of repair and the most obvious problem was that her voice box was missing, so I booked her a laryngectopy or replacement voice box. Next we picked out a lovely new outfit for after her procedure during this shopping expedition she let me know that her name was Kira and she was so happy to be home at last. The larynx was soon repaired and Kira’s voice is restored. Welcome Kira. Looking so much happier now. 💕 Thank you to all my followers/readers for shar...

 Hello all, Well the doll addiction has increased and it’s not over yet! I came across this lovely vinyl doll which reminded me of a favourite from my childhood.  Of course I had to have her.  She was a bargain price and I got her from a very nice lady.  However she needed some tender loving care, which I felt I would be able to give her. Her eyes were unfortunately broken and were in need of replacement.  This is a first for me, but I bravely took on the task.  I watched YouTube videos and read up as much as I could on how to tackle this.  With the advice of some lovely friends on FB groups I sent off for the replacement eyes. In the meantime, Susie was bandaged and given lots of hugs in the Dolls Hospital until her surgery. She was very brave and once she was sedated her surgery began. And the eye transplant was completed in very quick time, without any problems at all.   Susie is delighted with her new warm brown eyes and she is now joining her...