I’ve always been fascinated by Automata. I used to call into Cabaret Mechanical Theatre when it was in Covent Garden in the 80’s and 90’s when ever I was in London. In more recent years, I found the MAD (Mechanical Art and Design) museum in Stratford on Avon. I’ve thought about trying to make my own over the years, but it always seemed to be rather difficult – I finally took the plunge in 2024! (for those of you...

I expect you are starting to think about Christmas! Well if you wanted to make some little creatures with Christmas hats here’s a quick tutorial to help you. You can find my free tutorial to make the little sleeping cats like the one shown on my blog here. Cara Jane’s Free Sleeping Cat Tutorial Of course any animal could become a Christmas animal with a little Santa hat not just cats – the owls love them! You will need a...

Here’s some more of the things I’ve made for my thing a day challenge. I am really enjoying the challenge and so far have made something everyday without having to cheat. Sometimes it’s a cane, sometimes it’s finishing something already started and some days it’s a something from start to finish. If you want to see all of my Things for February so far, and another one added daily (I hope!) you can find them in this...

I was wondering what type of earrings I should make first – then it became obvious – little cats of course!(You can find my free tutorial to make them yourself here  – I wouldn’t recommend starting so small though, they are very fiddly small!)They  are 2cm across, I had to make 3 cats as I realised after I made the second identical to the first they would look better mirroring each other.If you like to make things why...

I am so thrilled that you are enjoying my cat tutorial and delighted with the results I am seeing! I have had a few suggestions for further improvement which I shall implement but they are fairly minor changes. I wanted to share some of the results that people have been kind enough to photograph and share, I loved seeing them! Please do let me see a photo if you’ve had a go.Beautiful little cat by Pippa – love the colours and the...

Here is the promised cat tutorial, I hope you enjoy it! It is also available as a PDF document which I can send to you if you email me, I am really happy to do so – just couldn’t find an easy way to have it as a download online. If you use it I would be really grateful for some pictures of your cats, and as always a comment, or like here or on my facebook page really makes my day. I would also appreciate any feedback you have to...