just a regular day at blabla

working with erika on bunnies last week, she stole the mustaches..

i just had to share before she moves to Detroit next month...

Play! every day..

play!  is a lovely calendar designed by a "small group of full-grown kids in Hamburg with loads of love and passion"

they selected "53 inspiring current designers" from around the world whose work "combine concepts and design with a playful sense of joy" and have created equally inspiring fonts to match their designs

i am so excited that blala be in this project; i know how much children adore our dolls and what they mean to them, it

makes my day, every day, but it is also very nice to be recognized by other designers....

"play is the best form of research" albert einstein

instant costumes

since the kids were little, they've always loved for me to draw images on their feet and hands.... 

wolf feet

elephant hands

hipity-hop

so....the week is over and did i mentioned earlier that i was finished with the bunnies?
well that wasn't true.....after a month of going around in circles with the idea, now they keep popping in my head, one after another, multiplying like bunnies do...
and I have no idea which ones i will pick for spring...maybe all of them!...

this morning...

i am not really sure where i am going with this but it doesn't matter, what's important is that it's there, out of the box, now...

at some point it will make sense, everything does..if i listen...

gentle not simple

I have been working on a few new spring dolls for a while now ...

after the lively socks and suzette, woody bears and lucky cats, I was in a mood for softness and gentleness, in the colors and in the expressions.
..but it's not easy to design something gentle and exciting at the same time, especially for a child..

everything is in the nuances; a smile, a few whiskers, an unexpected color transforms a character in a second, just like on a human face...

finally today, quietly, in my kitchen, between a tea and a french song, i think that i found the harmony that i had been looking for...

i see, you see, what do we see?

the first prototypes of a new series of finger puppets just arrived, very cute and very funny...
(there are still a few tweaks but we are almost there)
it's always interesting to see the way the artisans interpret my drawings...a reminder of how different we all are and see...

even the simplest things...