A little about me

I'm Rosemary. I trained as a jeweller, and for many years my days were spent at a bench with pliers, silver wire and a jar of tiny findings. That work taught me patience and how to notice small things — a habit that turned out to matter far more at a drawing board.

These days I draw. Mostly portraits: grandparents, new babies, the dog who isn't here anymore, the cat who is very much still here and sitting on the reference photograph. I work in pencil, coloured pencil, pastel and watercolour, and I like a portrait to feel like the person rather than merely resemble them.

Alongside the portraits there are the fairies — moonlit gardens, toadstool houses, twig-and-moss doors and small winged folk, painted in the soft storybook way I loved as a girl and never quite grew out of. Some grow into prints and sticker sheets; the luckiest become commissioned fairy portraits of real children.

I rarely make jewellery now, though occasionally a piece finds its way out of the archive and into the shop. What I do make monthly is the Catnipped Club, a letter about cat breeds, cat art and fairy-garden makes for cats — the most delightful thing I have ever committed to doing on a schedule.