The new year often brings a time of reflection for me - I guess once the excitement and busy-ness of Christmas is over, then it's into just hibernating in the workshop trying to fend off the cold and waiting until the first signs of spring...! The Christmas rush went well, all in all, the Edinburgh Old Town model kit was featured in the Guardian gift guide, and I had great sales across a lot of the shops I sell with. I'm also told that the sales of the MONUmini products was excellent. So January gives me a chance to catch up with things from the end of last year, and plan for the year ahead. 

In the autumn I completed a model for the BBC, for the programme BBC Scotland Investigates. The programme was about hospitals, and to help illustrate the narrative, the diagrammatic model I built was filmed in a great pinhole camera style with 'peg people' visiting the hospital. A lovely wee commission. You can see screen shots of it now of the

website

.

I was also asked to produce a one-off postcard as part of a fundraiser for Manchester Met's embroidery course. They had dozens of postcards contributed, which were silently auctioned to raise money for their degree show. My contribution was a pencil drawing of modern-day Manchester, with a quote about the city from John Leland in 1538 integrated into the drawing. The 500-year old quote seemed as relevant today as it had then - "

Mancestre....is the fairest, best buildied, quikkest and most populus Tounne of al Lancastreshire". Although I think Manchester is no longer considered part of Lancashire.....

[Click image to enlarge]

After the success of the initial batch of MONUmini models - Battersea Power Station, Tower Bridge, Post Office Tower and the Barbican Tower - we decided to embark on a couple of new designs, these ones from further afield, and I'm really pleased with how they've come out. They should be released really soon, so keep your peepers open for those! In addition to those, I've been asked to produce a set of model kits of Aberfeldy Distillery, which I've just got underway and is looking great. Photos will follow!