Two little birds, the Grandma Game, and a paper menagerie

Story Street #22

Welcome to Story Street – a monthly newsletter from children’s author and illustrator Jane Porter. Read on for ramblings about my life as a picture book maker, community artist, comic diarist, under-confident fiddle player and very, very amateur luthier.

I finished July with rather sore fingers after some intensive stitching, chiselling, gouging - and purfling. In fact I think I’ve developed something I’m calling purfle-finger: read on to find out what on earth that is; discover what connects yodelling in the alps with poker-playing in Manhattan - and feast your eyes on a splendid paper pelican made by my Mum.

Since I’m in a lull between paid work, I thought it was a good time to actually FINISH some of the multiple hobby-projects I’ve started. My quilt is almost done (keep reading for more on this), I’m all caught up with my comic diary - but my violin is NOWHERE NEAR complete, and won’t be for some time.

Although violin-making term is over, we had the bonus of a special wood carving day at Merton College. I can’t tell you what a joy it was after all my vernier caliper disasters to make something from wood without doing any measuring at all.

I carved these two little birds from one piece of wood with just a chisel:

And then made these lime leaves – on a block of lime wood. I’m hoping to do something like this on the back of my violin, so will need lots of practice before I take a gouge to the real thing.

I’ve also been initiated into the mysteries of purfling. I’d never heard this word until a few months ago - and if you haven’t either, store it up now for future pub quiz/crossword answers. Violins have two neat parallel black lines running all around the edge of the back and front, and this is the purfling. I’d always assumed it was drawn on with a pen (and sometimes it is), but it’s actually inlaid - and before you do that, you have to excavate a very tiny channel to put the purfling in. The scooping starts with some scalpel-work, and my forefinger still hasn’t recovered from the pressure.

It’s not easy - my channel ended up too wide, so for my test piece I had to use GUITAR PURFLING - the shame!

Here’s what I did, mid-way through chiselling the excess off for a smooth finish. Look at those marvellous teeny stripy curls coming off it…

Don’t look too closely at the bottom strip of purfling which doesn’t fit the groove and is coming unglued. But note my home-made bench hook which I am very proud of - put together from a chunk of recycled mahogany my Dad stashed in the attic many years ago. I think he’d have liked to see what I’ve been making - that’s his chisel too.

When my 2025 diary arrived recently, it came with this sticker:

I’ve stuck it in my violin-making notebook because I am very bad at violin-making - but I’m trying to be brave and keeping going anyway.

The Grandma Game

Every term in my online comics class, we end with a drawing game. It’s loosely inspired by an activity in Lynda Barry’s brilliant book Making Comics, but I’ve added my own twist. I get each student to describe someone they know – then we all draw that person, but as an animal. I’m collecting a whole set of characters from this game, each of which could easily star in their own picture book (or comic).

This time the theme was ‘grandparents’, and there were SO many interesting characters, ranging from a yodelling Alpine farmer to a hardened poker player in Manhattan – I loved hearing all the stories.

Here’s a few of the grandparents I drew…

If you’d like to join the fun next term, there are still a few spaces in the evening group and just ONE in the morning class, so don’t delay! There’s a possibility of a brand new afternoon group if enough people are interested. All the info about enrolment can be found through the link below: term starts Wednesday September 18^th.

Here’s what the students say:

“I have loved taking Jane's comics class so much, I'm going to enrol for another session. Taking time aside every week to experiment with different lines and mediums gave me so much inspiration and I learned so much from not only Jane, but the others in the class. The zine activity inspired a whole new comic book series, thank you Jane!” 
Sandra, Montréal

“Thanks so much for the lovely and thoughtful class! I’m so glad I joined. It gave me the push to do something I’ve been wanting to try for years.”
Anne, Chicago

“Just wanted to say thank you for a wonderful class, I enjoyed it and would love to attend again!”
Randi, California

“Thank you so much Jane for a lovely class! It's so warm and welcoming as well as being really helpful for developing sequence and story - and playfulness!”
Nanette, Jersey

Nanette wrote a whole post about the comics class in her newsletter, Secret Sketchbook – you can read all about it here:

Tiny top stitches

After a few weeks of not touching my sewing things, I had an intense weekend of compulsive quilting and got to the stage where I can sit in front of the TV doing neat little hand-stitches over the top – very relaxing, though as it necessitates sitting under the quilt while working, I was glad it was a largely chilly July. It’s nearly finished at last. There’s a clue in this quilt about where I am going to be spending August – can you guess? Clue: there are three iconic bridges. I seem to have accidentally included an upturned traffic cone - I put that down to 20 years of river Wandle cleanups messing with my subconscious!

Now I just need to get that rogue wool wadding under control, and add a neat border. I’ll show you the finished quilt - and tell you what inspired it – in the next episode of Story Street.

The original apple tree

If you are reading this thinking, why does Jane make things all the time? What is this strange compulsion; where does it come from? I have the answer for you here: my Mum is a maker too. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say. Recently we got out some storage boxes of papier maché creatures she’s made over the years - take a look at these beauties! If you are interested in buying one, she is selling them for £25 per item with 100% going to Alzheimer’s Research. Let me know if you are interested - you’ll need to be able to collect from Ealing.

Note the lovely detail of the curled tail feathers on the Canada Goose. And that green bird has chamois leather feet and beak - what luxury!

More about Mabel

I wrote a couple of blog posts recently about the process of making illustrations for Mabel and the Big Wide World, which has now been out in the big wide world for two whole months.

The first was for the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, and it’s all about how I created the characters - giving all Mabel’s siblings names and accessories. You can read it by clicking the button below.

One of the nice things about being an illustrator is having lots of illustrator pals to swap ideas and go sketching with. It’s also a treat to get sneaky early glimpses of projects, and it’s so satisfying to see them come to fruition! Nicola Kent is a very clever book-maker and her first board book – Bear’s Wash Day, is out now and has many clever interactive features. From loading the laundry basket to watching clothes whoosh round in the machine, then helping the sun’s rays dry everything, you can help Bear get his washing done. A perfect book for curious little fingers… I loved the letterpress typography too.

Illustration fair goodies

Twice a year there’s a huge Illustration Fair at Granary Square near King’s Cross in London. I never come home empty-handed. I stocked up on beautiful cards from Momoko Abe, Sarah Lodge and Tracey English, and picked up Ruby Wright’s beautiful new picture book Invisible Dogs. I also bought Tor Freeman’s comic The Temptation of Mr Rose and devoured it on the train home, snorting with laughter all the way. Tor Freeman is a COMIC GENIUS - do check out her newsletter The Repository.

Thankyou for reading Story Street. If you enjoyed it, do share with friends and make sure you are subscribed for future episodes. And as always, if you are interested in buying a book do visit my online bookshop using the button below. All my own books are there, as well as lots of recommendations for all the children in your life.

Don’t forget to let me know if you’d like to snap up a paper pelican or any other one of my Mum’s papier maché pieces! See you on 1st September.