Brighton Doll Festival

Some info about me

Ceinwen Clarke

(Don't worry about pronouncing it - I answer to anything LOL)

I am a porcelain doll maker who a couple of years ago also became interested in Reborn Dolls.

In my other life as a publisher I have been involved in organising trade shows and conferences for the metals industry and the emergency services industry for the company I run with my husband Modern Media Communications Ltd

In October 2007 I ran the Brighton Doll Festival 2007 at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton. This was a 3 day event of workshops, competitions etc and on the 3rd day we had a sales room selling a variety of dolls and doll accessories. The Festival was mainly attended by porcelain doll makers, (although we did get a few reborners attending) and included visitors from Japan, America, Australia, Germany, Holland and Liechtenstein.

This event was organised by me alone, despite a strange rumour going around that it was run by someone else!!!

Luckily I had a few loyal and much valued friends to back me up. I was lucky enough to have the wonderful expertise of Valerie Dixon of Dear Dolly Aral as competition Director. She and her team of judges did a wonderful job. Lesley Edwards of Ellie's Doll Workshop and Sue Maidment assisted her throughout and put in hours of intensive work judging. Hildegard Gunzel judged the original sculpts and Ray Slater the cloth doll section. We had Elly Knoops on hand to judge the Reborn section but sadly we did not have any entries.

I think I can say this was fairly successful!!! I know it was very much enjoyed and although it was a lot of hard work I had a whale of a time organising it and being there. Taking on something like this alone with just a few volunteer helpers was quite daunting, but I got there!

I was then asked if I could organise a one day sales event for Reborners in the South of England and inspired by the amount of support I was receiving I have decided to give it a go.

I know I am looking forward to it and I hope that you will be able to join us,either as a visitor or a vendor

If you would like to see pictures of the October 2007 event please click the following link

http://picasaweb.google.com/ceinwenbach/BrightonDollFestival2007