Thursday 19 May 2016

Your love calms my brambles..

A new family have recently started moving into Hawthorn Bay, the Brambles Hedgehogs who I've decided to name the Keikyoku family (Japanese for brambles).

I just got mother Eleanor Bramble to start with, but as soon as she arrived I adored her & knew I needed to get father Mortimer Bramble too, though I plan on them being fraternal twins, rather than husband & wife.

They have such sweet happy faces & I'm so happy with my decision to add them to my collection.



As far as I'm aware she's my first Japanese Sylvanian, she's certainly the first boxed Japanese figure I've bought up to this point (the only other Sylvanians I have with flat hands are the UK Tomy Thistlethorns & the Calico Critter Neptune sea otters).

I really wanted to give her a Japanese name, so inspired by an old favourite animated film of mine - Hedgehog in the Fog by Yuri Norstein (1975) I've decided to name her Kiri (meaning fog or mist), & yet to arrrive Mortimer I'll name *Kuri* (meaning chestnut), which seemed fitting because of the spiky cupules that cover them.


Before she arrived I decided that she would have a clothes/habedashery shop in Hawthorn Bay - partially because I didn't want to deal with having to make her a crocheted dress, partially because I have one of the Singer style Sylvanian sewing machines & have been wanting one of my families to have a (non-crocheted) clothes shop.  I hadn't realised that was Mr & Mrs Brambles jobs are supposed to be:

Father Mortimer Bramble
is the Sylvanian tailor. He makes all the clothes for everyone in Sylvania. He loves sewing while gently rocking in his rocking chair. 
Mother Eleanor Bramble designs and makes all the special Sylvanian costumes like wedding outfits and Sunday best clothes.
Though it makes sense, in Japanese, hedgehog is harinezumi, which means needle mouse.

If you haven't seen Hedgehog in the Fog I highly recommend it..