Dragons in the Eaves

While I was rushing around today, getting everything together for my forthcoming school visits, the doorbell rang. It's a bit of a dash when I'm up in the studio, down two flights of stairs from the attic...

Worth it though, as it was the postman with a big package: always jolly exciting!

Inside was my artwork from Dragons Dinner, returned by Hodder. If you're not in the industry, you may not realise that a publisher only buys the rights to reproduce the illustrations, not the artwork itself, which still belongs to the illustrator.

This is great, except it soon mounts up. It has to be stored flat and so takes up a lot of room.

It used to be crammed into an overstuffed plans chest, with the overflow stacked in corners and under beds. So, when I converted our attic rooms into my present studio, I got a joiner to build me these handy little cupboards into the eaves, where I can store it all, wrapped up in plastic packages:

It also comes in handy for storing work-in-progress: the unwrapped pieces you can see on top are the illustrations for Bears on the Stairs, where I kept them up to this week, carefully laid out, away from potential coffee spills (I am the clumsiest woman in the world: it's official).

Talking of such things, if you didn't read it at the time, my artwork accident with Maddy the cat might make you smile (and wince!).