Interview with Andrea Courchene

I am please to introduce Andrea Lauren Courchene of Paper Sparrow for today's interview. I first "discovered" Andrea's work while shopping for fabric on Spoonflower. I decided to impulse buy some gnomes that were super cute and in the process, looked for more of her work.  Andrea has a very unique style that combines whimsical imagery with a touch of humor.

You grew up in England. How has that impacted you as an artist?

My fondest memories from my childhood are of walks in the New Forest with my grandparents. My sister and I spent several weeks at their house throughout the year, and as avid bird-watchers, they took us on many hikes, picnics and adventures in different parts of the forest. The New Forest is the largest unpopulated area in South-East England and dates back to the Bronze Age. It's mostly rivers and trails and walks but there are a few towns and historic sites too. My Grandfather told wonderful stories which let our imaginations run wild. I have the most vivid memories of picnics on tree logs, seeing deer, birds and other wildlife, building little dams in rivers and hopping on stones across streams. These memories have a huge impact on my art today.

You currently live in Florida, a place that is magical to me because of the amazing state parks and wildlife opportunities there. Do you see the Florida landscape in your backgrounds? A manatee perhaps?

Absolutely! Florida has some fantastic parks. I've lived in a few different areas of Florida, the panhandle has beautiful beaches with white sand and emerald waters, as well as those most picturesque old oak trees with spanish moss. I was fortunate to live in a house that was a short walk to Pensacola Bay in one direction and to a state park in the other. At the moment, I live in Central Florida which boasts beautiful springs and I get to visit my mum who lives on the Banana River on the Space Coast. You've reminded me of a Manatee series I did in High School, perhaps it is time to re-invent those pieces!

I read that you play cello. Does music influence your work at all?

I started playing cello when I was three and actually went to college for a performance degree. It has influenced my life in so many ways and given me many opportunities to travel and connect with people who have made who I am today. I've been lucky to spend a summer in Maine, a summer in North Carolina, as well as in Texas attending music festivals, which has given me a chance to see different parts of the States as well as some great road trips along the way. And I got to live in Chicago for two years during grad school which was one of the best cities to live in! A lot of my paintings feature animals playing music. Collaborating with musicians is a wonderfully creative experience, and something I've been doing all my life, so I like to imagine a world in which animals would do this too!

Your work reminds me of Wes Anderson’s films. Are you a fan?

Of course! Several of his films would make my top ten. Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favorite films and my boyfriend Paul loves Bottle Rocket. Most recently I've been hugely influenced by Fantastic Mr. Fox. My "Fox Jam" painting was directly inspired by this movie. Being from England, I grew up reading Roald Dahl's books, The Witches, Matilda and the BFG were some of my favorites books as a child so I was particularly drawn to Fantastic Mr. Fox. In addition to Wes Anderson films I love stop-motion animation like Fantastic Mr. Fox, the British series Wallace and Gromit as well as Tim Burton's classics The Nightmare before Christmas and Corpse Bride.

So you’ve recently quit your day job. What does that mean for Paper Sparrow?

It's funny - I ask myself this same question all the time. A couple of years ago, I would never have imagined that Paper Sparrow would be a real business or that anybody would even like or buy my work, so Paper Sparrow has been a complete dream for me so far. I'm leaving my options open and seeing where the road takes me, I'm hopeful that I'll be lucky enough to continue doing Paper Sparrow full-time in ten years time.

A million thanks to Andrea for the interview! She has some awesome Christmas fabric on Spoonflower right now that you should check out. I bought a nice little series to hoard for future projects (I'm thinking stockings for next year!). If you follow the main link to her blog, you'll find links to all of the places where you can buy her stuff. She has set it up so that you can buy her images on iPhone sleeves, pillows, and even shoes. Very cool. But you won't be able to buy the original painting of Pandas in Canoes 'cause that's mine (well, on Christmas it will be mine).


All photos courtesy of Andrea Lauren Courchene.

Dollhouse furniture review: Educo Hape

I have to say that I was most excited about this bedroom set and also the most disappointed. A bedroom wasn't needed because we already had a couple of beds. But I thought it would be nice for Mama and Papa Panda to have a room of their own. This is from the regular Educo Hape dollhouse line. There is also a very contemporary bamboo line that I love the looks of but it's more expensive. This bedroom is going for about $14.00 on Amazon. Not bad. Like with the Le Toy Van set, I used my Swagbucks to buy Amazon giftcards.

Scale: These are identical in scale to the Plan Toys, Le Toy Van and the Ryan's Room sets that I have previously reviewed. As you can see, they are a little big for the Calico Critters (or Sylvanian Families) pandas that we love. Also, they are slightly larger than the Enchantmints mushroom stuff.

Quality: This is where the disappointment comes in. The construction is just shoddy. The plexiglass on the doors of the wardrobe and shelves of the bed is scuffed and the pieces are not square. The dresser is okay but the bed is very crooked. The paint is fine but where glue seeped from the seams, it was not cleaned up very well. There is one cut of the wood that is very rough. So basically, these items just lack the attention to detail in craftsmanship that all of the other companies have.

Overall: I bought this set because of the beanbag. I liked the colors and I liked the modern styling -- especially the striped comforter. All of the fabric on the other sets was yucky and floral. So I have no complaints there. I love the little lamps and those will work well in other parts of the house. And the beanbag is fabulous. While this set doesn't have details in the paint like the Le Toy Van, there are cool details elsewhere -- the drawers pull out and there are tiny hangers in the wardrobe. Cute.

So I do recommend these. The lower price point and modern styling make up for the lack of quality on some of the pieces.

If you would like to read the rest of my dollhouse reviews, click here.

Dollhouse furniture review: Le Toy Van

Even though it's at a higher price point than most of the dollhouse furniture sets that are sold by individual rooms, I really wanted a set by Le Toy Van because they are just so cute. This is the Sugar Plum Kitchen, part of a line of brightly colored rooms including a bright pink bedroom, a bright yellow dining room, and a purple and fuchsia living room.

This line is imported from England so that probably explains the $$$. But Le Toy Van or Hotaling (the distributor) is known for their quality and design. This was in my Amazon cart for a couple of weeks at about $15 then all of a sudden skyrocketed to $19.99 as I was waiting for my Swagbucks giftcards to post (more on Swagbucks later). I want to be mad at Le Toy Van but I honestly couldn't find a flaw worthy of much complaint.

Scale: These are identical in scale to the Plan Toys, Educo/Hape and the Ryan's Room sets that I have previously reviewed. As you can see, they are a smidge big for the Calico Critters (or Sylvanian Families) pandas that we love. Also, they are slightly larger than the Enchantmints mushroom stuff.

Quality: I'm very pleased with the quality of these sets. I don't think they are hand-painted. Everything is done very precisely. I only found a couple of spots of imperfection and that could have been due to transport. Where glue seeped through the seams, it was wiped away. I didn't really find any splinters or jagged edges on anything. Because of the price, I was really looking hard for flaws! The only thing that's bothering me is that the oven door doesn't want to stay shut. I've got to do something about that. 

Overall, I have to recommend these sets. The detail is very nice. The little sprayer on the sink is attached with elastic cord so it has some resistance just like in real life. There aren't any shelves in the fridge so you can't really put stuff in it. We may have to make some. I bought this specifically for the little polka dot teapot and it's better in the picture. Just sayin'.

If you want to read the rest of my dollhouse furniture reviews, click here.

Play Dollhouse Guide

 DIY dollhouse furniture tutorials
(photo courtesy of Made by Joel)

DIY dollhouse tutorials
(photo courtesy Cookie)

Enchantmints

Educo Hape

Le Toy Van

Plan Toys

Ryan's Room

Buy handmade dollhouse furniture on Etsy

Introductory post with information on reviews and scale here.

Another introductory post with links here.

Bias: It was important for me with these reviews that everything be equal. I didn't actually pay for any of the items that I reviewed. CSN provided the Plan Toys sets in exchange for my reviews, I used Swagbucks to buy some sets from Amazon and some sets were gifts for Z for Christmas. Enchantmints is the only company that provided sets outright. None of this influenced my reviews at all. I still feel that the best quality play dollhouse toys are made by Plan Toys (who I never bothered to contact because of the availability on CSN). The cutest good quality stuff is Enchantmints (whose products I would have bought had they not so generously provided them -- and my mom bought Z the bathroom). All the rest is about the same, give or take. Let me know if you have questions.

Dollhouse furniture review: Plan Toys

Welcome to another installment of "How to Buy a Wooden Dollhouse." A while back CSN stores asked if I wanted to do a review of some of their products. It didn't seem like too hefty of a task and since they had this awesome dollhouse furniture, I decided to give it a shot. Basically I was given a gift certificate and paid for anything over that amount. For the three sets, shipping was only about $8 or $9, not bad at all.

These sets are all from Plan Toys, a green toy company focusing on making safe, educational products. So not only do they make toys that are safe for kids and more than compliant with all regulations, they also manufacture in clean ways. I have not discussed reviewing products with the company. I'm doing this on behalf of CSN.

Scale: As you can see, these pieces take up quite a bit of space in the Ryan's Room dollhouse. I don't have a problem with that. We chose a small dollhouse on purpose. I will talk more on scale in a later post. The pandas fit in the furniture well but poor Papa had a rough time changing the baby's diaper. The Plan Toys and the Ryan's Room pieces are compatible in size. These pieces are a bit larger than the Enchantmints pieces I reviewed in a previous post.

Quality: Wow. These pieces are really well crafted. Superior. Not a splinter, not a single stroke of paint out of line. And there is a good bit of detail here without being too period specific (too bad those pandas look like they're about to join a cult. I'm going to have to sew them something more contemporary). The crib comes with a little mobile (see just up there on the left), the changing table opens up, the baby's outfit has an adorable hood and is so soft. I love the striped stroller and the vegetables, oh my! The vegetables are stellar. Such detail. You can take them in and out of their little rows and put them in the wheelbarrrow. The shovel has a metal head. I actually was shocked at the quality. While at about $18 a set, they are near the top of the wooden play dollhouse range, it is clear why. You do get what you pay for.

Overall, I'm very impressed by Plan Toys. I have seen their other, non-dollhouse toys and they are of the same quality. These fit well with the theme of our dollhouse and while the Calico Critters are a bit small in comparison, if they were wearing better clothes, you wouldn't even feel they were out of place. I will be making new covers for the bedding though. I am not too into the florals they've got going on.

I'm going to say a few words about CSN stores although I'm not required to. Shopping on the website was really easy. They had lots of different categories and everything fit in them nicely. They also made good use of sidebars on the left and breadcrumbs (some webspeak, yo) at the top. That is so important. They also have a price slider so you can limit to a certain range. Good selection of the eco-friendly stuff that I prefer my kid to play with. Oh, and get this, a friend told me that when she was remodelling her bathroom, if she found something cheaper somewhere else and emailed a link to CSN, they would quote her a cheaper price. Cool. I'm not sure if they are still doing that.

All photos are taken inside the Ryan's Room Carry n Play Dollhouse that we got at our local toy store. My mom also got the Plan Toys gazebo since Z had requested her dollhouse to have an "outside." I think we will have to put that together but all of the stuff above was pre-assembled. If you want to read my other dollhouse reviews, click here then scroll down to the bottom of that post for other two links.