LatinosUSA

Hi everyone, it’s Robbie Cheadle here with you today with my September post in the Animal Photography section on LatinosUSA – English Edition. This month I am featuring photographs of The Creation Process.

I’ve decided to include the next four weeks of themes in each post so readers have more time to contribute to each theme.

18 September – Autumn colours

25 September – Sculptures, statues and gargoyles

Halloween – 2 October Creatures that slither or slide

Halloween – 9 October People or animals in costumes

I would love all the photographers out there to contribute. If you have a photograph to contribute to any of the above themes, please email me at cheadlerobbie@gmail.com and use the title Photography. Please also include a short write up about your photograph.

Artsy and Craftsy by Robbie Cheadle

As far back as I can remember, I have always been a precocious reader. I have also always been artsy and craftsy. From a young age I was always making figurines and other things from shells and clay, home-made books, paper dolls, dolls houses and cribs from pieces of material and wooden boxes, dolls clothes, Christmas trees decorated with home-made trinkets, and Easter egg baskets. I think I must have been born with a book in one hand and a box of coloured pencils in the other.

Some of my arts and crafts projects came from books I read. The idea of decorating a Christmas tree with homemade paper chains, paper lanterns, and other ornaments came from What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. I included my three younger sisters in many of my art projects and they helped make various inputs. I remember all four of us sitting together making a birthday book for Mom, and Easter baskets for each family member. It was always great fun and I still have some of the goodies we made. Some are missing their glitter, stars or even their heads, but they still exist in my memory box.

Another activity I enjoyed was baking. I started baking at a young age because my mother did not like baking. If us girls wanted cake or other treats, we had to make them ourselves. We learned to make cakes, scones, and pastry for pies and quiches. Most of our experiments worked and we even started selling cakes and cupcakes at school. This was for our personal gain and we spent the extra money on inputs for more art projects.

Nothing has changed over the years and I am still artsy and craftsy.

four eager sisters

enjoying an art party

glue and paint galore

The haibun above is for Esther Chilton’s writing challenge which you can participate in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2026/09/09/writing-prompts-128/

Below is a sequence of photographs I took while creating the fondant figurines and circus tent cake for Mom’s 86th birthday party.

First the cake creation and assembly:

Now for the fondant figures:

The final circus tent cake:

A Special Book Project by Derrick Knight

Derrick Knight is a wonderful photographer and shares delightful book reviews and garden and home posts on his blog here: https://derrickjknight.com/

This week, Derrick has submitted a special selection of photographs of a book he created for his daughter, Becky, when she was a little girl. This is the introduction to the post Derrick wrote about this beautiful labour of love:

«Sometime in 1973 I began to make a book for Becky, then my youngest daughter. It was planned for her fourth birthday the following year. I used water-colour pencils on a pad of thick cartridge paper, leaving the spiralled spine in place and binding the boards with a William Morris furnishing fabric, sealed by a press-stud on a flap. Taking a wee bit longer than anticipated, this labour of love was not finished until my little girl’s seventh birthday by which time she could read it for herself.»

You can read the rest of the post from which these photographs are extracted here: https://derrickjknight.com/2014/02/21/beckys-book/

Using various photographs and what was in my head  on which to base my drawings, I took five years over the process.

The photograph of Becky prompted the theme, and the drawing below:

 

My friend Carole Littlechild modelled the fingers in this picture:  

and this photo of Matthew inspired the drawing looking through the window. Rain had kept our son indoors.

Whilst attending a case conference in a children’s home a dappled tree trunk caught my eye and gave me the idea for this drawing. 

The whole book appears in the post featured at the start.

Becky has kept the book all her life and as an adult appreciated what it was all about.

About Robbie Cheadle

South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, written and illustrated four poetry books and written and illustrated one celebration of cake and fondant art book with recipes. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

You can find Robbie Cheadle’s artwork, fondant and cake artwork, and all her books on her website here: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/

Social Media Links

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/robbiecheadle.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVyFo_OJLPqFa9ZhHnCfHUA
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584446.Robbie_Cheadle
TSL Publications: https://tslbooks.uk/product-tag/robbie-cheadle/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robbie-Cheadle/author/B01N9J62GQ
Unsplash profile: https://unsplash.com/@r_cheadle