Bonnard and bodkins

Jul 27, 2026

I made a loose copy by Bonnard’s Coffee. His little dachshund with his paws up on the table reminds me of our dog who does just this every evening when we sit down to eat, scanning our plates to see what scraps might come his way – like an attentive waiter or a smellier sommelier perhaps.

Sixty years of hurt.

I’m not sure if this is meant to be Kate Middleton or Katie Price, but either way she gets my vote at The Great and Little Longstone Scarecrow Competition.

Inkling 2.2

Sent in by author and illustrator, Jane Porter. Jane also has a most excellent Substack, called Story Street, and keeps a diary in comic form that’s been running for over TEN years!

I was really touched by Jane’s little package. Jane made this gorgeous collage and the vintage tools are from the sewing drawer of her mum, who sadly passed away earlier this year. The hook is a button hook for doing up tiny buttons on Victorian leather boots and we think the pointy implements are probably bodkins, used to pull drawstrings through narrow tunnels. A murder weapon in Shakespeare’s Hamlet (When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin), the tool was a kind of Swiss Army Knife for women.

Used to fasten ribbon, tie up corsets, hold one’s hair in place, and perform certain acts of personal hygiene. The spoon? Dig out a good quantity of earwax with which to smooth your thread. Bodkins also doubled as toothpicks and could keep a baby occupied during church.

From Bodkins are a Girl’s Best Friend, The Museum of Old Newbury.

Thank you Jane, I will treasure them always.