Introducing Henrik and Hilda, the Scandinavian inspired gonks
Meet Henrik and Hilda, Scandinavian inspired Christmas gonks, or gnomes if you prefer. Aren’t they just adorable?! I love them. They’ve been a real labour of love, let me tell you.
Every year I like to bring new designs out for Christmas, and earlier in the year our family took a vote, and it was decided that this was to be the year to introduce gonks.
As always, I got to work scribbling down what I thought I’d like on a piece of paper, ready for my husband, Rich, to transform and bring my ideas to life. This little scrap of paper is affectionately known in our household as “his brief”. And woe betide he deviates from the brief!
However, that being said, I wasn’t overly clear on what style I really wanted. I fancied a style a little bit different from Roary the T-Rex and Maggie the Unicorn. Less of an outline filled in, and more of a painted style, like the previous years gingerbread, Bread and Ginger.
Rich set to work, digitally painting his brief, in I don’t know how many different styles. Airbrushed, watercolour, realistic, you name it, he tried it. After about a month of going back and forth, I’m afraid to say I asked him to go with his original suggestion of creating them in the outline style that he perfected with our dinosaur and unicorn designs.
Well, what can I say?! The moment he did that, I loved them! They look just how I wanted them to, real little characters.
Henrik - I love his name! (although, I can’t help but think of Henrik Hanson from Holby) - he’s a real gentleman. With a kind heart and a warm smile, underneath that great beard of his! He comes to life at Christmas time, loving the traditions, the sparkle of the season, he almost has a fireside glow about him. He can be a bit of a pickle though, if he finds his way into the kitchen at night, you can be sure he’ll have eaten every last scrap of porridge in the house, whilst no-one is watching. So make sure you lock your cupboard doors, or there’ll be none left.
Then there’s Hilda - I was Googling Scandi girl names, when I saw Hilda pop up and I thought it was perfect. My grandmother was named Hilda and ironically she also plaited her hair every day, but then styled it by pinning her plaits up in buns, almost looking like a pair of headphones. I never actually got to meet her, as she sadly passed away three weeks before I was born. So I adore that I can honour her memory with this little design.
Hilda is a traditional lady at heart, she likes sewing and is a great collector of all things little, especially buttons! She’s got a huge glass jar full of them. If you look closely, you’ll see that she’s sewn her all time favourite buttons onto her outfit, big chunky wooden ones.
Take a look at the Henrik and Hilda collection