An interview with Dawn Treacher – Author, illustrator & plush artist

Dawn Treacher is a children’s book author, illustrator and plush artist based in North Yorkshire. She has a love for anything whimsical and ten years ago began creating creatures in socks under the name, Treacher Creatures. Over the years she’s embraced all manner of materials to make creatures and has specialised in re-creating children’s book characters for authors to use in their promotion and at author events.

1. The book characters you bring to life are so realistic. The attention to detail, the intricate sewing and appreciation to get it right, shines through. Can you give us a little insight into your background and how you started?

I have always loved sewing and creating creatures, even when I was a young child and would make simple creatures from an old fur hat or pieces of felt. I started seriously making creatures in 2009 when I discovered you could make pretty much any animals from a pair of socks. So Treacher Creatures was born when I had a house full of sock creatures and I opened an Etsy shop in 2010. Since then I shipped over 2,000 creatures around the world but then my focus shifted when I started writing for children. In 2017 my first picture book, Mouse Pirate was published and as I had author events to do I created Mouse Pirate in plush and also made a whole suitcase for his little home which went with me to events. That’s when other authors in my SCBWI picture book critique group noticed and so my first author order for a book character came along and I haven’t stopped making them since.

2. What was the first book character you were asked to create? What is the process between you and the author/illustrator from start to finish?

My first book character commission was for Leonie Roberts for her picture book, My colourful chameleon. It was a complex character and not easily achievable to get the color changes. I spent a long while trying to find rainbow fabrics which would achieve the effect she wanted and sent loads of images to her but none really fitted well enough. Then it occurred to me that the best way to get the shape would be crocheting using the Japanese Amigurumi continuous spiral technique, making the chameleon in one piece so this gave me the idea to explore variegated yarns.  I found the perfect one and Leonie was happy for me to experiment with this method. I already had images from her soon to be published book so from this I then crocheted the basic body shape using these as a guide. I don’t use patterns or write down patterns when I crochet, I crochet on the fly, feeling where to increase and decrease as I go. By cutting and adding the yarn to make the best of the color changes the chameleon was born.
(I have included the pictures as attachments)3. As a painter, book writer and illustrator – can you give us an idea of what a typical working day looks like for you? Or do you approach each project in a unique way?

I don’t have a typical day as my life is structured by the needs of my husband. I have been his stay at home carer for over 20 years now. I never know what each day will bring so I have to be super flexible. All my hobbies grew out of needing something flexible to do whilst being at home and they were and still are my way of maintaining my own mental well being whilst supporting someone with severe mental health problems. So my week varies a lot. I try to write every week, draw when I can and take on projects that I know I can fit around life. I always have a creature on the go, making them really lifts me when I’m struggling.  When I have a new custom order this will usually be spread out in small bursts across a week. The first step is always to look at the images I have been sent, sometimes the physical book, or the pdf of the interior as I need to see the characters in as many angles as possible. Creating a 3D creature from a 2D representation on the page which was never envisaged to be turned into a toy can be complex. Frequently the illustrator has incorporated  textures, or patterns and colours that are tricky to reproduce and I have to decide which are essential to convey the character. Also you won’t believe how many times a character isn’t consistent across a book, the number of spots or spines or sometimes even the colours and scale of things change from page to page so I tend to match the image that best sits well with the cover of the book if I can.  I need to make paper pieces for some of the fleece characters I make, though these are pretty rough and approximate really as I tend to just work with the fabric and feel my way through a design. I can’t design without the fabric in my hands.

4. Your children’s novel ‘Pandemonium of Parrots’, a steampunk fantasy adventure published by Stairwell Books, is out now! Can you tell us the inspiration behind it and its fantastic cover?

Pandemonium of parrots began life as a small phrase a friend’s child said when she saw the local power station, huge chimneys pumping out what looked like clouds, but of course are water vapor. She called Drax power station a cloud machine and the whole novel grew from that one scene. It began with a small boy inside a glass orangery where his uncle had created an artificial environment with a cloud machine,  with speakers emitting the sound of running water and a flock of mechanical parrots, which was of course the pandemonium. I immediately saw the disparity between what we show the outside world and the reality.  Otto lives in a contrived beautiful mechanical paradise when outside lays a dirty steam filled dangerous world Victoriana style with a filthy factory, workhouse and a notorious steam pirate. I knew the story would be about well hidden secrets and of course a whole zoo of mechanical animals. I knew the stakes had to be high, hence the enormous mechanical octopus.

I was lucky enough to be published by a small independent press that I had already built up a good relationship with. They’d published Mouse Pirate and I’d illustrated a number of other books for them too. So, they allowed me to do my own cover art and 39 black and white illustrations within too.  I wanted a really eye catching cover and I wanted to really play around with the images, textures and images so I created sheets and sheets of painted card, in the colours of my book with different textures in the paint. Then I cut them all up and cut out all the pieces I’d need to construct the main elements of my book, the octopus, the parrots and the steam pirate ship at sea. Then I played around with all the pieces until I was happy, sticking them onto a sheet I had already painted. It is a wrap around cover, so there is more to see on the back too.

5. You have a writers caravan, with winter heading our way, do you write in it all year round? You live in a lovely part of the UK, do you get inspired by Yorkshire when creating?

We had to move to a tiny bungalow 4 years ago but we have lots of space outside so I bought a vintage, rather poor condition caravan for a couple of hundred pounds as an extra room and so Geraldine my writing caravan was born. She is so peaceful, with no electricity at all she is for daytime use only and mostly between April to November really, though I now have a sleeping bag suit to help prolong her use this year. I am very lucky to live in rural North Yorkshire and though it doesn’t inspire my stories it gives me a great place to walk and sort out the problems of my stories, walking is great thinking time.

6. Which book character from past or present would you love to create through Treacher Creatures?

My favourite book has always been the Wind in the Willows and I’d love to have the time to recreate this wonderful bunch of characters. I’m also really looking forward to recreating the carrot elves from Kringleset Chronicles in time for the round of Christmas library book events I have lined up this year.