A tribute to two very special people.

Doreen Kettlety 6th June 1928 – 16th April 2008
Joseph Kettlety 3rd October 1924 – 26th November 2009

I have been painting figures and building models now for many years, and I’ve certainly inherited this creativity from my parents, I think it must be in the blood.

Today is a sad day, it is the third anniversary of the day mum lost her battle with cancer, and having been married for sixty years that took its toll on dad, and he passed away eighteen months later from a heart attack. So today I would like to pay tribute to both of them, and share some of their creations which live on, along with loving memories.

When I was a kid, the school had its annual fate, and mum along with my then neighbour would always be found running the handicraft stall, having more or less completely populated that stall themselves with knitted gloves, scarves and hats, cuddly toys, tea cosies, dolls clothes, puppets – you name it they made it.

You may have guessed by now that I’m a fan of a certain TV programme, Doctor Who. Mum knitted both the multicoloured scarf and the burgundy variation made famous by the 4th Doctor, Tom Baker. In fact – and I’ll post when I find the picture – mum made the entire original costume for me and it has served me well for many fancy dress parties.

When it came time to update the costume mum’s knitting skills were put to the test by knitting the 7th Doctor’s question mark pullover worn by Sylvester McCoy.

We examined photos of the costume closely to get the pattern right stitch by painful stitch.  I’m sure you’ll agree from these photos mum did a very good job of the whole costume.

I said the craft comes in the blood, and dad’s gift was working with wood, which my brother has inherited. He always said wood work was his best subject at school.

Here you’ll see samples of the display cases dad built for me, from wall mounted cases for the lead figures seen here with some of my Doctor Who figures, to large free standing model cabinets, with plate glass shelves for my many fantasy collections.

Dad also turned his hand to display cabinet draws, when I needed something that extra bit special for a special collection.



When I was very young, dad built a mini store for me, and then for a later Christmas my first Hornby Train Set, complete with a village layout – now guess where my love of building scenic layouts and models came from.

Although today does have sad memories, whenever I think of my folks I’m left very warm memories, and I thought today would be appropriate to share some of them.

Thank you.