Notes on the Making
Process, decisions, behind the scenes — how the stories get made.
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Finding a familiar for Camellia
When I first told Camellia I was giving her a bluebird as a companion, she laughed. Warmly and sweetly, of course, with her air of sadness, but still, a laugh. I’m not sure what I was thinking. Maybe of Snow White singing with the bluebirds. maybe of a lovely bluebird my Aunt Shirley gave me…
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Setting Camellia Adrift
On the 12th page of my doll notebook – where I jot down tasks and notes – I’ve written”sort out ocean.” I even have a checkbox next to it, so that I can check it off my list when the ocean is done being sorted out. Camellia’s ocean is about to take a starring role,…
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Backstory: My Doll Adventure 05 – Enter Raven, stage right
Go here to read this episode: MDA 05: Enter raven, stage right One of the difficult things about posting drafts of in-progress work is that I’m forever realizing that I did something wrong the first time. In this case, that I didn’t make Camellia’s early images in B&W (you’ll see why, in a bit). But,…
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Lily waits in the wings
There’s one more character, waiting in the wings. Lily is the only doll I had custom made. My other dolls are all variations of Andrea’s (from Wildwood dolls) available characters. But, when I went looking for an older, female doll, I couldn’t find any. So I asked Andrea to make one, based on my favorite…
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Dolls in the great outdoors
I have a series of shots of my husband from our hikes titled “Bob, dwarfed by nature” where he appears very small against enormous mountains, waterfalls, etc. For my dolls, however, I don’t have to get out of the backyard before they’re made to look as small as, well, they are. Here, for example, is…
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Backstory: My Doll Adventure 04 – Daisy shoots the sky
Go here to read this episode: MDA 04: Daisy shoots the sky On the technical piece – I’m almost at the end of my have-to-be-photoshopped pictures and hoping to explore some new outdoor photography techniques soon. I’ll talk about that in Wednesday’s post. On the plot side, I mean for Daisy’s life to seem sweet,…
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A casement window for Rosie
Rosie is the only doll who doesn’t get to travel the world – so I wanted to be sure that the world could come to her. In her story, it flows in through open casement windows. She sleeps under the open windows, and, every night, some new adventure creeps in and rests on her pillow,…
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On finding an imp to play Rosie
Rosie needs to have a certain kind of look to pull off her scenes. She has to be young – younger then most “teen” dolls; she has to be sweet; but she also has to be a little mischievous. That’s a lot to ask of a doll. This picture, from her first episode is a…