Notes on the Making
Process, decisions, behind the scenes — how the stories get made.
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From an adventure tale to a story of kinship
My Overhead/Up-Above/who-knows-what-else-I’ve-called-it has gone through its (hopefully) final change. Because I recognize that the treehouse/adventure angle just isn’t where the heat is, I’m going to redo it from the beginning (which I had to do anyway, due to all of the wig changes) to focus on what matters. That is, to focus on the sweet…
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In the Pictures: Start of Summer (Redo)
These last two weeks I’ve been working on finishing up the first episode of In the Pictures – where the two sisters discover that one does not simply put a movie away, because it has a way of coming back. I’ve left the first part of the story the same, and added a bit on…
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Do overs
As I move all of my episodes onto the web, I’m finding that shots that seemed perfectly acceptable in a blog post just don’t look right when I format them into an episode. I suspect a lot of that came from my one-episode-a-week schedule. I’d usually take a few shots that I loved, but, to…
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Underfoot 03: The Doll Graveyard
Underfoot has gone through some changes since our last adventure. The two characters have new names and a new location. Meet Cosette and Mathilde and their adventures in France. Also, the new site is up at www.smalllifestories.com. Still in pretty preliminary form, but some pieces are ready. That said, I’m going to post the new…
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A cornucopia of canines
Dogs! I simply cannot stop buying dogs. Small dogs, thankfully. And inanimate. But, still, dogs. At first I was solving a problem: How will my dolls ever have enough dogs?! But now, I have so many dogs that I’m no longer problem-solving with them. I’m just buying . . . dogs. So, here’s where I…
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Living and non-living dolls
In my next Underfoot episode, I’m going to be playing around with the distinction between dolls that seem fully alive and dolls that seem less so. I talked about this a long time ago when I mused on dolls that appeared to have souls. It’s nothing I can really put my finger on, but some…
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My Doll Adventure 35: The End
Last time we checked in, all of the characters were converging on the airport in an attempt to find Camellia. Did they make it? Let’s see. Well, hmmm, not sure. Let’s see if we can get another angle Oh, yes, I think I can make it out. Let’s try one last angle Ah, good, looks…
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Overhead: First night in the treehouse
After building a rough platform in their last episode, Fern and Olive are finishing off the floor of the treehouse. Well, maybe Fern is doing most of the work. When it’s all done, they relax and admire their work. Then Willow puts on a record . . . . . . and everybody dances. All…
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Dancing dolls
I take back everything I said about Olive’s (my Iplehouse Amy doll’s) posing ability in my previous post. Apparently, although she’s not always able to resist the forces of gravity, she can totally dance. I think her dancing ability comes from the way her chest joint pivots. Unlike most of my ball-joint dolls, she can…