Notes on the Making
Process, decisions, behind the scenes — how the stories get made.
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My Doll Adventure 30: Kissing the children goodbye
Sitting by a waterfall, Camellia recalls the night when she parted from her daughters Holding the note she’s just written, she tries to comfort Daisy Then tears a photo in half, and hands half of it to Daisy And reaches into the crib to kiss Rosie goodbye ***** Even with an impulsive day off from…
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The freedom to change one’s mind
If there’s one thing I was certain of on Friday, it was that I was going to take a year off from reworking the My Doll Adventure series once I’d wrapped up the first draft. Naturally, the first thing I did on Saturday was start working on the revised version. I still think I’ll hold…
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Underfoot 02: A night in the shop
After being turned away from the hotel in their last episode, Jinjur and Buu take to the streets to find some place to stay the night. But the big world is not a safe place for little things Looking for a place to stay, they spot a shop. And use the mailslot to scramble in…
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Taking action shots of inanimate objects
I’ve spent more hours than I’d care to guess trying to prop up my figures for motion shots. For my fashion dolls – all four of the My Doll Adventure figures – I rely on some kind of stand. For my ball-joint dolls – all of the characters in the Underfoot and Up Above stories,…
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(Doll) character development
I entered doll adventure land through a side door – somewhere between play and play therapy – so many of the building blocks of photography, miniatures, and writing are unfamiliar to me. Because I could see their effects in every shot, I focused my learning on photography and miniatures. But, as I start to branch…
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My Doll Adventure 29: The Stranger’s Story
We ended Rosie’s last episode with Frank placing a story in the local paper seeking any info on the girls’ (Rosie and Daisy)’s mother, Camellia. This week’s episode starts with someone reading that article. Over coffee, someone reads the day’s paper and spots an article which recalls a day 12 years ago She makes a…
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Another world, another scale – entering the land of 1/3 scale dolls
I’ve finally settled on characters for my last story line, although they’re months and months away from joining the cast. Like most of my doll decisions, I got them on the way to getting something completely different. I’d been looking for another cast member for my “Up Above” story with the sisters in the tree…
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Attention to detail – creating a sense of a complete world
Attention to detail has never been my strong suit. It always seems to hinder my mad rush forward. But a world without detail, even a very little world, starts to feel as if it’s floating in space – unanchored to time or place. So, I’m trying to force myself to slow down enough to get…
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My Doll Adventure 28: Rosie’s pirate adventure, part 1
In Daisy and Lily’s last episode, Daisy, Lily and Frank talked about the day that Frank had found the girls – toddler Daisy and her baby sister Rosie – at the library where he worked. This week, Frank joins the effort to find the girl’s mother, by placing an article in the local newspaper. And…