Commenting

One of the best parts of blogging is reading the comments you leave. Even a simple message really brightens my day, and I'm sure if you have a blog you feel that way too. I've tried to make it very easy to leave comments by not making you confirm that you're not a robot and enabling anonymous commenting, but recent behavior has started to make me regret this decision.

About an hour ago, someone wrote a nasty comment on one of my posts. While I appreciate getting feedback from readers, insulting me and my work is something that I will never tolerate. It would be one thing if they had offered constructive criticism, but name-calling and insults are never acceptable. If you don't like my website or my work, that's perfectly fine, but either find a way to say it politely or better yet, don't comment at all. 

I put a lot of time and effort into making this website, and I don't get any monetary benefit. The one thing I ask in the comment section is for commenters to not write anything malicious. If people can't follow one simple guideline, I'm going to have to start limiting who can and cannot comment. 

Just so you know, there’s nothing really anonymous about the internet. Comments can be traced back to IP addresses, so when someone posts unkind comments here, I can track them down. 

And to everyone who writes nice comments here, thank you so much. I really appreciate your kindness and support.

Doll Photography Tips

Because paper is so susceptible to tearing or blowing away, paper doll photo shoots can be very challenging. Add to that the fact that most of us don't have fancy photography equipment (I can't speak for anyone else, but if I had enough money for a fancy professional camera I would buy doll things instead), and paper doll photography sounds very daunting indeed. But it doesn't have to be! I'm no photography expert, but here's some things I've learned from making weekly photo shoots.

1. Don't position your doll in front of your light source. The light will shine through and it doesn't look very professional.

2. Do take photos inside, if possible, to minimize risks of loss or damage. If you really want to take photos outside, tape your doll to the background to keep it in place. I don't know how many times I've set up a scene only for it to fall apart because of an ill-timed breeze.

Here's how I take photos for the website:

This is my studio - a cardboard box and some patterned paper (from the Klutz paper fashions book). There's a window to the right of the box (not the one behind the paper) that I keep open when I take pictures.

Here are my models posing in front of the background I chose. I like the papers with simple patterns so the background accentuates the scene but doesn't overwhelm it. 

I take pictures on a borrowed iPad. After I take the picture, I crop and edit the picture to make sure I like it. Then I email it to myself, and put it in a post on my computer. It's somewhat time-consuming, but rather easy.

I hope you found this useful, and if you have any tutorial suggestions please tell me in the comments.

Odds and Ends

I'm in the middle of my doll collection overhaul, so instead of setting up a photo shoot with the dolls, I thought I'd just share some pictures of what the new collection is starting to look like and somethings I'm planning to make.

A sneak preview of how the future collection will be organized.

Most of the old collection has been given to a younger family member as a gift. 

From Flickr

I'm planning on a giveaway for April, and since it's National Poetry Month who better to be the prize than a paper Ellowyne! More details to come, hopefully. 

From Etsy

DollyTown on Etsy makes the most stunning doll shoes! I think I'm going to replace Meredith's plain blue shoes with a pair of these two-tone flats. 

What doll projects are you working on?

Something New

I'm not really used to writing personal posts, but I thought that maybe other people could relate to it so I'm sharing it anyway.

Do you ever have days when you just want to make doll things nonstop, and then days when you can't even look at your dolls? For me, it's a constant cycle. I absolutely love making dolls and doll things, but  storing them and playing with them doesn't bring me quite as much pleasure. This post from Sugar Balloon expresses what I feel much more eloquently, and inspired me to give my doll collection a figurative make-over in terms of simplicity and functionality.

When I designed Quinn's wardrobe, my aim was to keep it simple. Instead of making multiple outfits, I just made two tops, two bottoms, two pieces of headgear, and one pair of boots. No pajamas, no coats, no activity-specific clothes, just a few simple pieces that can be mixed and matched. I tried to accomplish the same thing with Meredith's wardrobe, but I didn't do that for my non-Blythes. Reading the Sugar Balloon piece made me realize that I should. Maybe my problems with playing with dolls come from having too big a doll collection to really appreciate and enjoy.

My plan is to put my current doll collection in storage and remake it in the same way I did with my Blythe collection. I'm going to shrink the size of the dolls I make and narrow down my inventory to the most basic and necessary pieces. With a smaller collection, I think doll play will be much more fun.

From substanceoverstuff.com

Have you ever tried something like this? What items would you say are the most basic and necessary?

Makeup Tutorial

Here's the makeup tutorial. Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I'm in a big rush and don't have time to make a more sophisticated tutorial. Hope you like it anyway!

First, draw the shape you want on the paper. I drew something big to make it easier to cut out, but you can make it whatever size you want.

Color it, cut it out, and tape it. Leave plenty of tape for sticking to the doll's face.

Attach it to the face and you're done! You can adapt this tutorial to basically anything - this is how I made Cora's hearing aid. 

What do you want to see next week?

Quinn Moves In

Continued from where we left off last week...

Meredith lay down on her bed to process this bit of news when the new roommate came in. 

"Hi, I'm Quinn," she said. "You must be Meredith. Is that your dog?" 

"Her name's Bella," said Meredith, feeling a little intimidated by her new roommate and her strange outfit. 

Bella ran over to Quinn, barking excitedly. "She's really cute," said Quinn, petting her gently.

"What's with the outfit?' asked Meredith, trying to sound polite. 

"It's steam-punk. The human made me another outfit, want to see?"

"Can I try an outfit on?"

"Sure! Can I try on one of your outfits?"

"You're lucky that you got pants. I've only got dresses."

"Well, it's hard to climb into a dirigible in a dress."

"You have a dirigible?" asked Meredith incredulously.

"No, I wish!"

They changed back into their regular outfits and let me take a picture of them next to their beds before going to walk Bella and take a tour of the doll house (currently undergoing renovation). 

Quinn was complaining later that the waffle bed and strawberry hat don't really suit her. What do you think? Do you have any ideas for replacements?

Roommate Revealed

I just wanted to say thank you all so much for your kind get-well wishes. You guys are the best! I'm feeling a lot better, and will probably post the makeup tutorial next week.

Here at last is the new roommate, Quinn Marie!

Do you have dolls that seem to decide their personalities for you? Quinn is definitely one of those cases. Before I made her, I thought that the next Blythe doll I made would be named Natasha and love lollipops, which would work well with Meredith's liking ice cream and kawaii. I never thought of naming her Quinn, nor did I think she would be into fruit and steam-punk. I'm not even that interested steam-punk, so I have no idea where that came from. She's the complete opposite of what I though she would be, and surprisingly I'm really excited about that.

Quinn borrowed Meredith's dress for these photos, but I think that she'd like something with more gears and leather. And a pair of goggles. Guess I have to make a whole new wardrobe for her, and get rid of the lollipop bed... 

I had them pose for one picture together before letting them go off to the room they now share. I hope Quinn likes Bella, because I'm not going to make her a robot dog. 

Are any of you into steam-punk? Do you have any advice for two opposite personalities sharing a room?