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Bianca was wandering in the garden with little Lizbet....  ...when Saphira happened by...  "So, is this your new little one?"  "Yes, she is."  "Say hello to the lovely dragon, Lizbet."  "She's adorable. Hello there Lizbet. It's so nice to meet you."  Then to Bianca, "Young children are so adorable. But they are also a lot of work. Even so, there's nothing quite like the joy of being a mother."  May 11th is Archery Day, and several kids were out practicing their skills...  All their arrows had hit the bullseye, and Ringo was impressed. "You two are really good."  "Thanks. But this is really easy and not much of a challenge at all."  "I can actually hit an apple at two hundred paces."  Ringo was skeptical, "Really? I'd like to see that!"  "Well, I just happen to have an apple handy."  "Hmmm....Now I just need a place to put it." 
"And here's the perfect place."   "Now, don't move."   Lonnie became alarmed.  "You aren't really going to try shoot that apple off of his head, are you?"  "Who said anything about 'try'? I never miss."  But then, right at that moment, Jamie's father arrived at the shooting range, and realizing what his son was about to do, he quickly put a stop to his reckless behaviour.
"But Dad," Jamie tried to explain in his defence, "I was only fooling. I wasn't really going to do it!" Two weeks ago I went to the Greater Toronto Area Doll Show. There's only two shows every year that are within driving distance, and it's always exciting to go and see if there's anything interesting I can use for my dolls. Some years there's nothing, but this year I hit the jackpot. I was especially thrilled to come across two pieces of MSD size furniture, and took a quick photo when I got home...  The two new pieces of furniture needed their own room setting...so I put one together...    Lawrence, who just happened to be in contemporary garb, volunteered to try out the chair...  I took a photo and thought it looked so wrong. Unlike a human, he didn't have the weight to press down on the seat cushion, so was sitting high and dry ON top of the cushion, as opposed to comfortably IN the chair. So I was determined to do something about it. Thankfully the seat cushion was loose, and quite well made. I unpicked the back seam, removed the foam cushion, then sliced the foam much thinner - to less than half. Then I stitched a wide tuck into the edge of the cushion cover, inserted the thinner foam back in and stitched the opening closed. I also added some tufting to help shape the cushion even more...  Then Lawrence could finally get comfortable. His elbow could rest on the armrest, and the shaping from the cushion tufting gave the impression that he had some substantial weight as he sat IN the chair. All the work had definitely been worth the effort.  A Tiny GardenI thought it would be fun to take a photos for Naked Gardening Day using the Avery twins, as they were the only dolls who wouldn't mind the indignity of being photographed naked. But where to create their garden? My spring garden is no place scale-wise for photos of such tiny dolls, the tulips being at least four times as high as the dolls, so I had to come up with something else. The large garden urn was empty of plants, with just the yew in the background, so it seemed perfect. I smoothed out the dirt, surrounded the edge of the urn with dried moss, put up a clothesline, and 'planted' rows of tiny orchids, goutweed, and moss.  And to represent 'cabbages' I used Brussels sprouts, carefully placing them on bits of moss so they wouldn't touch the dirt.   Willie & WinstonI had wanted to take some photos of Winston and Willie having tea in the Scillas in our backyard grass, but it just wasn't working out to my satisfaction. Taking photos on the ground was getting way too difficult for me, so I moved them to the upper garden instead, somewhere with just short plants, and positioned an old tree root behind them to hide the ugly fence...  Then I could sit on a bench to take the close ups...  I was busy taking some additional photos for the May section of the Special Days book we were working on, and I asked our son if I could borrow his R2D2 Mr. Potato Head for the May cover page, as well as some of his Lego mini figures for a new Star Wars Day photo. I was originally going to have some modern kids playing with the mini figures, but then a new idea presented itself.. When I had altered the commercial wig for Emily's butterfly fairy photos, my sister called it a 'Princess Leia' wig, which got me thinking about making her and Avery tiny Star Wars costumes. Then I needed some kind of set to suggest the inside of a space ship, so used the white backs of some foam core walls for the background, and then positioned some white kitchen appliances, and clear plastic lids and containers, on the white bristol-board floor on my kitchen table....  Then I could just sit on a chair to take close up photos... When I told my sister I was making little Luke and Leia costumes she asked if I was going to have them swinging over a cliff. Well that got me thinking. The scene she had in mind took place inside a star destroyer, and I started looking around to see what, if anything, in my house could double as the inside of a star destroyer. My refrigerator!! So I cleared out the top two shelves, and put in some small white appliances for 'architectural' interest. I positioned the two dolls together and tied a cord around Emily's waist, then suspended them from the handle of the cupboard above the fridge. A second thread tied to the other cupboard handle prevented them from spinning. At one point I needed that thread shortened but couldn't undo the knot, so I asked Jan if he could just hold the thread a little higher, so hr got up on a chair...  Because the dolls were actually outside the fridge, they needed the photography light on them so they wouldn't just be silhouettes against the bright fridge interior behind them. After taking the photos I needed to remove the second thread in Photoshop...  With the nicer weather finally having arrived, Willie and Winston made it a point to get together as often as they could,  to catch up ....   and just enjoy each other's company...   May the 4th was not only Star Wars Day, but it's also Naked Gardening Day. It's the day gardeners are encouraged to tend their gardens naked, just like nature intended...      Avery and Emil pretend to be Luke and Leia making their daring escape from the evil Empire...    Today is Star Wars Day, and in my imaginary, alternate universe Luke and Leia were not separated at birth, but grew up together....    ...and one of their favourite things to do was to play with all their Empire action figures...      ...and Luke would always defeat all the bad guys...    |
AuthorMartha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes. Archives
January 2025
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