the White Cat
(original version from 1989)
This book is a printed version of the very first Fairytale featuring dolls that my sister Marianne and I did way back in the late 1980's. We had just started sculpting dolls, and thought it might be fun to create a photos story with them. We chose the old French fairytale, the White Cat. So she sculpted the two main characters, Blanchette and Prince Adrian, and I dressed them. We sculpted and painted the cats together, and then I dressed them. All the other characters in the story were played by existing dolls that had already been made.
It was quite an effort for Marianne to create the photos superimposing tiny cut-outs of the characters into scenic pictures, as it was in the days before digital cameras and Photoshop. She would photograph the dolls in the pose required, and in the scale needed for the interior scene she had in mind, get the photos printed, cut out the characters, position them on the picture she wanted them in, and take another photo for the final picture.
It was quite an effort for Marianne to create the photos superimposing tiny cut-outs of the characters into scenic pictures, as it was in the days before digital cameras and Photoshop. She would photograph the dolls in the pose required, and in the scale needed for the interior scene she had in mind, get the photos printed, cut out the characters, position them on the picture she wanted them in, and take another photo for the final picture.
The story begins with a King, who has three sons, and sends them on a quest. Whomever can find the smallest little dog at the end of a year will become his heir....
the youngest son, prince Adrian comes across an enchanted castle inhabited by cats...
There he is welcomed by the most lovely white Cat
He decides to stay, and spends the entire year with her. Before he leaves to return to his father's castle, the White Cat gives him a magic nut....
He presents the nut to his Father, and inside is the smallest dog anyone has ever seen....
But the King does not want to give up his kingdom so easily, so send his sons on another year-long quest. This time they need to find the finest of fabrics that would fit through the eye of a needle. So Prince Adrian returns to his White Cat....
After another year the White Cat gives him another magic nut...
..and when he arrives at his Father's castle and opens the nut, it holds yards on the finest material ever seen, that will fit through the eye of the finest needle....
But the King still does not want to give up his kingdom, so sends his sons to find and return with the most beautiful princess after another year. So Prince Adrian returns to his little White Cat once again....
When the year is over, she tells him that to find the most beautiful princess, he must stab her in the heart....
Prince Adrian is reluctant as he's grown to love her, but she tearfully insists. But as the knife touches her, she is magically transformed into human form.. as the Princess Blanchette...
She tells him all about the spell she was under. How her mother, a Queen was tricked into giving up her baby
...to the Fairies for some special fairy fruit...
But when the evil fairy sent her minions to collect the baby, her father the King refused....
But the evil fairy queen sent dragons to destroy his kingdom, so the King had no choice but to give up his child. She grew up in a lonely tower, and one day a Prince discovered the tower. They fell in love and planned an escape...
The fairy queen caught them, and her dragons devoured the Prince, before she turned Blanchette and everyone in the castle into cats. Her only hope was for another Prince who looked exactly like the first one, fell in love with her, and agreed to stab her in the heart.
With the spell broken, Adrian and Blanchette set off to his Father's castle...
The King agreed that Blanchette was indeed the most beautiful Princess he'd ever seen.
They were married, and everyone lived happily ever after....
They were married, and everyone lived happily ever after....
Copyright © 2024 Martha Boers
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