Strawberry (now Fern) threw all of my plans into disorder.
I was going to have four un-related 1/4th scale dolls hanging out in a treehouse. Then I fell in love with this somewhere-between-1/6th-and-1/4th-scale doll, who fit so well with two of the 1/4th scale dolls that they ended up becoming a family.
That left my other two 1/4th scale dolls with a very diminished role in this now-family adventure.
So, I’ve spent the last two weeks figuring out what to do with them. And yesterday, I finally go an idea.
They’re going to start out having a very boring summer, and then start imagining themselves into old books, movies, and maybe, eventually, their own world that they’re creating. To support the writing-yourself-out-of-a-boring-place-and-into-your-own-world idea, I’m going to name them after two of the Bronte sisters.
So, meet Charlotte and Emily, just starting out their summer vacation:
That’s Charlotte, the older sister, on the right. She’s a Souldoll Bonnie. On the left is Emily, the younger sister. She’s a Dollzone Gill (also available with a set of cool metallic wings, but I just couldn’t imagine how I would work that into a story :)).
I’m still figuring out how they’re going to insert themselves into plots. There’s a big storehouse of films in the public domain (anything made before 1923, and some films made after that that were surprisingly left to slip out of copyright – like Charade and Night of the Living Dead. But, I’m still not sure I’m up to doing stop motion, so I may just insert them into stills.
Having them enter books is trickier. Do I just recreate bits of plots, and build the scene? Or do I find illustrated books they can enter? I know the British Library has released about 1 million images into Flickr commons (you can see them here – https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary), including a ton of fantastic Gustav Dore sketches, so I may just plow through that. Or I may try to figure out what illustrated books I love are in the public domain.
Eventually, they’ll build their own world to slip into (something the Bronte sisters also did). I’ve been meaning to build my own Rainforest Hut (ala the incredibly expensive one from American Girls), so I may make their world a tropical island. Plus, I still have all that sand from Camellia, and it gives me something nice to work on during the rainy Oregon winters.
So, anyway, that should be the final storyline:
My Doll Adventure: The four Wildflower dolls
Underfoot: Three 1/6th scale dolls and two critters, living in a 1/1 scale world
Up Above: Three 1/4th scale sisters in a treehouse
In Between: Teacher and apprentice, 1/3rd scale, moving between a real and wizardly world
and this one
In scene: Two 1/4th scale sisters imagining themselves into other worlds
And that ought to be enough to keep me amused for awhile 🙂