davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2023

[davidd]

I used to post pix of the process on FB too until I clued in that most of those people are not like-minded about some important things so why bother sharing stuff.


That flower looks really cool!  I had to look it up.  Wow, it can grow over 5' tall?!  How big do yours get?  Have you tried sampling the nectar?  Do they change colour through the season?

Pictures of the flower bed burning process, or of the dangerous dolly photo process?

I'm noticing that the people who post doll or figure photos on Instagram and then include detailed "making of" or "behind the scenes" photos in the scroll are receiving a lot of "likes" and "follows" and "comments" these days. Interest in toy and figure photography appears to be on an upswing again.

I don't follow enough flower bed photographers to have a sense as to the popularity of sterilization by fire.

The Scarlet Gilia around here seem to only reach a foot or so (30cm) in height. I have not noticed a color change, other than going from red to dead. The flowers are quite tiny, I did not realize sampling the nectar was a possibility. I remember chewing on grass stems when I was a kid. We would pull the "straws" out of certain wild grasses, and chew the tips of the inner layer, which had a sweet taste.

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22 July - A Doll A Day 2023:

Years ago there was a website called Babes With Blades that featured stuff like this...

... only with real girls.

I had a scene like this in mind as a "humorous response" to a post on another forum, but the thing is, those "gag responses" have a short shelf-life, and by the time I assembled the bits and bobs I needed for the scene, the moment had passed.

I had not thought about the Babes With Blades website in years... decades, even. I see that there is still a web site under that name, and it's not particularly prurient, although the definition of "babes" is fairly generous. I believe the original version was part of a larger site dedicated to custom cutlery: decorative knives, swords, and blades for decor and costuming purposes. There's also, I see, a theatrical company called Babes with Blades who emphasize stage swordplay.

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More catching up:

5 July - Windows in the Diorama

Added:

Bits of wire for security bars in the window.
Transparent plastic from a product package for "glass" window.
Bits of wood from an old garden lattice panel as door and window trim.
Torn fabric fragment as a curtain.
Remnant of a woven grass beach mat as a window blind.
Printed "Closed" sign.
Piece of old fence board as boarded up door.

Photo processing for a more atmospheric effect using the PhotoToaster iPad app.

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6 July - Implements of Destruction

I recently purchased the things at screen left, and made the thing at screen center, because I couldn't find the things at screen right, which I found later, after the items I purchased had been delivered and the item I made had been made, by which time my enthusiasm for the project for which I needed the things I could not find and for which I had purchased the things I had purchased and for which I had made the thing I had made had dissipated completely.

But hey: real fire in this pic!

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7 July - Please Stand By

I saw a picture of miniature television sets like this online, so out of curiosity I poked around online a bit to figure out what they were from, which of course led to eBay, and now I have two miniature dollhouse size plastic boxes shaped like television sets that I shouldn't have wasted money on, but inflation is eroding the value of money so quickly these days that what does it really matter?

These little TVs are pretty cool, though, because there's a slot in the side that allows the image in the screen to be easily changed. There's also enough room inside that it should be relatively easy to rig up some interior lighting to create a realistic screen glow.

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8 July - Beautiful Baby Contest

McFarlane Toys Doctor Fetter's Family of Freaks Parade toy set.

I've been trying to figure out the source for some of these pieces for a few years now, after seeing them in some decade-old photos here on Flickr. I was finally able to identify the source -- McFarlane Toys -- but the prices for this set tend to run at over a hundred dollars on eBay. A couple of months ago I ran across a set being offered at one-third the price most sellers ask, and... it's been sitting in a box for three or four or more months, until I finally got around to opening it.

As is so often the case, my enthusiasm for the project this set was intended to embellish has presently ebbed. Maybe I'll get back to it one of these days. Prior to that, perhaps I can figure out how to restore the preservative fluid that has evaporated from the specimen bottles.

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9 July - Bits & Pieces

Sometimes I ask myself, "why do I have so much useless junk cluttering up my life, where does it come from, and what can I do about it?"

Case in point: this little bit of random plastic. It's only an inch or so wide (two or three centimeters), so it doesn't take up much space; but multiply this by dozens, or hundreds, and things like this make quite a mess.

I was opening up the package for the item seen in yesterday's A Doll A Day picture (the Freak Show set), and I noticed this interesting little bit of plastic. I had just, like literally half an hour previously, been looking at some particularly well-done action figure diorama photos on Flickr, and thinking about how the builder had made excellent use of "found" or "cast off" items to add visual interest to the settings, including random bits of plastic packaging material like this.

I mean... a quick spray with paint, maybe a touch up with a contrasting color, and you have yourself a nifty little "gadget" or "greeblie" for a science scene or a technical scene -- space ship, submarine, whatever.

So of course I had to keep it.

Were I ever to get around to constructing said space ship or submarine or whatever, will I be able to find this "potential greeblie"? Oh hellz no. It'll be lost in the bottom of a box somewhere, or it will have fallen under the furniture, or it will be taking up space in a drawer in the kitchen.

Keeping this crap to make "doll stuff" out of is some kind of compulsion, and it's gotta be unhealthy.

I should take up a normal escapist hobby like golf or alcoholism.