I really have no excuse for not posting more work and more often here. It's not like making paper dolls is ever very far from my mind. Unfortunately, I have been so distracted with other things (like getting Reconstruction) up and running. I guess that's a good thing for my other website, but not so good for this poor neglected blog.

I am trying to turn a new leaf, however, and am committing myself to looking at the dolls I have waiting to dress and will be working on them this weekend. I'm not sure entirely what it will amount to, but I promise I will produce something just to get things rolling again.

In the meantime, enjoy this Edgar Allen Poe cut out set from Lisa Perrin, who has such an interesting and delightful style. Poe's bunny slippers are not exactly period, but they're hilarious!There are other articulated paper dolls on her blog and a lot of other fun illustrations as well, many with a historical/antiquey bent. Beautiful and enviable work!

I was looking for a picture of a dress for a girl in the 1850s (and I will be drawing it, which I will share!), but I came across this wonderful ambrotype from that decade (1856 to be exact) with lovely tinting. The dress is perfect and the girl looks so sweet as well. The original source is this blog (currently defunct), which nevertheless features a lot of lovely period images.

Old photographs as references are great for many things; you get to see particular patterns and trimmings and you know it was a garment actually worn by a person as opposed to something put together by a fancy designer and maybe worn once by some socialite. I think I have stated here somewhere that I'm much more interested in the day-to-day clothes rather than the fancy pieces, so here's a pretty good example of a nice dress that was probably worn often by this child. And even though she was likely a child of privilege, it's not a display piece like you would see represented in the ladies' magazines of the period.

Click on the image to see the dress in more detail. It will be fun to reproduce the plaid trim (I've never done plaid before!). I'm not sure that i will make my own dress blue, however. I am thinking of changing it to lilac/purple or maybe even red.

I have been doing an extraordinary amount of painting lately, unfortunately none of it on my dolls! I've been working hard in preparation of launching Reconstruction, and it's just been consuming all of my time. The good news is, however, that once the series gets underway, I'll be more inclined to work on the dolls (though don't be surprised if I revamp them entirely to match the art style of the series).

In the meantime, I offer this very beautiful and exciting blog: Trouvais. The images are stunning and it has antiques and textiles from throughout history; a cornucopia of inspiration! The picture I am sharing here comes from this website and shows a French dress shop, probably in the 1850s (click to see more details).

Also, check out BustleDress.com for some gorgeous examples of period clothing (recreated), vintage pieces, and tons of fashion plates and other resources. I will be stealing liberally, of course.

I hope you enjoy these websites while I continue to work on my stuff. I promise you that eventually there will be dolls here! Hang in there!

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