Ramblings

Victorian Sports Paper Dolls: A Review

So, the moment I learned Brenda Sneathen Mattox had a new paper doll book from Paper Doll Review of Victorian sporting outfits, I was in.

If there’s one myth about the Victorian era which won’t seem to die, it is the myth that women couldn’t do anything wearing a corset. The problem with propagating this myth is that it suggests women’s lack of agency in the 19th century European world was due to their clothing, rather than the patriarchal system that didn’t allow women a variety of basic rights.

So, anyway, Victorian Sports paper dolls got me excited, because women in the 19th century did lots of sports. We know this, because there’s extensive documentation. Tailoring magazines wouldn’t have published articles and patterns for women’s riding habits, hunting or hiking clothing if women weren’t out riding, hunting or hiking.

To start with the basics, the book has two dolls and 14 costumes. It measures 8.5 by 11 inches. The sports represented are Riding (1840s), Gymnastics (1850s), Croquet (1860s), Bathing (1860s), Hiking (1870s), Skating (1870s), Tennis (1880s), Baseball (1880s), Shooting (1880s), Fencing (1890s), Archery (1890s), Basketball (1890s), Cycling (1890s) and Golf (1890s). The costumes are beautifully rendered in colored pencil. I was particularly impressed by the tennis dress, because white is not an easy color to render.

The layout is great from the placement of the labels to the pairing of the costumes. There’s a subtle gradation to the pages that highlights the style of the art (which I think is colored pencil or watercolor? Not 100% sure). Additionally, a nice little bio in the beginning of Victorian Sports Paper Dolls tells about the artist, Brenda Sneathen Mattox. The book closes with a write up about Victorian sportswear by Lorna Currie Thomopoulos. The historian in me would have preferred something a little more in-depth about the topic, space was probably limited.

This is a book that feels really intentional and I love that.

The two dolls have wonderful faces that somehow feel very “healthy outdoors woman of the 1890s” to me. Their underwear is generic “19th century-ish” with the doll on the right looking more early 19th century and the doll on the left seeming more later 19th century. I did miss some indication of which costume went with which doll, even though they are facing different directions.

Some of the costumes had very wide skirts or a bicycle in the background which I suspect would benefit from a floating tab. The book doesn’t give an explanation or suggestion of floating tabs. That surprised me, because I learned about the handiness of floating tabs from a Brenda Sneathen Mattox book many years ago which had 1860s costumes. It’s a small thing, but paper doll functionality is important.

All in all, I was super pleased with Victorian Sports Paper Dolls and would certainly recommend you pick up a copy if you share my love of historical clothing, sporting or otherwise.

Actually, there’s several Victorian paper doll books from Paper Doll Review I love including this wonderful Worth book I own and should review someday and this book of non-white wedding dresses I don’t own, but want.

The Make Believe Issue of Paper Doll Studio Magazine

  • Paper Doll Studio Issue 128 Cover by JM Tolman
  • My Fairy paper doll underneath art by Melissa Pepe

I got the most wonderful surprise in my mailbox last week- Issue 128 of Paper Doll Studio Magazine. The magazine, for those of you who don’t know, is merging with Paper Doll Review. I’ll talk more about this later in the post, promise.

The featured artist was JM Tolman. I was slightly familiar with her work from stumbling across her from her Etsy store and I always enjoy reading the interviews with the featured artists in the magazine. Her art style is super unique and unlike anyone else in the paper doll world right now.

The theme of the issue was Make Believe. Personally, I can’t think of a theme that I wanted to read more than this one. I mean, princesses, sci-fi, all things nerdy, this is was so what I love that I don’t even have words. I used some content from my Patreon project and reformatted it into this cute little fairy.

And seriously, every page of this issue had paper dolls on it that I wanted to photograph. Every page.

A few of my other favorite pieces from the issue were a Dungeons and Dragons paper doll by Dorta Meeiling Nielsen, because I have totally drawn paper dolls of my rpg characters. There was also a great article about cosplay by Tracy Williams with some of her beautiful paper dolls featured. Sylvia Kleindinst did a dress up cat with art inspired costumes. I’m biased, because the cat does look a bit my own furbaby Dewey.

  • Sylvia Kleindinst’s Cat Paper Dolls
  • Dorta Meeiling Nielsen’s DnD Paper Dolls

There has been some sadness over the merger between Paper Doll Review and Paper Doll Studio Magazine. Personally, I super excited with this new chapter for the Original Paper Doll Artists Guild and our magazine. The world of paper doll lovers and artists is a small one and given the current climate for print publishing, having a magazine at all is amazing. I wish Jenny nothing but the absolute best as she continues into this new chapter for her paper doll publishing world.

By the way, if you have a subscription to Paper Doll Studio, you should get the merged magazine in 2021. If you don’t have a subscription, go grab one!

Speaking of new projects, there will be a whole new chapter for PTP in 2021. You might notice some small changes (like my new logos) around here as that happens, but there will be more changes in future. I’ll keep you all posted and if you’re a Patron, you’ll get even more info and some input. Join us!

Rose and Ivy Paper Doll Book Review

  • Rose and Ivy by Julie Allen Matthews
  • The dolls- Ivy and Rose- from the back of the book.

Julie Allen Matthew‘s new book Rose and Ivy paper dolls published by Paper Doll Review press is what I am writing about today. I know both Julie and Jenny (who runs Paper Doll Review), but this isn’t sponsored or anything. I bought it with my own 13 dollars and thought I would share what I liked and didn’t like about the book, because I do like writing up my thoughts on various paper doll books.

So, let me start by giving the basic info. The book is a 8.5 by 11 inches staple bound. It has a light weight satin cardstock cover and the most beautiful interior paper. I didn’t cut into mine, but the feel of the paper is lovely. I think cutting up this book would be a dream.

The book has two dolls on the back, Ivy and Rose, who are each about 9 inches tall. There are 8 plates, so 16 pages. I counted 47 mix and match clothing pieces and 16 wigs, though I am not good at counting. So, I might be off. All in all, a pretty extensive wardrobe for these two girls.

The style is a neo-Victorian fantasy with lots of ruffles, floral patterns and cute hats. One thing Julie has done really well in this book is that the mix and match pieces color coordinate and the wigs often have flowers or other things, adding interest. I would have had so much fun with wigs as a kid.

  • Some of the lovely patterns.
  • A few of my favorite wigs.

Some of you may recall Julie’s 100 Day Project back in 2019. Three of us started, but (much like the Thunderdome) only one of us was left standing. That was Julie and her beautiful black and white creation. Julie is really good (much better than I am) at taking things she does for one thing and then refining them into something else for sale. So, this book is colored versions of those black and white illustrations.

Now, no paper doll book is perfect and this one is no exception. There are no stands or instructions for making stands with the book, nor is there any bio information about Julie or the concepts behind the paper dolls. It’s a small thing, but I think it would have been nice to include some of those details.

Also, there’s no identification on the clothing indicating which items are for which doll. A letter on the tabs would probably save some headache in that regard. Usually, I could tell by layout, but a few times I had to really think about it. I imagine if the pieces were cut out, it would be even more useful to indicate whose was whose.

All in all though, Rose and Ivy is a beautiful book in warm vivid color. The dolls are lovely, the clothing is fun and I think, in these Covid-19 times especially, it would make a wonderful afternoon toy for a child who likes paper dolls with pretty dresses. I would have adored this set as a child and drawn many more outfits for Rose and Ivy myself. I just know it.

You can pick up your own copy direct from Paper Doll Review.

The Royal Princes of Paper Thin Personas

I don’t draw a lot of men. I don’t really think I’m that good at drawing men, truth be told. However, I have drawn a fair number of fantasy prince paper dolls and I thought they would be a fun thing to highlight in today’s paper doll round up.

I do tend to return to some of the same periods for my fantasy attire for men. I really love the 18th century and that tends to come out in these paper doll designs.

15 Fantasy Prince Paper Doll Designs

A few other thoughts, there’s a lot of paper dolls on this site that could be seen as fantasy men, but I was trying to focus on paper dolls that felt prince-like to me, rather than some of my warriors and knights. I get this category is more about my instinct than any actual measure. However, the whole point of these posts is to expose my readers to things that are buried in the archives.

And lord knows, the archives are deep. Sometimes, even I am surprised by what I find.

A link to the exclusive Friday paper doll content on Patreon

Storytime With Paper Dolls

Over the years, I have done many story and fairy tale paper dolls. Several years ago, I did a whole series of Alice in Wonderland inspired pieces and a bunch from classic fairy tales like Little Red Ridinghood and Rapunzel.

Along with my nursery rhymes and fairy tales, there’s the novel Divergent and the Harry Potter world, though I confess I am not particularly impressed with the authors more recent works or her politics, but then Lewis Carroll had his own issues and I have plenty of Alice paper dolls. Many of which you can see in the gallery below.

Story & Fairy Tale Paper Dolls

I also did a whole series of magnetic paper dolls based on fairy tales, though I haven’t included those here- as they are not terribly functional as printable and really are meant to be magnetic. You can see them in the Flock Fairy Tales Series.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these! Did you have a favorite fairytale when you were a kid? Mine was always the 12 Dancing Princesses (which oddly, I’ve never done a paper doll of, I think the whole 12 part of that title intimidates me). I also loved East of the Sun, West of the Moon, Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf , and The Wild Swans, all a bit esoteric. Also, I don’t think most of them would translate very well into paper form. Knitting with stinging nettles doesn’t seem like an easy to create paper doll trope, you know?

Do you have a favorite fairy tale? Which one is it? Let me know in a comment. Who knows? Maybe it will become a paper doll someday.

Sorceresses Paper Dolls

Awesome cosmic power needs amazing dresses, don’t you think?

I love designing sorceress paper dolls. It’s been a while since I’ve done any for the blog, though I regularly share them on Patreon with my Vivian paper doll. My love of designing over the top fantasy dresses is will documented and sorceresses are an excuse to play around with themes like the seasons or the elements or being a dragon.

30 Sorceress Paper Dolls in Color & Black and White

I had a lot of fun with these and it made me realize I haven’t done an evil sorceress in a while. I should work on that for one of the paper doll series. I think maybe Doll Du Jour?

Meanwhile, if you want yet more paper dolls head over to Patreon and consider joining us. Not only does it support the costs of sharing my free content, but there’s several neat projects on going!

A link to the exclusive Friday paper doll content on Patreon

All My Alien Paper Dolls So Far…

There’s a lot of serious stuff going on right now. I wrote about some of it recently from my own super limited POV and I hope that everyone is staying safe. These are tough times and stressful times.

And so I thought it would be fun today to celebrate alien paper dolls! Not just scifi, but specifically aliens. That means lots of blue skin, colorful hair and impractical space suits!

15 Alien Paper Dolls to Print

I haven’t done an alien paper doll in a while, I realized after I put this collection together. Maybe I need a “meteorite” member of the Jewels and Gemstones family. Until then, I hope you enjoy these paper dolls from my archives.

Any themes you’d like to see me gather up? I’d love to know in a comment.

Paper Dolls & Internalized White Supremacy & A Few Resources

It’s tough to write about paper dolls right now. There’s a lot going on in the world- protests, some violent, a pandemic, economic uncertainty… It’s a lot, but it would be disingenuous of me to just post another paper doll, because to do so would be to suggest that this tiny niche hobby I participate in (I sometimes call it the niche-ist of niche hobbies) is somehow insulated from the structural white supremacy that pervades the rest of the culture of the United States. It is not and that is what I am going to talk about today.

To demonstrate it’s insidious presence even in paper dolls, I am going to discuss something I have never spoken about publicly before. I want to talk about three things I have been told in regards to paper doll skin-tone and how I see these things perpetuating white supremacy.

I have heard all of these more than once, both in conversations, comments and through emails. Let me begin by saying that I am a cis white woman. I know that I do things and think things that perpetuate racism. I try very hard to fight this tendency, but I know it is there. This is not an attempt to suggest my experiences are in anyway comparable to those of a people of color. Benefiting from the system of white supremacy means I am insulated from many harsher realities. Having said that, I hope sharing this will help illustrate how insidious this is.

1. That I should do more white paper dolls, because I have fewer white paper dolls and it should be even. 

What this highlights is a tendency of people to lump diversity into a binary- white folks, all other folks. That’s really not accurate. Why should a person who has red-brown skin have to play with a paper doll that has yellow-brown skin? Why does society treat those as the “same”? They aren’t. There are hundreds of skin tones. All deserve to be depicted. Two white dolls, one black doll and one asian doll isn’t equality of depiction. White supremacy teaches that white is the logical default skin tone and other skin tones should be grouped together as one. This in turn creates an normal vs abnormal mentality which reinforces structural racism.

2. That my historical paper dolls aren’t accurate if they aren’t white. 

This highlights the tendency of people to perceive the historical past as white. This isn’t true. There have been people of African descent in Europe since Roman times. History is a lot more diverse than school taught most of us. It feels off to many to see a brown paper doll in Regency dress, because structural racism tells people that history was white. Anything which violates the narrative of white skin being the historical default is automatically suspect.

3. That it’s nice that I draw so many brown paper dolls, but maybe I should stop for my own good. 

This is usually phrased as a helpful suggestion. “Have you considered how much more popular your site would be if you did more white paper dolls?” Or “It’s great that you value diversity, but have you thought about how much better your work would sell if you made X paper doll white?” The message is- if you want to be popular, make more white paper dolls. White skin is the gateway to gains and benefits. 

I do want to note that the vast majority of the feedback I get is from happy people who are over joyed to have found a paper doll that looked like their grandchild/niece/daughter/friend. Those comments are lovely, but today I wanted to speak about these. I doubt anyone who has written to me in the last ten years was intentionally perpetuating white supremacy. That’s what makes it scary and that’s what makes it hard to fight- internally and externally. It’s so insidious. 

So, let me close with this, I can do better. I am trying to do better. I believe anyone can learn and do better. Below are some of resources I have found really useful. Maybe some of you will find them useful, too.

Am I perfect about all this? Nope, not at all. Am I working on it? I am trying.

Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about how paper dolls have depicted black people over time and how these depictions reflected culture then Arabella Grayson’s work on black paper dolls is excellent. 

And if you want to follow some amazing black illustrators doing wonderful work who deserve attention, I would recommend the following on Instagram (where I get most of my art these days): @renaldo_barnette (he also does paper dolls!) ;  @asieybarbie;  @melmadedooks; @gdbee and @artofedge.

Lastly, I know these are scary times. I’ll still be creating and sharing my paper dolls and I’ll still be thinking about these topics as I go through my life. I believe society can get better, but the first step is identifying and speaking openly about the problem.

I have neither the skill or mental capacity right now to moderate a discussion on this very complicated topic, so I am closing the comments. Stay safe everyone!

10 of Rachel’s Favorite Princesses or Princess Gowns

Choosing favorite printable princess paper dolls was really hard! But I knew if I did a gallery of all my princess paper dolls than that would be huge and unwieldy.

So, what makes a printable princess paper doll? I have no idea, but I think it’s a fantasy lady sort of thing.

Printable Princess Paper Dolls I Love

Do you remember all these? Did I miss one of your favorites? Let me know in a comment. I love to hear from you.

And, as a friendly reminder, consider supporting the blog on Patreon. It helps keep things up and running around here. 

Why I’m Stopping the 100 Day Project

I have attempted to complete the 100 Day Project every year for the last 3 years, maybe 4? One year, I succeeded and have not finished every other year that I have attempted the activity. Most years, I enjoy the attempt, but eventually I lose interest, life gets busy, and I fall so far behind that I feel overwhelmed and give up. Inevitably, I end the year feeling like a failure for having not finished.

Not like in a horrible way, just in that nagging “I wish I’d done that” way.

A sketch from my sketchbook of the 100 Day Project.
A new paper doll I designed for the 100 day project and my first post.

Lately though, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of choosing things proactively, rather than reactively. In deciding to do X rather than Y, even when I’m sort of embarrassed about Y. So, one of the things I have decided is that I am not going to continue the 100 Day Project. This year it is going to be a choice, rather than a failure. I am deciding to stop.

Why am I not finishing the 100 day project?

Well, a few reasons.

The biggest reason is that I was dreading picking up my notebook. Just dreading it. I use a smaller sketchbook for this project. Sometimes, I can work through this feeling and come out the other side. This is the ideal. However, given the number of the times, I’ve put the sketchbook down and then ignored it for days while feeling bad about ignoring and dreading picking it up again- I don’t think that’s happening this time.

My Last piece from the 100 Day Project 2020

I’d rather focus instead on my 365 Day Patreon Project (which is humming along happily) and continuing to work on Jewels and Gemstones 2.0, along with the Doll Du Jour series. Plus, I am working on some needed backend blog stuff which should improve site performance.

Lastly, though not least, I am taking a creative writing class for the next 3 months. It’s weekly and I’m super excited about it, but I want to give it my best effort. That means taking time to really dedicate to it and between Patreon and the Blog, time is sometimes in short supply.

Right now, other things are more important to me. And I am okay with that.

After all, there’s always next year!