I am putting the blog on hiatus for this week. I just had too much to do last week and this week. So, I’ll return next week. Thank you for understanding while I deal with some personal stuff.
Update: So, life is taking a bit longer to settle down than I thought it would. I’m extending my Hiatus until the end of next week. I’m fine, but I just need to deal with some “real world’ thing. Thank you for your patience.- Rachel
At the end of 2017, I decided to retire every paper doll series I’d had and work on developing a new series. My original plan was to make that series one doll, lots of clothing. In the end, I chickened out and made three poses. So, Dames and Dandies wasn’t one doll with lots of clothing. It was three doll series all of which were to scale and stylistically connected.
So, as 2018 came to a close, I started thinking seriously about two things: What I wanted in 2019, why I hadn’t gone with my first instinct in 2018 anyway and how important a curvier paper doll was to me as an artist and to people I knew.
From those thoughts, the new paper doll series was born. It is one doll pose. Each doll will be named after a different gemstone/rock. A big thank you to my Patrons for helping me pick a name for the series.
My goal for the next three months (that is until March for anyone whose counting) is to post five days a week. Every Monday through Thursday there will be a new paper doll outfit or doll posted here on the blog. On Friday, there will be an exclusive doll or outfit for my Patreon backers at the 2 dollar and up level. You can join Patreon here.
On the blog on Fridays, I’ll be sharing a round up from my own archives around a theme or from a series that never got such a thing. So, for example, I might gather up all the punk paper dolls or fairy paper dolls or redheads or something. I have over a thousand posts on this blog devoted to different paper dolls. I know my archives pretty well and I want to share them with you.
If you have any questions, thought, or whatever, please feel free to ask me in a comment or on any of my social media- Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
In December of 2015, I looked at my finances and realized if the blog was going to continue and grow, I needed a better way to pay for the operating costs. I keep my paper dolls free to print, but that doesn’t mean the site is free to run. Thanks to the generous donations of my Patrons I have been able too do the following:
I realize that not everyone can donate and I believe in the importance of my art being free. I function on the NPR model and the hope that if you have a few bucks and you love the blog that you might step up and help cover the expenses. It’s not required, but it is gratefully accepted.
So, I thought I would take this week of Thanksgiving to say how thankful I am to everyone who has donated a little and to share the link to my Patreon page if you would like to donate as well: Donate to PTP Here
Best,
– Rachel
All right, I thought I would clear the end of the fiscal year without too much trouble, but travel and work has reared it’s head, so I am pausing things here to build up a strong buffer of content to coast (I hope) though the rest of the year.
There will be updates on my Patreon page while I work on this. Some public, some Patrons only.
As always, thank you so much for all your support.
– Rachel
So, I am traveling and it’s the end of my grad work semester, so I am giving myself the week off. I shall return on May 7th.
Best,
– Rachel
Hello all. So, I will be on a break until December 11th when my semester ends. AsS some of you might remember, along with being a full time librarian, I am also getting an additional Master’s Degree in Education.
It’s final project crunch time at my school and so I am focusing on school work right now.
(Plus, Wednesday’s paper doll was literally the LAST thing I had finished and ready to go.)
I shall return on the 11th, full of vim, vigor and paper dolls I hope.
Until then, I hope everyone has a great first week of December.
Best,
– Rachel
So, I am ill. Normally, I have a backlog for these times, but I got through all of that while traveling. I’m going to go take some drugs and go back to bed. Daily posts will return when I stop feeling like crud.
I don’t like working up against a deadline. Sometimes, deadlines are liberating, but feeling like you “HAVE” to do something isn’t really a great way for me to work creatively.
Having said that, I have had a flea bombing, a washer overflow and a lot of things in my life last week. I decided the best thing I could do both for the blog and for my mental health was to take some time off.
So, this is me taking a week off.
Now, I’ll still be active on Twitter @paperpersonas if you’d like to say Hi or see what I am up too.
See you all in a week!
Lately, I have been loathing the blog.
Okay, okay. I know that sounds a little melodramatic- cue the violins, but seriously, it has been a slog for me for the last year.
I’ve been trying to sort out why.
I started this whirly-gig of fun back in 2008. I had just graduated college. I was single, living alone in Alaska, and working two jobs to make ends meet. In the evenings, I came home to my apartment (which was one of the nicest apartments I have ever had) and drew paper dolls.
I’ve been trying to sort out why I did that. Why I started this.
Here’s the story I normally tell people:
In 2008, during a long cold Alaskan winter, I got addicted to a blog called Liana’s Paper Doll Blog and I decided to start my own blog inspired by hers. It was a way of passing the time in the cold and dark.
There’s the problem with that story. It doesn’t address the “why” I did it.
Because it sure as heck wasn’t to make fame and fortune.
For nearly three hours last Saturday, my boyfriend and I discussed the blog. He asked me tons of great questions about why I started and what I liked. The whole conversation started with me stating, “I’m going to delete the blog.”
And him saying, “I don’t think you really want to do that.”
So, things are going to change on Monday.
Each Monday there will be a doll posted from one of my series and an outfit. Every day for the rest of the week, there will be another outfit or accessories. On Friday, I’ll post a round-up with another outfit and links to all the proceeding outfits.
The next week, I’ll do it all over again.
I hoping this new format will get me excited again about doing what I made the blog to do: Draw paper dolls.
It also removes the pressure of layout work which is actually one of the most time consuming parts of the paper doll process.
Process posts will continue, but they’ll be posted on my Patreon page. If you love the blog, than please consider supporting it. Shocking as this may sound, there are quite a lot of expenses involved in running this site.
And while I don’t know for certain that this new plan will cure my ennui about the blog, I can say this: I have been excited to draw for the first time in what feels like a long time and that has to be a good sign.
This is actually the format I had for the first two years of the blog, before the crash in 2009. It feels both good and a little strange to be returning to my roots like this, but I’m excited.
I hope y’all are excited, too.
