Ramblings

Rachel’s Five Rules of Scanning

scanning-rulesAfter I wrote my tutorial on how to clean up line-work, it occurred to me that I should talk a little about scanning. I didn’t have space to do it in the linework tutorial, but I do have a few thoughts on scanning. Here’s some advice from someone who scans a lot both for my hobbies and for my job where I usually am the one digitizing historical materials.

Scan in High Resolution.

When I was first learning how to cut wood, I was taught- You can make a piece of wood shorter, but you can’t make it longer. In other words, cut a little bigger if you have to choose. Since slicing off an inch is easier than realizing you’re short an inch.

You can always reduce the resolution of an image, but increasing it will result in loss of clarity.

Resolution is something people seem to get confused about, so let me try to explain. Resolution is always measured by the number of dots per one linear inch (in the US, other places use the centimeter). This is shortened to DPI (Dots Per Inch) for as most printers or Pixels Per Inch (PPI) for digital media.

No matter how high PPI (Pixels Per Inch) your image is, the internet has a resolution of 72 PPI. Meaning, if you create an image that is 200 PPI and measures two inches tall, when you post it on the internet it will appear to be 5.5 inches tall. ((22 PPI * 2)/72PPI = 5.5)

Some professionals work as high as 1200 DPI, but I think that’s a bit much. Bare in mind that professional publications are usually printed between 300 and 400 dpi.

Choose your File Format Carefully.

There are many digital file types. I’m going to talk about a few common ones here.

“JPEG” stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group- a fact mostly useful to show off your knowledge, but won’t really matter much. It is sometimes also called a .jpg or a jpeg. JPEGs are always compressed files. JPEG is designed for compressing either full-color (24 bit) or grey-scale digital images of complicated real world images (photographs). It is a great format when there is subtle color change in an image, but using a high compression rate can result in loss of quality.

“GIF” stands for Graphics Interface Format. It is an 8 bit format meaning that maximum number of colors supported is 256. GIFs are always compressed and rarely used these days.

“PNG” stands for Portable Network Graphics format. This was an updated version of the “GIF” format and literally supports millions of colors. It is the format I usually use for my web posts as it tends to compress to a small size without loss of detail and my paper dolls are full color without a lot of subtle shades. PNG has largely replaced GIF on the internet.

“TIFF” stands for Tagged Image File Format. TIFF was originally designed for scanners as a universally acceptable format in a time when scanning companies all had different formats they were using. TIFF images are not compressed as a default setting. This is the preferred format for archival scanning, because there is no compression. However, the lack of compression results in very large sized files. Therefore, TIFF files are rarely posted or shared on the internet or printed from. TIFF files can handle bi-level (black and white), grayscale, palette-color and RGB full-color images.

When I scan, I scan at 600 dpi as an uncompressed TIFF files in greyscale, since I work in black and white.

Save your raw files.

I call my rough scans “raw files”. Theses are my 600dpi uncompressed TIFF files, usually in greyscale. They are very large files.

I keep them in a folder called “Raw Files” it contains all the raw scans dating back a long long way. Sometimes, you have to go back to the very beginning, so keep a copy of the unaltered scan in case you need it.

Hopefully you won’t, but if you do than you’ve got it. I have only had to go back to these files once or twice over the years, but I have been grateful I had them if I needed them. (Usually, because I accidentally deleted something.)

Know you Scanner and Choose it Well.

I have used HP scanners, Epson scanners and Canon scanners. They are all a little different. Learn your scanner settings. Read the manual. Get comfortable using it.

If you are scanning full color art work, than carefully check how many colors the scanner can read. A colored pencil drawing, for example, can literally have millions of subtle shades. If your scans are coming out poorly, than is it your scanner? Your scan settings? Or can your scanner just not handle the color depth.

I don’t own an expensive scanner. I use an all in one printer with a cheap scanning bed. I work in black and white, so I don’t worry about color loss. If you do worry about color loss, invest in a good quality scanner. If you do invest in a good scanner, avoid letting it get bumped or knocked around.

Prep your Image.

Before I scan, I erase all my line-work carefully, than I correct any problems I see.

I stick a piece of white paper between my sketchbook page and the next page, so the image on the page behind won’t bleed through.

These things make sure my scan comes out pretty good the first time. Re-scanning at the high resolution I want in takes time and I don’t always have that time.

So, these are my rules of scanning. What are your rules? Anything important that I missed? Let me know in a comment.

An Interview with my Featured Paper Doll Artist: Lina of Lina’s Paper Dolls

Paper Doll By Lina, posted with her permission. For my first paper doll artist to feature in 2015, I knew I wanted to feature a newer artist on the scene, so I interviewed Lina. Lina, of Lina’s Paper Dolls, has been posting her paper dolls for just about a year and ahalf, but her work is wonderful. She focuses on historical paper dolls based on various periods throughout history. Her paper dolls all share the same basic body and are in black and white for coloring.

In Lina’s black and white paper dolls, there is clearly a love of history. Her each of her paper dolls has one to five outfits relating to the story of the paper doll and their stories span the globe and time.

There’s Carolyn Collins who is in DC during Watergate and Elizabeth Tanner, who lives in Maryland, or Susanne Merritt, who lives in Canada, both during the War of 1812. Simone Spencer is a telephone operator during World War 1. Kalani Hikaru witnesses Hawaiian statehood in 1959. Basia Sienkiewicz survives the Swedish invasion of Poland in 1655. I could go on and on with more of the fascinating historical events Lina ties to her paper dolls.

For more information about her paper dolls and our interview go to my Featured Artist Page and you can read about Other Featured Paper Doll Artists as well.

End of the Year Wrap Up- Plus Contest/Drawing

Back in June, I formally posted my goals for 2014. In hindsight, I think I was overly ambitious. Honestly, I don’t know what I was thinking when it come to some of them.

Still, I’m not displeased with how 2014 went which is good because it ends tonight at midnight.

I might not have gotten ten male paper dolls done, but I did finish up Marcus 2.0 and there’s two of them up now. (There will be another one of his series posted on Monday… but that’s going to be 2015.)

Meanwhile, I got one tutorial up on cleaning up linework and four featured artists (not six, but I’m at peace with that). The thing I am most proud of is that I have regularly checked out other people’s paper doll sites and regularly commented on them. This was perhaps the most important of my goals for 2015.

So, what blogs do I regularly look at? In no real order… Liana’s Paper Doll Blog, Pabernukublogi, A Paper Closet, Lina’s Historical Paper Dolls, The Paper Doll Bag and Miss Missy Paper Dolls. I read these because they are updated with some regularity.

Did I miss a really good one? Do let me know.

Meanwhile, it’s the year end, so it’s time for my annual contest.

contest-jan-2015

So, it is time to ask what people would like to see on the blog in the coming year. Post a comment with what you’d like to see up here (repeats of other requests are completely acceptable) and you’ll be entered in my drawing to win a custom paper doll.

Usual rules apply:

    1. 1. You can only win one contest a year. (I’m considering this a new year…)
      1. 2. I announce the winner (choosen via random number generator) on the blog on the day after the contest ends. I will also email the winner at their email address attached to the comment. If I do not hear back from the winner within a week, I will use a random number generator to select the next

winner.

    1. 3. The winner will receive a one page custom paper doll based on one of my paper doll series within a month of the end of the contest. This one page paper doll can not violate trademarks or copyrights (aka: I can’t draw something under some one else’s trademark or copyright).
    2. 4. If there is a delay for some reason, I will contact with winner and we will make other plans.

So, feel free to enter by posting a comment on this post about what you’d like to see on the blog in the new year. The contest will end on the 14th of January (midnight, Central time). I will announce the winner by drawing on the 15th, likely in the late afternoon since I will have to actually do the random number generator thing… you know the drill by now.

This drawing/contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered. 🙂

Unexpected Break This Week

announcement_2I really thought I would be able to juggle major work projects, the end of the semester, leaving to visit family and holiday gift baking without abandoning the blog.

And you know what?

I was wrong.

So, I am taking this week off.

I shall return next Monday. Until then, I hope everyone has a lovely week and a lovely start to Hanukkah.

See you all in a week.

Hey! Why isn’t That Paper Doll Available in Black and White?

Why isn't that paper doll available in black and white?The most commonly asked question I get on this blog is, “Can you make (insert paper doll title here) in black and white?”

The answer is usually… “Depends.”

Step back in time with me to when the world was young and the blog was fairly new before Disaster struck.

During the first few years of PTP’s existence, the paper dolls were only done in black and white and in the heavily shadowed style of Curves or Shadow and Light.

I drew Marisole in early 2009, long before the site crashed, and used her to teach myself how to color paper dolls in Photoshop. My plan, at the time, had been to add a color paper doll, Marisole, once a week to my black and white site.

But then… in December of 2009… Disaster.

I  crashed the blog and my backups didn’t load properly and I didn’t know how to fix it. So, I decided to delete it and start over. You can read the public post about that if you like.

Even then, I never ever thought I’d publish Marisole in black and white. I never thought I would publish a Pixie in black and white. I never thought about any of this.

The result of my lack of forward thinking is that there are paper dolls on this site for which the original Photoshop files are long gone. I have PDFs and I might have random old scans, but rarely do I have the original Photoshop file. Tracking down the files, extracting the line work (if I can) and processing the new black and white version takes time.

The best candidates for this process have light colors and aren’t too complicated in their linework.

Sometimes, it works well and I get a good black and white copy. Sometimes, it doesn’t and I won’t post sub-par work on my blog.

This whole process can take an hour or two.

And that causes me some tension…

Do I work on converting old work to black and white or do I work on new work?

I don’t have limitless time (does anyone?) and so, I prioritize. For me, creating new work is more interesting and more fun than going back, dredging up old files and reformatting them, if I can. (It is totally frustrating when I can’t get a decent copy._)

Does this mean you should stop asking for paper dolls in black and white that you want to see?

Absolutely not, sometimes I can do it, but at this point I have done most of the “easy” sets (particularly for Marisole) and the remaining sets are much harder.

So, keep asking, but don’t be surprised if my answer is “Nope.”

Questions? Thoughts? Lemme know in a comment.

New Featured Paper Doll Artist: Irma of Papernukublogi

I am so pleased to announce that there is a new Featured Artist page up. This time I got the pleasure of interviewing Irma of Papernukublogi. Irma’s blog is bilingual in Estonian and English, which I find completely impressive. Her paper dolls are usually black and white with a wonderful simplicity and almost a folk art quality.
Emilia by Irma. Posted with Permission.There is something very charming about all of her paper dolls. I am consistently impressed by her creativity and variety of her art from 1940’s vintage ladies to some darling children. Irma shares with me a love of crisp line work and the possibilities of black and white paper dolls.

Irma is an art student, who has also studied music. She kindly also provided a beautiful black and white paper doll name Anka to print and color after her interview. I couldn’t be more happy that Irma was gracious enough to allow me to feature her here (even if it is two days later than I had originally hoped.)

So, go read interview with Irma and get the printable paper doll that she was kind enough to create.

The Contest Entries and The Winner of a Custom Paper Doll Is….

Before I announce the winner, I wanted to list all the contest entries, so everyone could read the wonderful ideas proposed by my readers.

Drawing Entries

  1. I would love to see a vintage wedding dress paper doll. Perhaps a dress to represent each era, especially the 1920s and 1950s. She could also have some different bouquets, hairstyles/veils, and retro shoes.
  2. I would like to see something different i want to see a heather all dainty with makeup and her done in a French knot and her clothes must be all frilly and of course must be dry cleaned. she drives a fancy red mustang. she is something like your fashion=girl=
  3. Something Laura Ingalls Wilder-esque. Or, one with my daughter’s sense of style, 5 years old–short florescent yellow skirt, snake-skinned cowboy boots, pink shirt with paisleys. Seriously, I don’t know where she gets her fashion ideas from.
  4. I think I would want an ancient Greek paper doll with togas and things. Something like the Greek Chic paper doll, but historically correct, if you know what I mean.
  5. I’m all about jackets, so I’d suggest a set where the jackets are the show pieces and their are only a few other basic items. Leather, moto, tweed, sleeveless (also called vests), buckled, zipped, snapped, cropped, tailed, etc.
  6. A poodle skirt doll with red hair, blue eyes and tan skin. the poodle skirt is blue with a white poodle. Marisole style doll
  7. A female greaser or native American marisole doll. A military Flock doll with an outfit for each branch, maybe with Oriole?
  8. I would want a Hobbit paper doll. WITH FUZZY FEET AND CURLY HAIR!!!
  9. I’d want a doll to represent the 70th anniversary of D-day; complete with full army dress uniform, a civillian suit of clothes. He’d be in the tenth armored division with black hair, a striking set of blue eyes, tall, and little skinny
  10. i think a robin hood or knights templar themed marisole would be awesome. maybe throw in a nice dress for court events.
  11. “purple skinned mermaid action hero who fights with a scythe” yes! oh wait…. i’m still hankering for an Atzec fantasy (lots of jaguar and quetzal feathers)! : D
  12. I would also like an Aztec Marisole, or a red-haired Marisole, with her hair down to her knees in a french side braid with roller skating clothes, an ipod with headphones, and a dress with split sleeves.
  13. Rachel, I am giving you a challenge! I want an autism acceptance Marisole doll. (not awareness anymore–thanks to Sandy Hook, we are too aware) Here’s your challenge: -no puzzle pieces -ditch the ribbon -tone down the blue I hope you can do it. If you can’t, i’ll think of something
  14. Storm cleanup Marisole – someone who has all the things they need to clean up after a natural disaster. I realize the Tyvek suit won’t be too cool, but I like the idea of a paper doll willing to get dirty to help someone.
  15. I would like to enter. I’d want a Flock inspired by the fairytale Twelve Dancing Princesses which was one of my favorites when I was a child. (Via Email)
  16. I’d like to enter. If I win I’d like a dark skinned, ’70s-inspired paper doll, with huge Afro, hoop earrings and ’70s style clothing — bell-bottom pants, mini and maxi length dress or skirt, halter top in paisley, ’70s flair all the way.
  17. I would like for you to do a summer themed Marisole with some flowey, floral print sundresses and cute skirts and things like that.
  18. A Pin up doll that looks like Joan from Madmen mixed with a Lumberjack lady
  19. If I had to pick anything I would pick a doll based on Laura Ingalls Wilder from the Little House On The Prairie series. so the long brown plaits, white lace dresses, and maybe a raincoat to go with it. thanks 😉
  20. think that two paper dolls that are twins would be an awesome thing to have. I think that it would be cool to have the twins have opposite styles. Maybe one could have a rough and tumble style while the other is a cute type.
  21. I would love to see some of the Shadow & Light outfits for the Marisole’s. I would really like to see the more steampunk looking ones.
  22. I would love to see Marisole with clothing inspired by 1,001 Arabian Nights!
  23. I would love to see a Steampunk version of Amelia Bloomer’s Bloomer Costume. Just because it’s Steampunk doesn’t mean that you must have a bustle!
  24. I would love to see a Flock based on the Princess and the Pea, solely for my love of nightclothes.Or a a 1980s Marisol (or Mia, specifically).
  25. I’d like to see a historical doll, maybe from the Tudors with underwear and a few dresses. Thanks. (Via Email)
  26. Black and white, so I can color her myself, with nice firm dark lines to make bucket fills easier. I’m torn. I love the pixies, but marisols tend to have more clothes….A modern suburban homesteader. Gardening tools, chickens, blue jeans and boots and t-shirts with green slogans on them. Style taken from L.L. Bean with a generous admixture of thrift store finds. And she needs a buffalo plaid flannel shirt and a denim jacket and good old classic Birkenstocks with fleece socks, and of course glasses, preferably with short wavy hair (if there’s a colored version, the hair should be at least half grey).
  27. Would love to see a western/cowgirl themed Marisol & Friends. With denim skirt & pants, western boots, gingham, bandana print, western hat, etc. Or maybe a Cowgirl and Indian theme, so they could be either.
  28. I think I doll based on one of the major fashion icons would be a lot of fun to play with, and to draw! Isabella Blow, Diana Vreeland, Frida Kahlo, Catherine Baba, Iris Apfel – they all had/have such unique, wonderfully bold senses of style and there’s plenty of reference material to draw from. Imagine all the hats, and just the sheer abundance of colour and accessories – you could go nuts with it! 😀

Thank you to everyone who entered. I really enjoyed reading the entries. The Winner, selecting using Random.Org is number 24. Congratulations Lina! Lina has her own blog which you should check out as well.

Meet Violet, A Paper Doll of my College Years

Last year, I posted two of my childhood drawings. One was of Ellie and the other was of Riven.

Here is another paper doll from years ago. When I was college in Oregon, my parents were having the boat refitted up in Washington. For spring break one year, I went with my best-friend up to visit them. It was a really fun, though at times a little crazy, trip and was the first time I had ever ridden the Greyhound Bus anywhere. While I was traveling, I drew and colored this paper doll using a set of permanent markers in lots of different colors.

thumb-violet-paper-doll-full-color
I don’t remember much about her and her clothing certainly doesn’t resemble what I was wearing in those days. I spent my entire college life in a hooded sweatshirt, jeans and flip-flops, regardless of weather. Still, when I stumbled across her in my files, I thought she would be fun to share.

Also, last note, the drawing ends at midnight central time tonight. Enter if you like. 🙂

Reviewing the Blog Goals for 2014

goals-2014

Wow… it’s already June. This year has just zipped by. However, since it’s nearly halfway over, I suppose it is time to consider how I am doing on my various blog goals for 2014. When I started this post, I set out to find if I had ever actually posted my goals for 2014 and found, much to my own embarrassment, that I hadn’t. Opps.

However, I do have some goals and they were saved in my Red Binder.

When I looked at the list it was a little upsetting, because I hadn’t succeeded at any of my goals. So, I decided that I would try to make my goals more concrete with specific things I would try to achieve.

 

The Goals for 2014

 

 

Original Goal: More male paper dolls.

I look at Boots wonderful men and I feel such guilt over my lack of male paper dolls. I gotta get better at drawing dudes, so that has been one of my big goals which I have to admit I haven’t succeeded on very well this year. I’ve barely attempted it. You can see my male attempts for the past few years.

The Concrete Goal: In the next six months, I will create at least ten male paper dolls.

Original Goal: Create monthly featured artist pages.

I’ve missed two months. However, I am climbing back on the wagon. I have emailed two paper doll artists to see if they would be willing to be featured on my blog. It’s a slow process, but I am doing my best. 🙂

The Concrete Goal: I actually think I have a pretty concrete goal here… I’d like to have at least six of these a year, maybe more if I can do it.

Original Goal: Create a paper doll tutorial.

Wow, this has been hard. I’ve got the first part written, but I need to illustrate it. I thought this would be easy and I was SO WRONG.

The Concrete Goal: Have the first part of the tutorial finished by the end of July.

Original Goal: Encourage more paper doll artists online.

So, one of the things I have been trying to be better about is going to other people’s paper doll blogs and posting comments on them. When I started PTP, before the big crash of 2009, I went nearly a year without any comments. I still remember my first comment and it was from Liana and I was proud that Liana (whose blog had inspired mine) had seen my work and she had said something nice about it. It made my day. I remember that feeling and I want to support other paper doll artists who are beginning their blogging journey.

The Concrete Goal: Visit other blogs weekly and, if there is new content, comment on it.

Original Goal: Provide more “behind the scenes” looks at my process and work.

I am so not doing well at this one either. I am trying and I like writing those posts, but they always seem to take more time than they should.

The Concrete Goal: Post one “behind the scenes” blog a month.

Original Goal: Create more historical paper dolls from periods prior to 1700.

Okay, so it took Gwendolyn’s 10th century anglo-saxon paper doll to kick me in the butt, but I loved working on that paper doll. I learned so much about the period and I had so much fun doing it. I want to do more of historical dolls. Right now, I am researching the 1300s and German costumes from the 1500s. I really want to do something Tudor, but the complexity of the fabric patterns make me whimper in fear.

The Concrete Goal: Create three paper dolls from before 1700 this year.

Original Goal: Build stronger ties to others in the paper doll community.

Honestly, I wrote this down, but I’ll be darned if I know how to do it. I have to think about this and I did and so I came up with some specific things.

The Concrete Goals: 1. Do some more collaborative paper dolls with other artists. 2. Send some art into the OPDAG magazine. 3. Contact someone to be a featured artist whose work I admire, but who I can’t imagine would say yes to being on my tiny little blog.

So, these are my goals. Now, that I have them written down publicly, I guess I better actually achieve them.

New Contest For a Free Custom Paper Doll Open Until Midnight June 18th 2014

contest-june-2014

I am pleased to announce a new contest or more accurately a drawing, since the winner, as usual, will be decided randomly. The drawing is open until June 18th at Midnight and the winner will be announced on Friday June 20th. This gives me a day to get the actual number selection done.

How to Enter:

Put a comment in below (or feel free to email me, if you prefer at paperthinpersonas@gmail.com) with a one or two sentence description of the custom paper doll you would want if your won the drawing. By the way, there is no obligation that the submission actually be the custom paper doll you ask for if you win. So, if your submission is a purple skinned mermaid action hero who fights with a scythe, but two weeks later you decide that what you really wanted was an orange tabby cat-girl ninja with three heads, then that can be changed.

Contest Rules:

1. You can only win one contest a year.
2. I will email the winner at their email address attached to the comment to notify them of winning. If I do not hear back from the winner within a week, I will use a random number generator to select the next winner. Your email address MUST be functional for you to win.
3. The winner will receive a one page custom paper doll based on one of my paper doll series within a month of the end of the contest. Sometimes life gets in the way of this goal, but I will email the winner if that is the case and we can make other arrangements. (A few of the previous prize custom paper dolls include Dark and Steamy, Kadeem and Gabriel Ready for Dates, Marisole Monday visits the 10th Century, Sewing the Seventies and Elven Maiden)
4. You may only enter the contest once. Entering more than once, will disqualify you.

Announcing the Winner:

On June 20th, I will list in a post every entry with a number. This allows everyone to read the submissions, even those which are emailed to me and will announce the winner via a random number generator.

Lastly, it is entirely possible if I really like any of the ideas suggested that they will show up on this blog at some point, but no promises. Have fun. I can’t wait to read the entries. 🙂

The contest is now closed. Thank you to eveyone who entered. The winner will be announced on the 20th of June. 🙂

Hiatus Until June 1 2014

hiatus-2014

I was hoping beyond hope that I would not have to put the blog on Hiatus at all this year, but that just isn’t going to happen, sadly.

A lot of things are happening at the end of May, so I’ve decided to place Paper Thin Personas on hiatus until June 1, 2014 when I will return with a bang I hope… including a contest and hopefully a new featured paper doll artist. So, high hopes for tall of those things.

I will be checking my email and you can still contact me there if you need too. In the meantime, feel free to look around and enjoy the paper dolls.

See you all when I return in June. It should be a fun ride from there. 🙂

Confessions of a Paper Doll Blogger

confessions_pd_image
One of the things I have been collecting lately on Pinterest has been blogging prompts and ideas. It was from this list from The SITS Girls that I discovered April 30th is National Honesty Day. I missed National Honesty Day, but I thought it would be interesting to post a few things on this blog that I wouldn’t normally post or share.

My Confessions…

 

— I’ve gotten two emails from readers who thought I was African-American due to the large ethnic diversity of my paper dolls. Figuring out how to politely dissuade them of that notion makes me feel really awkward.

— I live in terror that I will someday draw something and someone will email me telling me that my depiction of their race or culture is wrong and/or racist. This is why I do not draw traditional clothing of other cultures. (Actually, there are about a dozen reasons I don’t draw traditional clothing of other cultures, so maybe I should do a whole post on that…)

— Sometimes I get really strange thank you emails. One came from a bible camp leader who was planning to use my Knight paper doll to teach girls about the “armor of abstinence” and I politely asked them to not do so. Nothing against abstinence or armor, but somehow the idea of sex ed and my paper dolls being in the same room sorta freaked me out.

— Technically, I still owe my best friend a paper doll inspired by the Vorkosigan Saga series by Louise Bujold. It’s very shameful. Someday, I will get it done… (Of course, if she’s reading this she is rolling her eyes at me.)

— Every once in a while someone makes a request, usually a perfectly reasonable kind request and I think to myself, “Isn’t it enough what I do? How dare you ask me to do more? You entitled twit.” Then I drink a glass of tea, calm down and remind myself that I am TOTALLY over reacting. Please don’t stop making requests. I really don’t mind getting them, except sometimes… late at night… after a bad day at work… when I’m in a grumpy mood.

— I was once told my Cybergoth paper doll was inappropriate for children. I suggested that the offended individual avoid giving it to children. See… Problem solved.

— I draw very cartoony paper dolls, because I really don’t know how to draw hyper-realistic ones. Usually this doesn’t bother me, but sometimes I feel like a fraud, especially when people ask me for drawing advice.

— I am grateful everyday for the wonderful readers and fellow paper doll bloggers on the internet who remind me that I am not alone, that my hobby isn’t too strange and that my love of these fragile ephemeral paper toys is something worth sharing.

So, these are my confessions. What are yours? Are there times when you feel like I do about your readers? Or about your art? What’s the strangest email you’ve ever gotten? What’s the one thing about your art you’ve never admitted bothers you? Anyone willing to share your thoughts?