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Before you look at the pictures of my dolls (or after, if you're like me)you might want to know a little about how they're made.
First, I use either thick watercolor paper or heavy drawing paper, depending on the final look I'm going for. Each doll takes about four hours to create, after the intial scketching or idea. The more complex dolls, a celebrity doll for example, can take longer because I think attention to detail is very important.
The next step I take is to bring my finished doll to a proffessional print shop. I have the dolls printed on a semi-glossy, high quality light weight cardboard. This is perfect for paper dolls, for several reasons.
If you want to play with your dolls, the carboard is sturdy. The dolls will last longer. It's easy to set them up with stands and stand them wherever.
If you're like me, someone who buys a lot of unique dolls just to collect them, these are the perfect size and paperweight for framing. Or even just leaving them in the plastic "comix" bags I ship them in.
Ideas for your dolls
I treat the different dolls I get differently. They come in different sizes, in sometimes oddly shaped pakaging, or no packaging at all. But I want to make sure that each doll is protected and doesn't get bent.
Dolls that come on a sheet, much like mine, *can* be easily damaged. However, they are also the easiest to protect. I treat "sheets" like comic books. I buy those plastic comic book protector bags and, depending on the weight of the paper, cut out a piece of light carboard to straighten the back. I use part of a ceral box. The whole project should cost about 50 cents.
I have also bought preowned dolls...antiques, really. Some of them have been cut out and played with. I don't have many of these, but I don't like to mix sets. Shoe boxes, decorated or undecorated, make great storage cases. Shoe boxes are easy to stack in a closet or stow under a bed.When you take a boring day to decorate the boxes with pictures or fabric, you're making a great gift for a kid or fellow collector...or just amusing yourself.
One project that I found to be fun is the "coffin box". Some dolls, or jewlery, just cry out to get buried. I used to work for a monument company and we worked closely with some local companies dealing with cemeteries. One woman sold tee-shirts with gravestone rubbings imprinted on them...she shipped them out in coffin boxes. I thought the idea was amazing and set about figuring out how to make coffin boxes. I have also made coffin purses by making modifications. Several sets of my dolls reside in a huge coffin box on my living room mantle.
If you have a shortage of space, or of time...scrapbooks are the answer. The "special" ones, with the little plastic pages that your supposed to slide the finished paper into. Slide a piece of cardboard in and then slide the sheets or the single dolls into the plastic. Instant organization.
