Life in Boxes: Alice
If you’re vaguely obsessive like me…and I’m assuming you’re a little like me…and you skip blogging for two months it can be daunting to return.
Instead of looking at the overwhelming amount of stuff I have to present to you I’m going take comfort in the fact that I’m NOT lacking subject matter. Ill just look back to see where I left off and what I haven’t shared.
Last I regularly wrote, I’d hit upon the idea of making doll trunks/doll boxes out of 100¥ shop goods.
Starting at the 100¥ shop helps me feel like I’m keeping everything under budget and being responsible. That is a feeling not a truth.
The 100¥ shop presents the challenge of how to lourish with outside limitations. I can’t possibly get all the supplies I would ideally want work with there, but I might stumble over solutions I hadn’t thought of.
Some limitations are worth exploring: if the wooden boxes I find aren’t quite large enough for a traditional trunk, but I’ve purchased them anyway, how shall I move forward?
Some limitations aren’t worth enduring : 100¥ wood cutting tools feed off human blood and tears. Invest in better.
This is where we last were with Alice.
Alice enjoys some coffee while I work.
I’d sawed some wood and boxes apart and rejoined them to form her home. I’d made a drawer for her extra items. These small Picco Nemo bodies come with extra hands in various positions that can be swapped in. I thought it’d be nice to have those hands stored with her along with any props or extra dresses I might make.
I’d decoupaged the interior of her room.
Now it was time to give Alice a chair.
I sawed apart a business card holder to make the frame of the chair. This was how I learned about the blood sacrifices and invectives required by cheap tools.
I sewed tiny cushions, stuffed them, and joined them awkwardly together. I now know that I’d be better off shaping sponges or another dense but soft substrate for furniture cushions and then covering them with fabric.
Miniature construction videos on you tube, like repaint videos, are soothing.
I wish crafters could get some sort of work break like smokers used to get.
Like “hey, give me five minutes to watch something on my screen or knit a few rows…I promise I’ll be a better co-worker/human afterwards”
Chair deemed good enough.
I then finished painting the exterior of the boxes with the decoupage Alice cover. I joined the two boxes together with hinges and a clasp.
Alice lives here now.
I only regret that it’s a little dark in there. Since construction I’ve been playing around with tiny led lights and plastic 100¥ tea lights.
Anyway, here’s where it started.
Where it ends. The Professor is leaving before a game or croquette begins.
Ps. You really should watch the Royal Ballet doing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
