The Little Details

As a child I remember sitting in the floor with my sister building stables for our Johnny Marx horses out of carboard. I've loved horses from an early age and dolls and their horses took up quite a bit of mine and my sisters playtime in our early years. I remember trying to get the little details right, writing the horses names on the stall doors, making them leg wraps and blankets out of materials discarded from mom's sewing basket. Making lead ropes and halters out of yarn, you get the picture.
As I got older, dolls came back into my life when I sold my horse to start a family, and when digital cameras became more prevalent, I became interested in photographing my dolls. At first, it was mainly about selling some of the dolls I wanted to move on to other homes, as I figured out the better the "for sale" photographs were, the better chance of making a sale. At some point though, it turned more into creating little miniature doll worlds with the dolls being the main subject of  the photograph. I took it as a challenge to try and make my dolls appear as realistic in the photos as I could and try to tell a bit of a story with each photo. There are several ways to add realism to the photos, perspective is certainly important, as is lighting. Posing the dolls in a realistic manner is important as well. Finding in scale props to add interest and detail is another way to aid in having your subject appear more "realistic".  So, for this blog post I thought it might be fun to highlight some of the "details" I use in my Outlander doll world to help add interest and a layer of realism to my play.
 When shelling Claire, I knew right away that her rings are such an important part of her character that I wanted to try and find something that would represent the silver and gold rings she wears in the book. The newer Iplehouse hands luckily have separate fingers, so the trick was finding an artist that did jewelry in this size, in the form of rings. Etsy came through for me again, in the form of a shop called BJDouterie. Both of my larger Claire's have their appropriate rings, while not identical replicas, they work for me. I have not however found someone that does rings in the scale of my FID dolls for mini Claire. If anyone out there reading knows of a source, please comment or send a message to me letting me know.

Claire's fan is another fun detail that just adds another layer of interest and realism to the Paris red dress outfit. As mentioned a couple of days ago, I happened across the fan on Etsy as well. Robyn (Period Threads) made Claire's earrings, yet another important detail in recreating the whole feel of the ensemble from the show.

The next fun prop I picked up along the way is a spyglass in 1/3 scale. This was offered by Iplehouse when they did their Carved Heritage line, and I knew it could come in handy for Jamie or Ian in their adventures, eventually. Here it is with Ian using it. I really should have taken him outside, but maybe that's a photoshoot opportunity for another day.

From a front on view, in this shot you can see part of Ian's facial tattoo's that my friend Lyn gave him. I wanted him to have them to add another layer of authenticity to his character.

Hobby Lobby is a very good resource when scouting props in 1/3 scale. In the photo below,  the "bookshelves" in the background of Claire's surgery were found at Hobby Lobby, along with the little "table" in the center of the bookshelves and the background behind the table as well. The basket on the "table", bottles on the shelves and small trunk on the shelf were all Hobby Lobby finds. The rug on the floor was knitted by me.

Claire's mortal and pestle were a wonderful gift from a friend. They were found on Amazon I believe, along with an Outlander mini book that is perfect scale for the FID sized dolls.  The pestle might be slightly large, and the mortar slightly small for 1/3 scale, but bowls come in all sizes, right? It works for me!

And lastly I'll finish with Lord John. This one really helped to drive home the importance of details for me. When first commissioned, Robyn and I didn't think about the hat for Lord John's uniform. Below is the first picture I took of John when the uniform first arrived, sans hat, belt and sword. Something was definitely missing, or a few somethings actually.

Below, see John after the accents of hat, sword belt and sword were added. Quite the difference, right? The whole look is just pulled together. Hat by Period Threads, sword and sword belt by Iplehouse.