I drew this paperdoll, Aelinora, in 2004, but she doesn’t show up on the page with all of my old paperdolls because of a mix-up with the tags. That gives me, then, an excuse to post her again! She only has these two outfits, but she is one of my favorites. Here is her story:
I don’t know too many elvish princesses who have part-time jobs during the holiday season; most of them prefer to do things like contemplate snowflakes, play elvish carols on absurdly delicate harps or linger poetically around frosty forests. Aelinora, it must be confessed, also has a weakness for picturesque frivolity, but more than anything she loves to bring joy to others. Every year since she was ten, she leaves her home somewhere around October and goes to apply for employment at Santa’s workshop. Naively believing she has concealed her identity well, she works feverishly alongside the others, making holiday toys for the world’s children. (Her specialty is designing patterns for stuffed animals; I myself own a stuffed dragon that she designed a few years ago which won her accolades from her peers.) She and the other elves work right up until Christmas Eve, but when it comes time for the pre-Christmas party, she is nowhere to be seen; she is already home, living the life of an elvish princess once more. One can’t miss out on all the snowflake contemplating, you know.
I am thinking about Aelinora because she has a cameo in the story I intended to post while I was on vacation, but I only finished two of the necessary dresses. So she, and that story, may yet show up again.
So, I’m back home, adjusting to Michigan time, and I will start posting new outfits for Sylvia and Iris tomorrow. Thank you for your patience during my vacation!
Tags: aelinora, bells, blonde, blue, cape, Christmas, doll, elf, elvish, green, holiday, holly, paper doll, paperdoll, princess, red, santa, snowflakes, stuffed animals, toys, white, workshop, yellow
fantasy, holidays, one page doll sets, paperdolls | Liana December 14, 2008 | 
Comments (6)
Click for larger version; click for the list of dolls.
Violeta claims she makes up all her fortunes like everyone else and it’s not her fault there’s so much bad luck in this wicked world, but all the same her family won’t let her talk in the future tense. She can never get past “I will” or “Tomorrow” before one of her sisters tackles her and claps a hand over her mouth, none too gently either. They resent her because as the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter of the legendary gypsy mystic Simza, she was supposed to inherit the family powers, and since they were all brought into the world to facilitate her arrival there should have been some payoff for them. Instead, they switch off days shadowing her, protecting their family, their friends, for all they know the world from this lightning rod of misery, their uncanny and dangerous sister. Violeta floated the idea once of billing herself as a sort of goddess of curses, and her mother would have thought it a terrific joke for another of her daughters, Zora perhaps, to make up theatrical fake curses and fleece all those who sought to bring harm on others. Violeta, however, seemed to be at the mercy of some demon that hijacked her tongue when she foretold the future, and her mother had better sense than to try to profit off of such a thing. Even the fortunes she told that sounded positive brought only wretchedness. (Would that she had never told Carmen about that darkly handsome rich man!)
Forbidden contact with the future and silenced by the tender ministrations of her sisters, she pours her energy into other things, trying her best to walk straight on a twisted road. She paints and repaints intricate and vivid patterns on her family’s wagons, she knows all the names and uses of everything that grows in the forests, and she makes up wild, violent dances, stamping the ground with the intensity of a curse.
New poll, and rather a silly one. I drew from my Halloween pile, but all my paperdolls are potential warriors here, so if you want Calamity Jane’s trusty shotgun I’m not going to stop you.
Tags: bells, belt, bracelet, costume, Costumes, embroidery, full skirt, gold, gypsy, halloween, long skirt, magenta, pink, purple, romani, sash, skirt, tunic, violet blue, white
Costumes, fantasy, holidays, paperdolls | Liana October 14, 2008 | Comments (5)
