Description of my piece:

Dollhouse is two images I created in response to Barbara Bailey’s ‘Miniature Quilts’. Both pieces are experimenting with the effects of using paper. Within this piece I created the bed out of textures of paper – weaving strips of paper together to produce a basket weave effect. I then scanned the miniature physical bed, measuring at 7x11cm onto Procreate, where I added further details, merging the physical paper technique with digital illustration. I created a detailed scene from an aerial perspective, and added a digital headboard, rug and side table. I wanted to keep the colour scheme muted for this scene, so the texture of the paper was the focus of the artwork. I then experimented how I would create a miniature dollhouse. I constructed the gate and tree out of paper and scanned the elements in and digitally merged them together. Again playing with the physical and digital I painted the house front on cardboard and added windows, doors and a roof digitally. Unlike the interior scene, I wanted to experiment with bright colours to replicate a playful dollhouse.

Reflection on my creative journey:

I was inspired by Barbara Bailey’s ‘Miniature Quilts’ as I liked the idea of experimenting with miniature scenes. I took the concept of miniatures and dollhouses and wanted to further develop this. I researched how dollhouses shifted from a symbol of status of wealth and its educational purpose to teach young girls how to run the house to a toy. Dollhouses became a toy encouraging imagination and helping develop children’s understanding of the world around them, the family dynamic in the house and expanding their own aesthetic judgement of what furniture belongs in different rooms. I wanted to use paper and cardboard in my pieces as these are everyday materials that anyone can use and manipulate. I liked this handmade nature paper that evokes the piece which works well for a younger audience as they can attempt to recreate these scenes for themselves and like the dollhouse interacting with the piece. I liked working with paper in a variety of ways – creating textures and building a set shows the flexibility of using this material. I wanted to merge my own style with the idea of miniatures.