Mary Moves In

Meet Mary, the maid at Myrtlewood Manor (I seriously didn't name her for the alliterative effect, but it's kind of cool - perhaps I'll give all of Myrtlewood's inhabitants "M" names).
Click here to read the rest of this entry...
My husband is rolling his eyes right now, because I swore up and down (rather vehemently, I admit) when I was planning Myrtlewood that I'd never have dolls. I still mostly feel that way - unless they're very well done (read, super expensive), dolls tend to ruin the realism of a miniature scene, to me at least. Strangely, I don't feel that way about miniature animals, just people.

Anyway, despite my aversion to placing dolls in my miniature scenes, I was having a bit of difficulty visualizing Myrtlewood's scale: Is the dining room actually large enough to seat 10 people and have others moving around to serve them? Are these doorways tall or wide enough? How high up should I afix the candle sconces?

To aid in such visualization, I purchased a very cheap 1:12 scale doll off eBay. She was advertised at 5 1/2 inches, but when you add her heels and rather ridiculous hairdo, is almost 6 inches. That equals 6 feet in 1:12 scale, which is taller than most men of that time period! So Mary's a little taller than I bargained for, but that's okay - I didn't pay very much for her, and I figure if she fits well into a scene, it's probably close enough in scale.

Thus, Mary will be residing at Myrtlewood for now, cleaning up construction dust, and appearing in photographs now and then. Poor dear, I fear it may be several years before she actually gets a roof over her head, though.