For the Love of Set Building

 Hi!

I'm not dead!  (Well... not physically anyway 😅)

I've just been pulled in so many different directions, and blogging fell on the back burner.  But, my dolls most certainly have not ♡ As a result... I've been doing a lot of set building lately, and I thought, why not do a little behind the scenes post?  

I love bts because I spend the whole photo process cringing and laughing and going "wtf am I doing" since I always approach these with no plan.  

✨For example✨ 

This beautiful photo of Constance above?

It was never supposed to be outside.  I'd simply started walking around cutting flowers even though

a) I had no clue what doll I wanted to use 

b) I didn't have an outfit in mind 

c) I had no clue where I was going to take the photos, and 

d) I didn't know how I was supposed to pose the doll, and what backdrop to use.

But I prematurely cut the flowers anyway!  

And then.

The flowers were wilting, so we had to really stressfully throw something together.

And viola.  I think it turned out beautifully, but again.  I had no plan.  

So without further ado! 

Let's dive into it!  

Here are some of my more recent set builds: 

These don't have BTS, I just really like them ♡♡♡

And now!

The BTS begin:

We're starting off, with a post that is actually really popular, and I find that amusing because I was so on the fence about this photo, that I almost never posted it.  I had a genuine love-hate relationship with it for a while, but the photo stuck!  

I decided to name it "After 1 Am", and it was the only reason I went ahead and bought Samantha's bed.  

Ironically, you can barely see the bed in the photo.  

Here is the photo you saw: 

And.... this is what I saw, aka this is how "After 1 AM" really looked 😂

Funny how angles matter so much, isn't it?  

My next popular set build came rather spur of the moment...

I was trying to layout/plan a picnic photoshoot, (which I still haven't gotten too, lol) but I'd also wanted to do a book photoshoot for some time, so I started messing around a bit, until I had this: 

(aren't Lainey's curls just perfection?)

Well here is the prep for it ♡♡♡

And now...

My most chaotic and personal ✨favorite✨ set build:

I am ✨so✨ happy this photo turned out... because the process?  

The cringing.

The lack of a plan.

Just the absolute ✨cluelessness✨

insanity.  

I spent most of this laughing, feeling like the burning dog meme, and having absolutely no clue, what I was doing.  

I had a faint vision in mind... no clue how to get there.

So may I present:

The behind the scenes: 

Here is me gathering all my materials.  I was still feeling semi-confident at this point.

And we started painting... and this is where doubt started to creep in, because the plastic wrap was SUPER wrinkly, I don't have photoshop, and I didn't know how I would hide it. 

 But AD was a trooper, and with trimming down the plastic wrap, we managed to get by.

✨But THEN✨ 

we got to the dreaded part....

where I had to figure out:

a) where/how I was going to pose the second doll... 

b) what doll I wanted to use, 

c) what outfit I wanted to put her in (in case it dared show up in the photo, because I had no clue what I wanted as my angle).  

d) how I wanted to go about actually taking the photo

But even then!  How do I get her to sit the right way?!?!?!

So

many

unknowns

But!

With the help of a beautiful AG chair (that I wish I had a photoshoot idea for)

we figured it out!  

Little recap of what the final result looks like:

I think it turned out beautifully, no?  

And last.... but certainly not least...

I found a rubber duck at my favorite store.... and *sigh* I got a photo idea.  So we hurried home, and started the search for my OG bathtub.  

Turns out!  I couldn't find my Our Generation bathtub... so... instead of gently pushing the photo idea aside and moving on to bigger and better things *cough cough I'm looking at you picnic photoshoot*

We drove for half an hour.

To buy a doll and a tub.  

And I'd had a request for more Effanbee photos (♡) 

So we spent an hour, spilled water ALL over everything, went through three towels, (I would like to have a few words with whoever decided to make a literal DRAIN at the bottom of the DOLL TUB) got insanely frustrated, had to restart three times, until finally.... I was able to get a result that fit my vision and I loved:

(here is me planning the layout in the sink, lol)

And ya!

I've been crazy busy with trying to prep dolls for Etsy (please feel free to go check out my shop if you haven't yet ✨ RestlessRoseDollsEtsy), starting new repainting projects, college finals (I'm FINALLY done!!!), and work.  

So this is the extent of my set building for now.... until I get to the dreaded picnic photoshoot, LOL.

But thank you so much, for reading, your support, and sticking with my very inconsistent posting schedule!  

have a great week,

- RestlessRoseDolls