An old interview of mine:
This is an interview between me and “Pollen-de-lys”, an admin from the now-defunct forums known as Dolling History Project. Their main goal was to supply information on the history of Cartoon Dolls – articles, interviews with well known dollers, different techniques, and current trends. Unfortunately I never kept up with the forums, and it looks as though it was abandoned at least seven years ago now. I am unaware of anyone else using this information online. So before the Invision Board forums decide to delete the Dolling History forum, I have taken it upon myself to post up their information here, on my website, so the information it contains is not lost.
-This was posted on May 19, 2006 on their forums-
When did you start dolling and how did you get interested in making
your own original cartoon dollz?
-When I started, they [dolls] were not known as “cartoon dolls”, they
were simply known as avatars. These avatars were created to represent
people in a graphical chatting client known as The Palace, which I
started using late in 1996. I started creating my own avatars around
Christmas of 1997, because most of the avatars available were “preppy”,
and back then I wanted darker, artistic, and more “gothic” looking
avatars to use to represent myself. I was inspired by a group of avatar
creators from a Palace known as The Promised Land. This Palace server
hosted avatar creation contests monthly, and the talent displayed there
was quite amazing!
Can you describe how dolling was at the time of the Palace?
– The Palace is still around, and is gaining new people every day who
use it. However, back when I started created avatars, there weren’t too
many people who actually did anything but editing existing avatars and
props. Props were cut-outs of clothing you could use to decorate base
bodies in The Palace. The only real group of people that gathered to
create new avatars and base bodies and such were at The Promised Land
Palace [when I first started using The Palace]. Incidentally, I LOVED
the “paper doll” base body that was created there. Mainly because it
seemed more in proportion than the “prep” base body that so many other
people used.
Who were the popular dollers back them?
– I can’t name them all, but I remember: D~Mentia,, Lament, Angelfire,
Ophelia, Tempest, Milky White, Love for an Immortal, Luna, Loranna The
Muse, Mina, Dreary, Andrala, Calli Down, Savage Lucy, Affy Puff, Kyrian,
Xysia, and Misanthrope. These were all the people I remember who
inspired me to create my own avatars; they all had special rooms to
display their avatars in The Promised Land Palace.
What kept you continuing to doll over all these years?
– I simply love to do it, and have made many avatars over the years.
Plus, they don’t just sit pretty on my website – I actually used to use
them ALL on The Palace Chat to represent myself.
How did you style evolve over time?
– I almost always use pixel-style shading to create my avatars and
dolls. I’ve tried using fancy paint programs but they just aren’t
useful for such little images – in my humble opinion, anyways. I am
continually trying to perfect my pixel shading is about the most I can
say, although I do feel my avatars still have somewhat of a “cartoon”
feel to them.
What trends did you notice during your dolling career? Did you follow any?
– I don’t follow any trends, and I don’t believe that I ever did. I do
feel like I helped set the trend in putting my own avatars/dolls on a
website instead of just The Palace since mine was one of the first
online to do so (along with my tutorials, of course!). I only know of
two people who did so before me: Love for an Immortal, and D~Mentia. As
far as current trends go, no I don’t follow any. I like to create my
own things when I want to; I really don’t want to be influenced by
anyone else.
Do you remember any important events concerning the dolling community?
-Too many to accurately remember 
On your site it says you’re one of the first to make any dolling
tutorials. Why did you decide to write them and what inspired you?
– As far as I know, I was the second person to have tutorials online on
how to create a basic avatar/doll. This came from one of my
inspirations from The Palace: Love for an Immortal. He also has a
website, which is amazingly still up and online although he hasn’t
seemed to update in years. His website is http://lfai.8m.com/ I wrote
the tutorials while I was working the midnight shift at a local
Walgreens, in a black-papered notebook, which I then transfered to my
first website. I was getting semi-popular on The Palace because of my
props and avatars, and some people had already approached me and asked
if I could help them how to make their own. Since I couldn’t be around
all the time, that was when I decided to put my knowledge on a website
for all to see whenever they wanted. For a brief amount of time, I also
hosted my own Palace server with information on it as well.
Why did you decide to create The Dolly Attic forum?
– I had previously had a forum which had many members – unfortunetly,
the server which hosted it [for free] started making many pop up ads and
my forum quickly became very quiet. I created my forums in hopes to get
the members back into the swing of things, and make new friends to chat
with.
It says on your site that you still chat on the Palace. How has the
community there changed over the years? How distinct is it from the
dolling community?
– Actually, I don’t chat much on The Palace. You can tell I haven’t
updated my website in a bit *laughs* I actually had an awesome group of
friends who I had known for many years only on The Palace. However,
strife grew between them all – and they started fighting. To make the
long story short, I stayed away from the fighting and lost those friends
because of it. I sometimes get online The Palace now and again – mostly
on Avatar Palace – to see what people are doing these days. It does
seem to have changed a lot! There are no more “editing” contests;
people do not seem to create their own avatars as much – and if they do,
they are grossly out of proportion or look like anorexic dolls (consider
the Fendi avatars!).
– I actually favor the dolling community more, because the people who
are a part of it actually have a kinship with each other – and are more
mature. They help each other out; such as by having forums for people
to participate in, or having tutorials on their websites to help
“newbies” out, or just sharing the awesome avatars they have created
with the world on their websites. I think that rocks!
What other hobbies do you have apart from dolling?
– It’s been many years since I started creating avatars (and although I
don’t use The Palace as much, I still consider what I do making avatars,
not dolling – mostly because of the fact that my “dolls” can and are
used on The Palace to this day), and I have found many hobbies. I make
handmade soap (the melt-and-pour kind, and the real kind – where you mix
lye, fats, oils, and water together and have a chemical reaction form to
make pure soap). I paint a little bit – mostly abstract art. I also
LOVE to read – mostly science fiction and fantasy, but I also find
myself going to random thrift stores and sorting through their
multitudes of books. I have quite the little library going on.
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