melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (daydreaming, default)melannen ([personal profile] melannen) wrote,
@ 2011-10-13 07:50 pm UTC
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Entry tags:fandom:barrayar, fannish:fanart
Cordelia Vorkosigan Paper Dolls from the 'Barrayaran Imperial Hostesses: the Time of Isolation to the Great Constitution' color-your-own flimsy dolls book.
I collect historical coloring and paperdoll books, and I recently got one for "First Ladies of the United States", and it was one of those books that had such a firm worldview that it kind of sucked you in.

So then I decided there needed to exist the Barrayaran equivalent. Obviously. So here is one of the dolls from the "Barrayaran Imperial Hostesses: the Time of Isolation to the Great Constitution1: Color-Your-Own Flimsy Dolls" book that I picked up in the Vorhartung Castle gift shop.

The coloring book pages online. (with text descriptions)
Online (javascript) paperdoll play area. (should work on all browsers, but probably not very accessible for non-mouse-users, because making it accessible would require me to learn actual javascript.)

All the pieces as a layered .xcf file for offline play/alteration/remix. (2.2 mb file for GIMP)
All the pieces as a layered .psd file for offline play/alteration/remix. (9.6 mb file for Adobe Photoshop)

The coloring pages as print-resolution .pngs (3.1 mb .zip archive) Note: some of these may not work well as-is as actual paper dolls (they were designed for Barrayaran flimsy pages, obvs); and you will have to come up with your own tabs/fasteners. (I recommend magnets.) However, the coloring-book part should work fine.
The coloring pages in a .cbz file for comic-book readers (3.1 mb .zip archive)


In case I need to say it, the authorial viewpoint for these pages is meant to be a take-off of the one in the First Ladies book and/or in the voice of someone writing the book for a conventional Barrayaran audience, and is not, in most cases, congruent with my own. :p

1 The other dolls in the book are Empress Magda Vorrutyer Vorbarra (first wife of Emperor Dorca), Imperial Consort Lyuda Vorlightly Vorbarra (second wife of Emperor Dorca), Princess Judy M'calister Vorbarra (Wife of Prince Xav), Empress Xenia Vorbarra Vorbarra (Wife of Emperor Ezar), Princess Kareen Vortala Vorbarra (Wife of Prince Heir Serg), Lady Alys Vorbohn Vorpatril (wife of Imperial Cousin Padma Vorpatril), Cordelia (Cordelia), Countess Ekaterin Vorvayne Vorsoisson Vorkosigan (Wife of Lord Auditor Count Miles Vorkosigan), Empress Laisa Toscane Vorbarra (Wife of Emperor Gregor), and Lord Clement Byerly Vorrutyer (Son of Count Dono Vorrutyer & Companion of the Prince Heir.) I will probably never get around to drawing any of them.

Edited to add, 12/11: A Charity Case by [archiveofourown.org profile] miss_lanyon tells the story of the Vorhartung Castle Gift Shop, should anyone wish to know more.

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sara: YAY written over a tandem bike (yay tandem)


[personal profile] sara
2011-10-14 01:53 am UTC (link)
...it's probably wrong that my reaction to this (aside from glee, because you know how I love the concept) is, "Wow, now I want a Vorhartung Castle Gift Shop story."

For obvious reasons.

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melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (daydreaming, default)


[personal profile] melannen
2011-10-14 01:54 am UTC (link)
You know there must be one. (Even if it's an unofficial unauthorized one for a long time.)

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sara: spiral staircase (spiral)


[personal profile] sara
2011-10-14 02:14 am UTC (link)
It's run by three widowed Vor ladies with blue hair and bad attitudes, one of whom still hasn't forgiven the other two for that paperweight order. They bicker endlessly about the petty cash accounting and the state of the receipt-book and whose turn it is to call the lady who does up the Imperial Crest Tea Towel Embroidery Kits and explain again that they're still getting complaints about the grade of floss she's using (the embroidery kits lady yaks and yaks and yaks and dealing with her will easily eat up a morning....)

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carmarthen: "Would you like my hat?" (javert, les miserables)


[personal profile] carmarthen
2011-10-14 04:00 pm UTC (link)
This story HAS to exist.

When the official people find out about it, they try to bring in smart young cashiers and a proper accountant, but somehow the gift shop doesn't do as well, because mostly people buy stuff because they love the bad-attitude widows and their scandalous (and possibly fictitious) stories about Vor lords past, so eventually they throw up their hands and let the widows go back to business as usual, now with the seal of Imperial approval.

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melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (daydreaming, default)


[personal profile] melannen
2011-10-14 08:07 pm UTC (link)
I'm remembering something I heard on, um, I think it was This American Life about an embezzlement scheme run through a volunteer-run museum gift shop, and now I kind of want it to have a spy-story plot.

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carmarthen: "Would you like my hat?" (javert, les miserables)


[personal profile] carmarthen
2011-10-14 08:24 pm UTC (link)
!!!! OMG YES. Oh man, fandom neeeeeds this story. Who can we get to write it?

Aha: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/431/see-no-evil

There could be spies AND embezzlement!

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So maybe I have something....


(Anonymous)
2011-12-01 08:04 am UTC (link)
Um. Er. Hi! I got linked to the paper dolls a few days ago, and was promptly attacked by this thread. Is it ok to steal these ideas? I ask, because I have seriously stolen everything, from the commemorative spoons to the embroidery kits with the awful floss and the impossible embroidery kit woman and the paperweight order of resentment and the three very competitive little old High Vor ladies who are robbing the gift shop blind and the gossip and the spies, with bonus childhood trauma and a hidden staircase and possibly Zap's grandkitten.

Miss_Lanyon, who really needs to figure out correct forms of address for little old High Vor ladies and also maybe get some sleep

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(Anonymous)
2011-12-01 08:19 am UTC (link)
Er, would you mind if I stole this? By which I mean, everything you and carmarthen and melannen have said?

Miss_Lanyon

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melannen: Commander Valentine of Alpha Squad Seven, a red-haired female Nick Fury in space, smoking contemplatively (daydreaming, default)


[personal profile] melannen
2011-12-01 03:47 pm UTC (link)
You are certainly welcome to use anything that I contributed to this thread! ^_^ (Also, yay! if this does get written.)

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(Anonymous)
2011-12-01 05:22 pm UTC (link)
Oh, it's written. I'm just waiting to see if the betas think it is allowed to see the cold cruel light of day.

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(Anonymous)
2011-12-18 11:39 pm UTC (link)
Here you go! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/295981)

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sara: Once you visit...you won't want to leave the City of Books (books)


[personal profile] sara
2011-12-19 12:31 am UTC (link)
I am looking forward to reading it!

Though I will note that while I am sara@dw, I am not Sara@Ao3. Although having learned that I have a spare Ao3 invite I am giving real thought to registering "Sara@DW" as an Ao3 username for just these moments. *GRIN*

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(Anonymous)
2011-12-19 01:15 am UTC (link)
How terrible that someone would steal your name on AO3!

I have updated it. Let me know when you have a DW username. :)

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sara: S (S3)


[personal profile] sara
2011-12-19 01:29 am UTC (link)
Hee hee hee, I'm used to sharing it, at this point. Indeed, here and the domains at my home and workplace are absolutely the only places online where I'm used to being me@wherever.

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