Salli ~ The Site ~ FAQ

Hi, my name is Salli, and this site belongs to me. I am not going to tell you how old I am, where I live, what my favorite color is (as if you couldn't tell from the decor), or anything of that sort.

I made my first doll sometime around March 20, 2003, just to see if I could do it, and discovered that not only was doll-making remarkably easy (well, I thought so at the time), it was a great way to play with my characters. Nearly every doll I make is some sort of character study. I typically talk about my characters and the worlds they inhabit in my blog, so you won't have to wade through any of that here. But if you ever want to know something about one of my characters or worlds, I would be delighted to tell you.

There are three effective ways to locate me:
Email: iceshadowdolls@yahoo.com
Blog: Virtual Dust (one can leave comments)
Forum: Dolls Online

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I write my site entirely from scratch with assistance from a cool program called 1st Page 2000. There will be no fancy effects or complicated graphics. Sure, I could do both, but you came here for dolls, right? I like my site to be accessible to all browsers and users, so if you find anything that hampers your access, let me know. (I also accept reports of typos and incorrect grammar, which drive me crazy.) Since it is an art site, I will assume that everyone has a browser that can view images, and alt tags are commentary rather than descriptions.

There will be no frames. Frames hurt accessibility and are frequently annoying. There will be no splash page. I can't stand splash pages.

Ice Shadow Dolls was born September 26, 2003, after much off-and-on work over a period of months. Although I made a few minor changes along the way, the first layout stayed for over a year. The current layout went live December 17, 2004.

Bases for the sprites in the banners are by Meredith, originally available at Eleni Aranelwa, and not currently online.

Although my HTML and CSS are valid, that may not survive Geocities. Any errors should be from their ad code, not my page.

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Q: What programs do you use to make your dolls?

Technically speaking, I don't have real image editing software. I originally used Microsoft Paint for the hard work, Microsoft Picture It! for shading and effects, and Irfanview to convert my files into transparent GIFs. I do still use these programs, but these days I do most of my work in the GIMP. It's free, so you can use it too.

Q: Why do you keep saying "make dolls." Don't you know that folks use "doll" as a verb?

Yes, I have caught on to that fact. I've succumbed to the use of "blog" and "blogging." But I'm resisting this one. You can write it off as personal preference, obstinacy, or another instance of Salli-weirdness.

While I'm at it, I don't make "dollz" or "dollies." You're free to call your work whatever you like, but mine are just plain dolls.

Q: Why do you keep referring to yourself in third person? That's just weird.

Dramatic effect.

Q: Will you be my sister site?

Do I know you? If I know you from a forum, or we've exchanged email saying more than just "here's my entry" and "thanks for your entry," and we're more than acquaintances with enough in common that we might become friends, then ask away and we'll see.

If you want someone to do the traditional sister site dance, I'm not your girl. I mean well, but I don't get around to making gifts as often as I'd like. I chat with my sisters, try to enter their contests, help them out when I can, and try to be generally sociable.

Q: Why do some of your dolls have names on them?

I go through phases during which I like to put names on my dolls. I've mostly stopped, though.

Q: What is this "Forest of Shadows," and why does it have so many characters?

The Forest is a message-based RPG, and the world in which it is set. It's my online home, and its players and characters are very dear to my heart. Being the Person In Charge, I have a lot of NPCs (Non-Player Characters), and I like to make dolls of them. Dolls are also a useful way to create visual illustrations of new concepts, for my own assistance.

We're not accepting new characters right now, but you're welcome to join the community... just watch out for the raining cookies.

Q: Don't you have any male characters?

Yes, of course. All my stories have male and female characters. I even have entire storylines that focus around characters who happen to be men. Unfortunately, I've never managed to make a halfway decent doll of a significant male character that isn't little and cute. (The only normal-sized male doll on this site is Prince Keven, and he's supposed to look dorky.)

Q: What's with all these characters, anyway?

I have lots and lots of characters - you may have noticed. They're real characters (as real as any made up characters can be) from real stories, but you can't read them because I have little interest in writing them. I'm too much of a perfectionist to share less than my best work, and I have too many characters and too little time to settle on one story to write out in full, and I doubt this will change in the immediate future.

There are, of course, exceptions, but nothing that wouldn't require substantial revision to share.

Q: Won't you tell me anything about yourself?

Uh... I majored in political science? No, I don't intend to be a lawyer or a politician. No, I do not want to discuss Plato. (But I'd love to talk about electoral systems. Heh heh heh.) I have a sister. No, really, we're sisters. She has a website, and it's not actually necessary to report me if I forget to credit her somewhere (and vice versa). I like coffee and dark chocolate, and my favorite color should be fairly obvious.

Q: I found a mistake on your site...

Quick! Drop everything! Tell me about it right away!

No, really, just this once I'm not being sarcastic. I can't stand typos, broken images, and bad grammar. I won't complain if you point out mistakes... I'll thank you!

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