I spent an afternoon cutting out cardboard for a tower for my Princess and Pea miniature and got a shock. I already knew that the tower was going to be big. Like three-and-a-half feet tall big. But knowing it and seeing it were two completely different things.
I never intended this scene to be so huge. I don’t know what I was thinking when I designed the bed, only that the result is not the 1:12 scale I was shooting for. I’m not willing to remake the mattresses, so I’m stuck with what is actually a 1:7.2 scale build. [1]
Despite feeling overwhelmed, I plowed ahead. I started with some castle tower research. Since I wanted an abandoned defensive tower, I would need doors, arrowslits, and floor beam holes in my wall. What I learned about arrowslits made me pause.
Castle tower walls were usually several feet thick, requiring spaces cut into them to make the slits effective. Realistic arrowslits were going to require four-inch wedge-shaped boxes added to the backside of my cardboard wall (since I wasn’t about to make the entire wall four inches thick.)
Shaken, I took a break. Then I reviewed my recent work on this project.
When I had seen the cardboard wall standing there, I thought “I’m out of my mind.”
When I had considered making four boxes to stick on the tower wall to give the illusion of depth, I thought “I’m really out of my mind.”
Unfortunately, I had promised myself I would finish this project this year. Before 2026, in the next ten weeks, which include the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
Also unfortunately, I want to be done with this project. I started it twenty-one years ago and I’d like to wrap it up.
In the end, I remembered that I’m in charge. It’s my idea, my vision, my project. I get to decide what counts.
Do I love the idea of making a castle tower with lots of realistic detail? You bet.
Do I want to experiment with stone walls made of egg cartons and paint? Definitely.
Do I have the time necessary to make a tower for this project using this technique before the end of the year? Not a chance.
What I envisioned from the start was the bed with the mattresses, and a book with “The Gift of Sensitivity” on the cover. (I’m certain that a princess who could feel a pea through forty mattresses would appreciate a good book to read when she couldn’t sleep.) I never saw the tower as part of the project.
I did originally envision a doll. She would be sitting up in bed, reading the book by candlelight. But the doll I made? Yikes. I’ve never been fond of dolls, and I’m not willing to spend the time it takes to get them to look like actual people.
I redefined this project when I dropped the doll, so why not do it again? My goal now is to have something I can photograph. I can use the cardboard “tower” as a support for either fabric or paper. I might even draw the castle wall if I feel like I need more visual context, but I do not have to stick to the idea of making an actual tower as a backdrop for it.
My project, my decision.
Part of me is sad to let go of the tower… I love castles and would enjoy making one. But the fact is I would rather give up on it entirely than try to compromise on some of the detail (like just cutting arrowslit-shaped windows and forgetting about the depth of the wall.)
I’ve had success in the past with moving the finish line to help me complete a seemingly endless project. It sounds like cheating, but is it? Not when the whole point of this project is to have some fun.
[1] The basket I made last week is 1:12 scale, so it won’t work for this project after all. Oops.
It’s a good idea to be flexible.
Funny how hard it can be…