For those who can't wait for Christmas--If you go to my website, you'll see that I have a section devoted to a dozen years of Christmas mantel displays. I began arranging these little villages on our mantel instead of under the tree, mostly because villages are harder to set up on a floor, and also to keep our Godzilla cats from stomping them. The fragile cardboard houses are from around 1930 pre-war Japan, and the tiny tin figures ("Zinnfiguren") are mostly pre-war Germany. As satisfying as this holiday art is to create, I realized that it needed a story.
So I began a Christmas tale to accompany the displays, and I've added characters and their stories every year for over a decade now. For the first mantel display, I assembled fourteen of my very favorite Japanese cardboard houses, those sweet, dusty, slightly tattered cardboard structures that have somehow managed to survive three-quarters of a century without getting crushed or tossed. Every year the arrangement of the houses is different, but every year the story continues.
Still, I know how frustrating it is to click between the story on one page of my website, and the images of the little houses and people on another. The solution? E-books! I've begun to turn these stories into pictorial ebooks with very detailed images embedded in the story itself. The ebooks contain large images and are meant to be viewed on an actual tablet such as an Android tablet or iPad with the appropriate App installed or on a PC with the Kindle App installed or Mac with the iBooks installed. Viewing it in this manner will allow the images to be enlarged and explored in detail. Season One, my first mantel display and the beginning of the Christmas tale, is currently free, and Seasons Two through Eight are also available. Enjoy the journey ... and maybe be inspired to create your own little world of wonder! GO TO THE LINK BELOW FOR MORE.... http://www.antoinettestockenberg.com/
Thanks for sharing. This is VERY nice.
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