Dream Doors Design Gallery

There's a new Gallery open in SmallWorlds and it's a Gallery with a difference! Faerie Princess opened her new gallery just over 2 weeks ago and she's been met with a lot of interest and enthusiasm. When you take a look at what she's been working on its not hard to see why.

As the name suggests, Dream Doors Design Gallery has one focus and one focus only, and that's Doors! 

Faerie, who has been playing on SmallWorlds for around 9 months and lives in Asia, creates them using a Flickr frame. She uploads her Photoshopped door images into the frames with truly fabulous results. I caught up with her to ask her about her creations. You can even find out how to create one yourself! Here's the first of four of her creations I'd like to show you, Enchanted Tree:

Faerie: The idea started when I thought of decorating a place and I needed something different. So, I went to shops selling interactive murals. I was thrilled with the fact that a simple mural can turn into something wonderful and that's when the concept hit me. :)

Me: So.... why doors? And have you had any unusual commissions?

Faerie: Most of what I see around mural shops are windows, so to be different, why not doors? And so I have doors! I actually call them edited doors - lol. I use photo editing software, play with them a bit, cropping and changing color schemes. And yes I accept various requests. There was one memorable door, you may call it unusual, it was a morgue door! lol I thought of saying no but when they told me it was for a mission, I said yes, even if I was really freaking out because the morgue door opens to a feet dangling from a body bag! I could say I had a hell of a time editing those! lol

Me: What are some of your other door ideas?

Faerie: Before I opened the new shop, I did some pet doors. :) I have some materials too for men's doors. Stuffs like cars, big bikes, tool room etc. And other concepts I can't reveal yet but I hope you do watch out for those.

Me: Where do you go in SW for your artistic inspiration?

Faerie: I am a huge fan of Wise Kitten's work. I say Animation Alley. And there is a friend who helps me by giving honest comments to my work because she is an artist too, so I would also add Tonie's Galleria.

Me:I'm sure there are some who would love to create their own edited door... can you tell us how you do it?

Faerie: Sure! I'll try and keep it simple as possible:

1. Pick a photo. My dad is an architect so I get most of my sources from his compilation.Others I found in Flickr. From there I start working.

2. Check the quality of the picture, size, color, prints. If you need to combine pictures, pay attention to the color schemes.

3. Edit your photo with good software so you get good adjustment results - you want to make sure that the image does not stretch much, and you want something where you can cut out unwanted edges or portions accurately. The ideal dimensions for the picture to fit into the Flickr frames are the 640 x 480 (this is a preset in photoshop).

4. When you have finished your image, upload in Flickr, and add in to your Flickr frame and there you have it. Your very own personalized door!

Me: You make it sounds very easy, but looking at some of your work, there has to be some more advanced stuff you're doing...

Faerie: There are images where you can just flip or mirror. But then again, there are those that need special attention, because when u flip, there are shadows or colors or even portions that do not look good or blend well; so you take out some areas, perhaps clone some parts then use some "healing" tools on photoshop. There are even doors that I assembled from scratch, meaning that I cut portions to make a frame, a body and then put on door handles! I had some sleepless nights! lol

It's been a pleasure to talk with Faerie, and I've so enjoyed seeing some of her work! You can even make these "edited doors" act like the real thing by setting a Teleport interaction on the Flickr frame, and then your door can truly be a door!

I hope you enjoy your visit to Dream Doors Design Gallery, yet another creative corner of SmallWorlds.