We usually start discussing ideas for our holiday card immediately after the holidays . . . and sometimes before. We keep notes. We get into animated discussions. This time we wanted to do a stop motion short film. We came up with a concept and as things evolved, we also wanted to pay tribute to two people who we lost this year (M’s Dad and M’s Aunt). M’s Dad loved books and M’s Aunt could make anything beautiful (and M bought her macarons a few times for Christmas.). It’s been a very hard year, so maybe we (I) needed to focus for a bit on little intricate things.
We took an online class (Domestika) from puppet maker and stop motion animation director Adeena Grubb whose work we love. We all made our own puppets and Kid the Elder made Lola and Fitz, our two dogs. We were in Paris (briefly!) this year and stopping at Shakespeare & Company is a must (as is eating your weight in macarons from Ladurée). All and all it was a very lengthy process! We hope you enjoy and have a safe New Year. — M & J
J in 2019, Shakespeare & Co, Paris.