I started making handmade dolls for the simple reason that I needed to find a tactile hobby after work hours. I worked in animation as head of production design, designing characters, props and backgrounds. The job, although creative, required me to use a computer all day and I was really missing the feel of working with real materials.
The first dolls I made were bunnies from calico with little button eyes and embroidered faces.
I found a wonderful online group called Art Dolls Only, where I met talented doll makers from world om around and learned many tricks and techniques.
In 2006 I opened my first online shop with Etsy and to my surprise, my dolls sold straight away!
I was so chuffed that people from all parts of the world loved my work, and I was inspired to diversify my range of calico dolls and designed a quirky little elephant!
As time passed, I soon found myself with a library of doll and bear books, magazines, patterns and a small collection of other artists dolls and I was making cats, bears, donkey’s, Tigers, Tasmanian Devils, Bilby’s, Quolls and Bandicots
Last year I wrote a post about how I make my Quoll figures. You can read about them here
I have a passion for vintage, old toys and stories of attic dolls and lost things! I soon found myself purchasing or small vintage items for props to tell a photographic story behind each doll.
I have toyed with the idea of stop making them as I also work full time as a career artist, but they are so much fun!!
I designed all the tiny tailoring, much of which was inspired by researching vintage knitting magazines for dolls clothes.
I experimented with Christmas ornament cardigan patterns, decreasing and increasing stitches to retro fit my odd shaped dolls with their short arms.
