Until a couple of years ago making dolls had been a part of a large imagination I never thought would become a reality. It wasn't until I discovered
Etsy, an online marketplace for artists and crafters, that I realised doll making was infact a serious business, art form and popular collectable product.
Dolls had resonated with me deeply for a long time, and until this time I'd never realised the deeply personal, unusual and innovative styles people achieved in doll creation. Art dolls was certainly the way to go for me. After more research I picked up a block of Original Sculpey from a craft shop and got going.
What followed this was a very intense period of trial and error - with a lot of errors. I made roughly ten dolls before I made one called Sleeping Demonette.
She was original sculpey with wire loop joints. After that I upgraded to Living Doll, and after some more trial and error I made The Faun and another Sleeping Demon.
After that it all went a little quiet. As much as I loved doll making one of a kind hand scultped polymer clay art dolls was not the right area for me. Personally, I found the sculpting process took too long. I've a brain which works very fast, has many ideas and wants to achieve an awful lot in a very short space of time. I wanted desparately to fill a shop with intricate dolls with character and collectability. Infact, more than that, I wanted to create my own little world with dolls.
Again I went back to the research stage. I was very aware of Ball Jointed Dolls (BJDs) at this point but the hollowed out, s-hook, elastic making method put me off. For a long time I had pondered the idea of a ball jointed doll where the joints did not rely on elastic for their tension. Surely, out there, somewhere was a ball joint that held it's own tension, I searched B&Q, Homebase, the internet. I couldn't find what I was looking for, but I knew I couldn't go back to my original doll making method.
Luckily around this time I made a wonderful friend, Matt Inkel of
Arcane Armoury, an incredibly talented prop maker with 16 years experience, a problem solving mind and a gentlemanly character who was happy to help me. His first gift to me was teaching me the method of mould making and resin pouring. This would enable me to produce dolls at a higher rate, additionally they would be much stronger than polymer clay. After this we developed a unique ball joint together which held its own tension. These were the two factors I needed to achieve what I had been thinking about for so very long. I was finally able to make my world of dolls, strong, solid, posable, resin dolls. For this I'll be forever greatful, and will always highly reccommend his products and services.
And so, I've cut the story as short as I can. And here we are. I have developed the first master Doll for Nevermore, and production is beginning very soon. Having been thinking about this venture for a very long time I have filled sketch books with ideas, characters, concepts, fantasy races, accessories, costumes and scenes. I cannot wait to open the door and introduce the World Of Nevermore, it's been a long journey, but I've finally arrived.
