NIADA Gallery
NIADA is an international organization of artists and patrons dedicated to the art of the contemporary doll
MessageI discovered the art doll in 2003 in an article about Akira Blount in Art Doll Quarterly magazine and I was smitten. I took a workshop from her and came home inspired. She taught needle-sculpting in fabric so the first few years, all my dolls were created in fabric. They were a bit large to begin with and as I found my way, I began to reduce the size and fine-tune my designs.
I discovered air dry clay in a workshop with Olga Roehl. This opened new possibilities and I started to combine cloth and clay. I would make the doll head, body and arms from fabric and add paper clay legs. Today, I work primarily in paper clay sculpted over a wire armature .
I am drawn to large prints and use home decorator fabrics as well as silks, antique fabrics and trims. I have a love of fashion and am inspired by designers, painters, fabrics, and odd bits of items that might be used for hair.
I do all my own photography so that I can capture the expression I intended .
My dolls have been featured in Art Doll Quarterly, Contemporary Doll, DOLLS, Mary Jane's Farm and Daphne's Diary magazines, as well as the book 500 Handmade Dolls.
I became a NIADA artist member in 2014 and am currently the President of the organization.
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