How I Landed in the Doll World

As a kid my favorite dolls were Ginny and Jill.  I loved Ginny best until Jill came along with her high heels, diamond earrings, and bra.  She had everything that I wanted!  My last doll was Dollikins.  I wasn fascinated by her multiple joints.  I begged nonstop to get her.

As an adult I developed Fibromyalgia.  I quickly realized that I needed a hobby more interesting than my pain.  I remembered my doll friends and thought that I would just buy a few dolls, maybe just one Ginny and one Jill.  Fellow collector, I can hear you laughing.

Of course once the bug bites you cannot stop.  I bought more and more dolls.  I joined a doll club.  I went to a convention and met people who were making dolls.  As a trained artist and a lover of fashion history I wanted to do that , too.  The first dolls I made were paper dolls, but I wnet on to design and make over 2,000 original dolls, mostly porcelain, but a also a few wax and polymer dolls.  Besides doll making I helped to finance my "habit" by doing paper dolls, patterns, and articles for magazines like Doll Reader, Doll World, Doll Life, Doll News, Barbie Bazaar, and Haute Doll.