A retrospective of the artist's work
Gallery of Miniature Dolls

My Winter Wonderland Collection

These are the dolls that I took to Winter Wonderland in Brisbane.

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Little Lord Fauntleroy and Girl with apron

These two dolls were the first that I sculpted.

I sculpted porcelain pieces, then fired, painted and assembled them.

I did not use moulds for these early, basic dolls.

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Early dolls of a little girl and a boy with a truck

Here are two more of my early dolls.

Their bodies are fixed and cannot change position.

The shoes are not removeable, but the clothes are made and fitted as little garments; they are not sewn on the dolls.

I didn't make the truck.

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A very early doll of a sailor boy

Like the dolls above, this boy has a cloth body.

His arms and legs are not jointed and he is not poseable.

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Cloth body doll

This doll shows more refined head sculpting and was one of my first attempts at movement with simple, articulated arms.

The body was made of cloth filled with polyester stuffing.

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The blue twins

I made the twins with shoes removeable as well as their clothes.

The girl's dress is trimmed with my handmade lace.

At this stage, I had to work on making the wigs smaller, but I was starting to get there.

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Two bisque dolls with dolls

These dolls are all bisque and poured using the same mould and porcelain slip.

They were not refined after pouring, but arms and legs could be moved.

The heads and bodies were made in one piece.

At this stage my dolls still looked very stiff.

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Early ballerinas and fairies

These three dolls were sculpted in sections, moulds made of each piece, poured, then modified with a little extra sculpting.

The moulds were poured in pale fine doll porcelain. The arms and legs move at the shoulders and hips, but the head is in one piece with the body. The fairy’s wings are my handmade honiten lace.

Looking back it seems to have taken me a long time to articulate the heads.

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Susan

As with the twins, the clothes and the shoes were removeable.

I designed and developed the doll in the early 90s.

Susan:

• is 1/12th scale
• has clothes and shoes that are fastened with tiny buttons
• has articulated legs that enable her to stand or sit, and
• the face and expression of a happy, active child and at last, a moving head, not attached to the body

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Milly Molly Mandy

Milly Molly Mandy is an original all porcelain doll representing my interpretation of the line drawings from the children's book. She is simply articulated at the neck, shoulders and hips. All items of clothing, including shoes are removable.

I designed and developed the doll in the mid 90s.

I did Little Friend Susan too, but don't have a photo to include.

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Sailor girl doll

This sailor doll is all porcelain, and articulated with ten separate parts.

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More recent dolls

Curly haired child	Dancing child in pinafore	French Bébé	Child in pink smocked dress
Dawn's child	Elizabeth with a red bow	Baby dear	Child in cream smocked dress.

From now all doll parts were poured porcelain. The most complicated are fourteen piece dolls, the simplest six pieces.

A ring over a bar joint allows movement backwards, forwards and rotating, making even simple dolls highly poseable.

The exceptions are the French Bébé and China dolls-for-dolls which are reproduced in their original fashion with leather bodies.

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Isabel's child

This is one of my favourite dolls.

She has the quiet, thoughtful, sweet expression that I was trying to create. It's wonderful when this happens.

As with all dolls now, her panties, petticoat,dress,shoes and socks are all removeable.

Child in grandfather's chair

This is one of my fourteen piece, poseable child dolls in a smocked dress, seated in a piece of dollshouse furniture.

I did not make the chair.

Kate & Elizabeth Dickins

Dolls of our children to 1/12 scale based on a portrait

I made the dolls for my mother.