HOW THE DOLLS ARE MADE

sculpting

Firstly, Miroslava (the pink haired lady) thinks of a feeling or face she wants to capture in clay. She may sketch it on paper and look for reference-photos online to inspire herself. Then when she’s happy she starts to make the doll-sculpture from scratch. She uses soft paper clay. The sculpting-processes can take many months, especially if she is working on a body.

She takes care to make the dolls aesthetically beautiful, and at the same time puts a lot of focus on making them functional. To Miroslava it's been most important that the dolls she makes are of high quality in the way that they are stable but still flexible, because she thinks the dolls should be played with.

The sculpting-process in steps
The process of sculpting looks something like in the pictures to the left (above on mobile).

  1. First she sketches & gathers reference-material on how she wants a doll to look.

  2. Then Miroslava roughly starts making that doll in clay, almost like sketching in clay.

  3. She then moves on to be more careful with the sculpture. She adds more small features, sands in between. If she thinks something isn’t quite right she may even re-sculpt it. She does this until she is happy with how it moves, feels and looks.

 

casting

Once the long process of sculpting is complete, and Miroslava has sculpted, sanded and finished all the parts of the doll she double-checks that the doll is flexible/stable. Then she seals the doll with a protective coating, preparing it for the casting process. After the seal the dolls have a grey color from the coating. The doll is now ready to be cast in resin! Casting a doll in resin means one creates a perfect replica of the clay sculpted doll but now in high quality resin. This makes them durable, realistic and easy to play with.

Miroslava used to do the casting by herself
In the beginning Miroslava would cast her own dolls. This means that she made silicone molds of every body part, and by hand poured resin in each mold. She waited for each part to harden, then she removed the silicone and sanded each part to make the doll smooth. Today Meadowdolls sends the dolls to a professional company that casts her sculptured dolls in very high quality, higher quality than her previous home-casts. When the dolls are fully cast and arrive back to Miroslava again they look something like in the pictures to the left (above on mobile). They are now in high quality skin-colored resin and fully strung.

 

styling and playing

After the dolls have been cast in resin and they arrive back at Miroslava’s they are now ready to be played with! ❤️ It is also at this stage they are ready to be shipped to their new parents.

Now one can pose them, give the doll’s new eyes, custom hair and clothes. They can have every look, personality and hobby in the world. 

Photographing dolls and sharing ones’ creativity with others online (on for example doll-forums or to friends) is something many doll-lovers love. Miroslava also loves to do this. In the photos to the left (above on mobile) you can see for example the two Dumpling Tellas stealing cookies from the table!

Hope this helped give a little insight into how the dolls are made by Miroslava! 🙂