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Interview with Doll Designer
Martha Boers
With the release of one of our newest dolls, Noelle, now available for pre-order (until 21 Sep, 2024), we wanted to bring to you a fabulous interview with the highly talented and popular doll designer, Martha Boers. In this interview, Martha details her work in designing dolls, her inspiration, and more. Take a look below for our interview with her!
1. Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
I've been dressing dolls my whole life. I dressed my Barbies in Tudor and Elizabethan costumes for a high school costume project back when I was 17.
2. How did you get started in designing dolls?
When I was a stay-at home Mom with three children, I started a line of cloth dolls to help with some extra income. They were all child dolls, and I eventually wanted to dress more mature dolls. So I tried sculpting dolls out of polymer clay. Then in the late 80's my youngest sister and I started making OOAK sculpted art dolls together. She did most of the sculpting, and I completed the dolls, making their costumes, wigs and props. I had attended Technical Theatre school for one year, and had learned all about stressing costumes to make them look more realistic and lived in. Over the years my sister and I made hundreds of dolls together, selling most to galleries in the USA. I was especially proud of our male dolls....like King Arthur and Rembrandt....
I have an older website which features some of my favourite dolls that we made together - marthaboers.com
My sister recently put together a book with every one of the dolls we ever made together - antiquelilac.com
After working together for about 12 years, my sister decided she didn't want to sculpt anymore, and even though I had sculpted a few dolls myself, like Hook, and some fantasy pieces...
I didn't much care for sculpting either. I preferred making the costumes. So, after experimenting with several different types of media over the next few years, I finally discovered BJDs.
3. Where do you get your inspiration from, when designing dolls?
Inspiration can come from anywhere. Sometimes it's from an actual painting of a historic figure, or from a movie, or book illustration. Sometimes it might even just be from some fabric. I never draw up a design, but just work it through in my head, then go through my fabric collection, and get started, adding details as I go. In the old days it might take just a week or two to complete a doll, but nowadays it seems to take a lot longer, since I also spend a lot of time on doll photography.
4. Can you tell us a bit more about how you designed Noelle? What was the inspiration behind her?
Well, before I was even contacted by the Ruby Red team, I had been getting periodic emails from RR fans asking me to submit costume designs like the ones I'd been making for my BJDs. They said they loved the RR dolls but wanted to see more variety in their costuming, especially fantasy and fairytale outfits like the ones I'd been making for my BJDs. So when RR contacted me two years ago, I thought I'd make an RR sized version of my Christmas Elf along with two other samples. I was just hoping they might choose one of my designs, but they chose to do all three. Anyways, Noelle is based on my BJD Christmas elves, which I made in a variety of colours....
The BJD Elf costume had been inspired by an OOAK sculpted figure of an elf my sister and I had made years earlier, and I believe that elf was originally inspired by an embroidery pattern.
5. How many dolls have you designed in your entire career? And how many dolls do you have in your collection?
I have no idea. There were hundreds of cloth dolls in the early years. Then hundreds of OOAK polymer clay art figures. Then hundreds of costumes for my BJDs. My sister and I recently put together a book documenting all the fantasy and historical BJD costumes that I've made up until the end of 2023. (Click here to view) . There were photos of the 267 Fantasy and Historical inspired doll costumes I'd made since 2007. It did include the contemporary style doll outfits I'd made. I also have a website where I post all my BJD photos - https://www.antiquelilac.com .
I have a lot of dolls. I was never a 'collector' in the usual sense, since I never purchased commercial dolls. For many years my collection only consisted of dolls that I'd made myself. I still have about 50 of those. And then there's my BJDs. I have over a hundred of them, in all shapes and sizes. I prefer the more realistic dolls, and especially love the Fashion sized ones. I have 14 of those. I also have three Ruby Red Fashion Friends dolls.
6. What do you love most about dolls? And what do you love most about doll collecting?
I don't know. I've always loved fairytales ever since I was little, especially the picture books with all the illustrations of princesses in beautiful gowns. They just seemed so much more interesting than the clothes we wear today. Plus, the stories were an escape into an imaginary world. My dolls embody that escape. I especially love fashion sized dolls. They are the same size as the art dolls I used to make with my sister, so they are a comfortable size for me to make costumes for. Nowadays what I love most is trying to convey emotions through the posing of my dolls in my photo stories. I don't buy a new doll very often. They really have to speak to me, and have to fit into some existing family or storyline.
7. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start designing dolls?
I'd say to just go for it. Everyone has to start somewhere, and the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. Don't give up if things don't look exactly as you'd like them to right away. I still have to start over sometimes when things just don't want to work out. It's just part of the process.
8. What kind of dolls with Ruby Red might we be able to see from you in the future?
Well, I can't really answer that since they have to stay secret until Ruby Red releases them. The only thing I can say is that I like to do fairytale and fantasy costumes, so you can expect more of that. I just sent off two more costume samples the other day. And who knows what comes after that? I just hope collectors will like them as much as I do.
Learn more about our latest Ruby Red Fashion Friends x Martha Boers limited edition here.