My name is Maryna, I was born and raised in Ukraine and at age 21 came to live in Canada, Quebec with my husband.
As a child I was always very creative and made figures out of anything I could find useful for my projects, I made decorations out of dried flowers and dolls out of blooming branches, my favorite occupation was drawing and making faces in plasticine.
I started to make dolls in 2005 and tried different mediums, I worked with polymer clays, air dry clays and I've made staffed dolls with fabrics. I loved making fantasy figures in polymer clay: fairies, mermaids, satyrs and pin ups, it is amazing to see those creatures come to life out of my imagination and lump of clay.
I am totally self taught doll maker, everything I've learned came from the internet and I am so grateful to all the information out there and all the wonderful artists that share it, that is why I am always ready to help when someone asks me for guidance.
While exploring my world of dolls I came to know ball jointed dolls, for me it was a step I had to take, the process looked to be complicated, especially making articulated dolls in porcelain, and it took me a long time to find all the information I needed on working with porcelain and making a doll with ball joints, I had to save up the right amount of money and find the place to install my kiln (since I couldn't make it in the house), and one day in 2009 everything fell in to place and I started to make my first BJDs in porcelain. Many tries and errors, lots of patience and time but all worth the effort – love what I do and have many happy collectors across the world.
I draw my inspiration from many forms of art, not only dolls, I enjoy looking through drawings, a mix of reality and fantasy, beauty and simplicity, the digital drawings are beautiful – I can look and search for images like that for hours, cultural photography and costuming, beautiful and innocent children’s faces, music…. There is a whole big world behind creating one doll, and I am always learning something new, improving and searching for new challenges.
