About Me

I must have caught the travelling bug back then, because after our marriage my husband
and I moved to P;apua New Guinea, where we lived for nine years. Some of the places
where we live, had no hairdresser, no television and very, very basic shopping facilities.

By necessity, we bacame quite resourceful, inventive and self-reliant. Using my own
"home made" patterns, I sewed clothes for both the kids and myself, learned to
cut my own hair (and experimented with the rest of the familys' too), did a course in
colour combining and studied homeopathy.

For my own amusement and pleasure, I took lessons in ceramic sculpture from
some of the native teachers. It was my first love and I still love to "dabble". Those
earlier days probably laid the foundation for the skills I now use in doll making.

I have no formal doll making education... I simply started with a yearning to sculpt
"my own" faces. Five years ago I designed my first doll the "Shelf Sheila". My dolls
are never meant to be beautiful in the traditional sense. They are really a bit of a send
up of pretty porcelain dolls, often created specifically to make people laugh. I try to convey
some inner charm and character, the goofy little buckteeth and shy smiles. etc.
Also to impart some soul, humour, pathos even wisdom into the look of them.

Josette

I often see other doll artists and their dolls in books and magazines:
I have a little chuckle. How AMAZING it is the likeness between
them and their dolls and I wonder.... do my dolls look like me?
Surely NOT!

This is Ruby Doogoody inspired by the poem
"When I grow old I shall wear Purple!"
PS The one on the left is me!!!!) ha ha ha!

I live on the Gold Coast, the tourist capital of Australia, with the man of my dreams
my husband John and our three delightful daughters, Kristy, Tanya and Katrina
(photos below) aged twenty, seventeen and eight. We've lived here on and off
for about eight years.

Our home backs onto a golf course, it's also a sanctuary for native birds
(actually it's a reclaimed swamp, but don't you tell anyone!) Staying in one spot for this
length of time is quite a new experience to me/us, having lived quite a nomadic existence.

I was two when my parents took us from the country of our birth (Holland)
to live in Africa spending our childhood years living idyllically with the African
bushland as our playground. My sisters and I had african children for playmates
and during the school holidays we would set up pretend classrooms and teach them
the "three R's" much to the delight of their parents. Annual holiday's we visited
relatives in Europe or went to wildlife game parks, all helping to fuel our childish
imaginations. We arrived in Australia just before my sixteenth birthday.

For as long as I can remember my mother has busied herself "making/creating"
clothes, dolls and every imaginable craft, my father always in the background
the quiet supporter. To this day they continue to support, encourage and inspire us to create.