E-Mail Address: dsbdolls@laf.cioe.com or dsbdolls@omni.cc.purdue.edu
Company Name: Diana Baumbauer Designs
Location: Lafayette, IN USA
Birthday: rolling over the big 40
Family information: Single mom with 2 teenagers (14 & 15); great for borrowing my clothes and makeup, and messing with the computer.
Media used: Primarily cloth, but have done several dolls in polymer clays. I am slowly moving into the polymer clays more and enjoying the experience and the results.
Type/style of dolls: My cloth dolls would be considered rag dolls, because although I do put armatures in some of my dolls, it's a pain to do it all the time when I like to move along with things. My clay dolls aren't what you would caractures, but with time I'm sure they will develop.
Length of time in dollmaking: I've spent the better part of 14 years in dollmaking and manufacture of cloth doll patterns. It's been a pretty sporatic existance, but the little things keep calling me back.
Professional Credits: I've had things in various magazines (Contemorary Doll Collector, Cloth Doll, and, the now extinct, Doll Journal. There are some things in the works for summer, but it will wait until then I suppose.
Awards: I don't compete with my fellow doll makers for discriminating placement. Besides, I really don't think my stuff would hold a candle to what I see around me anyway.
Comments on your dollmaking: I make dolls because that's the medium that chose me to express my artistic talents. I thrill at the coming together of a new design or original idea. It's always been a bit difficult to explain why I work with dolls, and I've never found a very acceptable answer except what I've already said. In some way I hope to be able to use my dolls and dollmaking experience with my graduate degree (I'm currently struggling through). I said the same thing about my undergraduate work too. I've tried several times in my life to shake off the dolls and get serious, but they really do keep calling me back. I have text books and computer printouts everywhere, but my doll *stuff* takes up my space and my life. What's great is that my kids support my efforts, and keep me going when I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
BTW, my cat, Guido is a real doll fan. He loves the fabrics, feathers, and wools that pour out of the closet every time I begin doll making.
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