The Delightful dolls from KazeKidz are the result of years of sculpting experience by their creator Kaye Wiggs. Kaye, who lives in a tiny town named Kootingal in the hills in inland New South Wales, had no formal art training, but was always creative. When she was a teenager, she saw porcelain dolls in Doll Reader magazine. She was fascinated by them. Years later, she decided to create dolls of her own. ” I got married in my early 30’s and my husband was very supportive of my artistic ability. He bought me a kiln and took me to the city to get some greenware and then there was no looking back! .”

Kaye had sculpted her first porcelain doll in 1990. She was eventually approached by a another doll-maker who was interested in having Kaye design dolls and sell molds from them. “I said yes, and she started a company to promote Aussie artists called Dolls from Down Under.” Soon after, companies from the US contacted her. “A company in the USA wanted to handle my molds, and soon after that Home Shopping Network in USA asked me to design dolls for them so I did that too.”

After years of designing porcelain dolls, Kaye decided to leave the business. “After many years of working full time making dolls, it all got too much for me. I became ill so I retired for a couple if years. I thought I couldn’t care less if I never saw another doll!”

While Kaye had completely lost interest in porcelain dolls, her creative energies were re-kindled when She saw BJDs. ” I discovered BJD’s when a friend showed me some in a doll magazine, and I loved them right away. I knew I had found a new direction and started to teach myself how to make the silicon molds and cast the resin. This took about 2 years of research and trial and error before I was ready to make my own BJD.” Her first head was produced in 2004.

“My first doll was unnamed and I only cast 3 or 4 heads and sold 3 of them to a collector to help me buy the supplies to keep making more dolls. The first BJD I actually “officially” sold was Matilda. She was a full doll and limited to 20 human and 20 elf….all but my new head Pip have been limited. I limit them because I have a bad reaction to the resin so it’s really hard for me when casting and sanding the resin. I usually have a day of casting and then I have to take a few days off to get over the effects of casting. When I sand the resin I get bad dermatitis on my hands so I have to have a break after a bout of sanding and wait for my hands to heal. The allergy is the reason I stopped making the full bodies because it just makes me too sick. I think my favorite of my own sculpts is Nettle. I have kept a human Nettle for myself. The only other one of my own dolls that I have kept is Pepper.”

Kaye’s approaches designing resin dolls in a different manner than her previous dolls. When designing her porcelain dolls, Kaye generally worked from photographs. With her new project, Kaye began to sculpt her dolls from her imagination. “I just start with a lump of Sculpy and see what happens… it’s more liberating to work from imagination. The BJDs are less realistic, so I love that I can do anything I like with features etc… and still be acceptable.” Her work is designed in Sculpy III. “When I worked in porcelain, I used to sculpt in porcelain clay and make molds from plaster. Now I sculpt in Sculpy which I find harder to manage than porcelain clay, but in order to have the piece hollow the oven baked clays are best. When I sculpt a head, I make a core from crushed up foil, and I put a layer of clay over the half that will be the face. I bake that with glass eyes in place and then I take the foil out (it’s easier to remove and smooth the inside of the clay if I only make the face part first) then I build up the features over stages by adding clay and baking. Once I have the face done, I start to build the rest of the head.”

Kaye designs many heads, but casts approximately four different heads a year. “I usually make the mold and cast myself. I did have Bobobie cast my little pixie Sage, but apart from her, all the other dolls have been cast by myself. I sculpt the original and sand and smooth the part as much as possible, and then I make a mold. If I am doing a limited edition I will cast from the first mold and sand and polish each head before I ship to the customer, If I am not limiting the head, I will smooth the first casting and remold so there will be a lot less sanding to do before the head is ready for sale. I use a clear resin for casting and I add a UV stabilizer so it will inhibit yellowing. I add tints to the resin to make it more opaque and to get the colour I want. Once it’s colored, I pour the resin into the silicon mold and put it in a pressure pot to set.”

Since Kaye works on heads only at this point, she designs them to match the bodies of other companies. One of her favorite companies for bodies is Dolls Town. “I LOVE Dollstown bodies, I think they are the best bodies of all (just my opinion). I love how they look, and I love how they pose etc… My absolute favorite is the elf body. Others have used various bodies for my heads, Volks SD10 and Customhouse that I can remember off hand.”

The heads can be ordered blank or with face-ups. “I would have to say sculpting is my favorite part of the dollmaking process, but I also love doing the faceups too.” Her dolls are sold through her website, and by posting on doll forums like Zone of Zen and Den of Angels. She also occasionally sells dolls on eBay. Kaye keeps an email list, and sends updates when new dolls are available.

Pip is the new KazeKid. Kaye is currently casting heads now, and Pip will be made available in three Dolls Town resin colors. She will come in a choice between an elf or a human eared head. “The neck size of the Dollstown elf and 7 years body is very similar, so the human (head) and the elf heads with fit either body. The human head is slightly larger than the elf, so it fits the elf body better as it is more in proportion to that body, and the elf is slightly smaller so it looks better on the 7 years body better, I think. However, it depends on the collectors tastes so they can fit either body. Pip can be a boy or a girl .. I didn’t intentionally sculpt the head to be a boy, but I think it actually looks good as a boy. The faceup makes all the difference to which gender he or she looks like.” Currently Kaye is casting the heads in fresh-skin and oriental-skin. She will make pale-skin heads available soon. “I hope to cast to match paleskin in the next batch because I don’t have a paleskin doll from Dolls Town yet. I presently have one on order so I will be able to match that resin when the doll arrives.”

Kaye has more than enough work to keep her busy for a long time. “I have heaps of partly sculpted dolls lying around here. I guess I should finish some of them. I do plan on doing a head to go on Twiglimbs body in collaboration with Therese sometime in the future .. as a matter of fact, the head has been partly sculpted for at least a year and I am surprised Therese has not gotten sick of waiting for me to finish her!! Apart from that, I don’t really have any longterm plans .. I just take each day as it comes. My ideal senario would be to just sculpt and paint dolls and leave the molding and casting to someone else, but not sure if they will be in my future or not .. I think I am too darn “picky” to work with anyone else!”

Kaye has become a huge fan of BJDs. “To me, dolls are an art form, and I love to be able to be creative…with the BJD’s the sky is the limit. They are so versatile and interesting and (it’s) so exciting to see some of the dolls that are being created now. Soom MD for instance, I think are wonderful.”She adds “BJDs are much more fun to make and to play with because they are more animated than the porcelain dolls I used to make. They just stood there and looked pretty while the BJDs you can interact with because you can play with them. I guess I’m just a big kid who loves to play with dolls.. ”

KazeKidz ~ Kaye’s Doll site

KazeKidz Gallery Album

KazeKidz Yahoo Group

Human Matilda Limited Edition of 20

Pepper Limited Edition of 30

Nettle Limited Edition of 10

The New Doll Human Pip

New Pip with Elf Ears