Hi I’m Alison Jackson, a self-taught doll artist. 

Growing up art wasn’t really a career option, I was well into my 40’s before I got to follow my passion, but I always crafted. Sewing, knitting and crochet have always been second nature, and I can’t watch telly without something to do with my hands.

When I started making dolls  to sell, I began with sewing cloth dolls as I could work out their patterns, and I had made plenty for myself as a child and then my own children. Soon though I decided I wanted more of a challenge.  I was drawn to making clay dolls first with polymer clays and air dry then about 5 years back I treated myself to a mini-kiln and started using porcelain, and that was a really big learning curve.

I don’t make happy dolls often and most of my faces are a little sad, some are even quite disgruntled, and I love them that way. 

I have won various awards, the latest when I picked up a 2nd place for a wood and porcelain Mad Hatter in Doll Prague a large international show in Prague (clue’s in the name)

I love doll making as I can do something different every day. Either sculpting, sewing, even wood carving, and little jumpers are much quicker to knit than full sized. Today I had the soldering iron out. 

It has taken a while for me to be able to consider myself an artist and I still get impostors syndrome quite a lot when looking through Instagram. But I am doing what I love everyday and that is something I am very grateful for.