Mimi Kirchner’s dolls are people with mysterious lives. Where they have come from and what they have seen, they will not tell. They are inscrutable; they are the silent witnesses to the unknown and unthinkable, to the mundane, and to the surreal and delicate intricacies of our own lives.

They have tattoos; they are sailors, circus performers, and forest folk. Sometimes on quiet moonlit nights, they slip from their shelves and walls, and silently congregate on grassy hillsides, to converse in covert gestures and long sideways glances about desolate places and things with wild hearts.

 

 

 

Like so many artists, Mimi’s fascination with art and handcrafts was not considered to be a serious long-term proposition – it was always in the realm of ‘hobby’. She remembers as a child “spending hours cutting out paper dolls, making doll clothes out of old clothes or scraps of fabric, teaching myself how to crochet from a book at age 9 – I figured I was doing it correctly if I pulled the yarn and it came undone! I loved the Little House on the Prairie books and dreamed of being able to do all the handcrafts of pioneer life.” Both her parents were creative too. “Dad did a year in art school before eventually ending up as a doctor, and Mom trained as a medical illustrator. My mom was always very interested in fashion and fashion sewing so there were materials and tools available for me. There were also lots of art supplies in our house and as children we were all always making things.” But despite the obvious love for craft and talent she had, she says it took her a long time, “until middle-age really, to shed my desire/need to prove that I could do ‘respectable’ art/craft.”

She had a major setback too, in 1999, when the building she had had her studio in for 11 years burnt down. “That was bad but the only thing I really miss is all my sketchbooks – it feels like I lost part of my memory.”

 

 

But she picked herself up and kept going. “I started with doll making in 2000 during a time of transition for me. My studio building had burned down, I had wearied of the pottery I was doing, my kids were all in school and my parents and in-laws were ageing to a point that I had to focus attention with them. But after the fire, I got on the internet and wow – what a wonderful world! I started making the dolls, got involved in internet communities, started the blog… then when Etsy started about 5 yrs later, I was at the right place in my life and art-making to jump on board.

 

 

 

 

“The hardest single obstacle is dealing with peoples’ ideas of what a doll is,” she said, but the best best bit is “throwing my own critical voice away, letting myself do what I love and succeeding at it!” And succeed she has, with more than 10,000 likes, and 1,700 sales on Etsy alone. And her advice for getting there? “Surround myself with kind, positive and supportive people and leave the critical, the dismissive and the ones that leave me questioning myself behind.”

 

 

 

You can find more of Mimi’s work on her Etsy site here.

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With thanks to Mimi for sharing her ideas, stories, and images here.