I met David Walters from the Dollpage at the Santa Fe Doll Art Symposium of Excellence.

I was giving a lecture about dollmaking in The Netherlands. He asked me to tell more about the doll world as it perpetually reinvented itself in our little country.

Welcome to "The Dutch Touch". This is the first part in a series of excerpts of content as it pertains to doll making in Holland. There is so much to write. Where do I begin?

My name is Marlaine Verhelst and I live in The Netherlands (or Holland) in Europe. I started dollmaking after my education in the illustration department at the Art Academy in 1975. One of my teachers was a writer and illustrator of children's books. I will never forget the day she showed us dolls that she made for her children. I was fascinated. Can you imagine?

My teacher wasn't a professional doll maker at all. She made them for fun, for her children to play. The dolls showed the same silent character as her drawings. I loved that "quiet" atmosphere. I was hardly interested in making drawings of the dolls (the teacher asked us to do that). I wanted to make dolls myself.

It was brilliant. I never saw those dolls again. But until now I always have them in mind in making my dolls. They are my source of inspiration for "keep it simple".

When I had finished art school I made my first dolls, by trial and error. There were no doll fairs in Holland, no doll exhibitions and only a few dollmakers. I didn't know that dollmakers really existed. No wonder people told me my style was unique when I showed my first dolls. Nobody told me how to make dolls, no one told me about techniques. I had to figure it out by myself. This has given me the opportunity to develop my own style. I am lucky.

The first dolls I made were from air drying clays (no polymer). After a few years I met a potter. I learned how to handmodel in porcelain. Because her method was quite intensive I changed it bit by bit and developed my own method of working in porcelain. On this subject I have written several books (in dutch) and since 2004 a cd in english is available about handsculpting directly into porcelain

From the very beginning of my work I was inspired by the world of theater and fairy tales...so inspired that I tried to create my own fantasy world and its inhabitants. About 10 years ago I started to make combinations of dolls and big animals. The animals complete the story. I make my animals from wood powder (papier machŽ) around Styrofoam.

In the very beginning I have been a full time doll maker for about 3 years. I work as a designer of home textiles since the late seventies and since a couple of years also as a webdesigner together with my son Polle. I am a part-time doll maker now and conductor of workshops. I love doing doll shows.

you will find my doll site at http://marlaineverhelst.com

More than 20 years ago I have married my "prince on the white horse" and we do have 3 children age 22, 17 and 11. Visit my family starting at http://www.polle.net/family