About Me
As a child, going on summer vacation, my mother would start out the trip by drawing my older sister and me each a paper doll. We rode miles drawing, coloring and cutting out clothes for our dolls. That was my first exposure to designing and creating any kind of doll.
In the mid-fifties, my grandmother worked at a toy wholesale house and actually pulled Barbie from the trash. Her boss said that no one would buy a doll that had a body of a grown woman and had thrown them away! She convinced him to order twelve. She was an amazing seamstress and was enamoured with the detail of those original Barbie clothes. I believe her love of the doll and influence of her incredible sewing skills are at the root of my dollmaking.
Although I majored in painting at Drake University, I have dabbled in everything from basket weaving to quilting. I had a cottage industry called 'Maiden Harvest" in the 80's where a good friend (Vicki Hudgens) and I made and wholesaled corn husk dolls and flowers to over 200 stores across the country.
In 2004, I attended a workshop taught by Akira Blount and discovered that creating art dolls was exactly what I had been working toward.
Katelyn Jo Belieu
Tullula
.
Patron member .
Sophie's Muse
About the pieces on this page:
The back side of Tullula showing the layers of tulle that became the
influence for her name
Sophie's Muse
Inspiration from the Sea
Above is my precious little
grand-daughter who passed away from SIDS on May 14, 2008.
She lived for 84 days.
Art Dolls by Cindee Moyer
