Lilianne Breedveld

Interview by

MacPherson Arts & Crafts

1. Where are you from and where do you live now?
I’m from The Netherlands, I live in a very small village in the South of Netherland.

2. Have you always been interested in dolls?
Yes, as child I was always playing with dolls "baby dolls” I never were interested in barbies or other kind of dolls.

3. When did you first become interested in sculpting?
When I saw clay dolls at a doll show, never saw these real looking baby sculpts before.

4. How did you first encounter reborn dolls?
My first dealer (Petra’s doll fashion, sadly enough she passed a few years ago) She knitted my outfits for many years and she asked me to make sculpts for her to produce in vinyl. I never had interest in reborning vinyl kits as I’m totally addicted to sculpting.

5. Have you sculpted dolls from the time you started sculpting, or did you start off with something else?
No, only dolls.

6. How long have you been sculpting?
I started sculpting end 1999/2000, we are now 20 years further.

7. What medium do you use to sculpt your babies with?
I use a mix of Super Sculpy with Cernit

8. What inspires & motivates you to sculpt?
Babies, love the look of a innocent baby.

9. Do you sculpt full time & do you have other hobbies?
No that isn’t possible as I suffer too often with muscle and joint problems. I need regularly a break from sculpting.
My other love is my house and decorating and my grandchild. She will 4 in January she will then start kindergarten, but until then she’s here for 2 to 4 days a week when my daughter has to work.

10. Do you only sculpt for kit production or do you do custom ~ portrait orders too?
In the beginning years I did custom orders and a very few portrait orders but currently I only sculpt for vinyl kit production and for silicone kit edition.

11. When did your first kit come out and what was the baby's name?
Good question, I don’t know the year anymore. ‘9 or ’10 maybe earlier ?? Not sure about the year but the name was Noah if I’m correct.☺

12. How many kits have you produced to date?
19 kits till now , they were produced by 3 different dealers not by myself.

13. Do you have a list of names of all of your kits you have produced as we would love to have an archive directory for your sculpts?
Noah,Kylie-May,Suri,Ginger,Fynn,Nate &Nathalie,Baby,Nigel,Sammie,Chanel, Pebbles (Down S), Vince (Down S), Stina , Stella, Sanja, Smilla, Hadley and Remy

14. Which baby of yours has been your all time favorite and why?
There were a few sculpts. A toddler doll she was the only toddler I ever sculpted, after she was finished I did suffer so much with a shoulder inflammation that I wasn’t able to sculpt and had to take rest for about 10 weeks. So I will never forget her, too sad I will not be able to do a toddler size again. There are a few silicone kits who are my favorites too.They were reborned so beautiful that I’m really in love with them.

15. Do you plan to continue sculpting babies for kits?
If all goes well, I would like to continue for sure.

16. How do you feel about the reborn doll industry? What excites you and what upsets you?
If I’m honest I have to say I’m not very well known with the reborn world, because dealers did always the production of my kits and I don’t reborn vinyl kits myself so I’m not very into it. I know there’s a lot going on with fake kits, and think that’s very sad and too bad. Very frustrating for the doll community and artists and dealers as well.

17. How do you feel about the progression of the art of reborning over the past 10 years?
It’s getting better and better for sure, in the beginning there were a very few great reborn artist but now these days there are soo many good reborners which is a good thing!!

18. Do you think that this industry has a long term future or do you think its just a fad that will blow over?
I think as long as people love dolls this will never stop, and we know many people will always love dolls. I think since the vinyl kits came, more people became addicted to reborning. Not only as doll collector but now also do reborning as hobby.

19.What are your plans and hopes for the future?
I have no special plans for the future!! I just want to sculpt as long as possible and I’m very thankful and happy if I can share my work with collectors , dealers, everyone who likes them. Sculpting is now my work which started as a hobby. So I hope to be able to sculpt for many more years.

20. Do you have something new in the works?
We finished a very big house renovation of about 4 months. I will start very soon with sculpting again. Excited again!!