Adrie Stoete

Interview by

MacPherson Arts & Crafts

1. Where are you from and where do you live now?
I grew up in Amsterdam and live now in a small vilage on the other side of the country, (You drive through our country in 4 hours lol) not that far.

2. Have you always been interested in dolls?
I have always played with dolls, as long as I remember.

3. When did you first become interested in sculpting?
In 1991 because of a lady in our neighborhood saw me walking with the dog every day, she thought I was lonely and asked me to join her dollsculpting class, lonely lol, my husband and I had a shop, 3 kids, a dog and 6 cats, I was glad to get away with the dog and walk in the park.

4. How did you first encounter reborn dolls?
I heard about reborns about 15 years ago, someone told me that there were people who painted dolls of others, like Ashton Drake dolls and sold them as artdolls, we thought it was very weird.

5. Have you sculpted dolls from the time you started sculpting, or
did you start off with something else?
I started on the dollcourse with girldolls.

6. How long have you been sculpting?
From 1991

7. What medium do you use to sculpt your babies with?
I sculpt with polymer clay.

8. What inspires & motivates you to sculpt?
My love for babies.

9. Do you sculpt full time & do you have other hobbies?
I sculpt when I feel like it, also I love to decorate and style my house and garden and make a painting now and then.

10. Do you only sculpt for kit production or do you do custom ~
portrait orders too?
Nowadays only for kit production or fort he bin. Lol

11. When did your first kit come out and what was the baby's name?
My first kit was Saskia for DollDreams Linda Skivasky in 2006.

12. How many kits have you produced to date?
With Linda’s and Petra’s and my Adriesdolls there are/were 101 dollkits out, just found out that Ducklin was number 100. You can see them all in the group: All Doll Kits Ever Made, it’s up to date with producers and all. You can at all times use photo’s from my FB accounts.

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?
See question *12

14. Which baby of yours has been your all time favorite and why?
I don’t really have an all time favorite, I love the sculpting road to a new baby and later to see what everyone makes of the sculpt, some really amaze me.

15. Do you plan to continue sculpting babies for kits?
I hope so, it’s the thing I love best.

16. How do you feel about the reborn doll industry? What excites
you and what upsets you?
I love to see people work with mine and all the other sculpts, it really is an art to make the blanc kits to come alive, it’s exciting for me to see, what upsets me is the steeling that is going on, I can’t imagine how they can sleep at night knowing that they make money over other peoples back and steeling their work, even are so nasty to use the same name and proto pictures, it’s beyond me.

17. How do you feel about the progression of the art of reborning
over the past 10 years?
There is a lot of progression, if I see the rooting from a lot of reborners, my jaw drops often, in the early days they used wigs.

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 there can still be a future, there are soooo many people who don’t know nothing about these babies, a huge customers potention, I hope the bad ones who use fake kits will disappear though, there will always be people who love true art in any form, we all have keep doing our best, the next one always has to be better!

19.What are your plans and hopes for the future?
I don’t really have plans, maybe to make the ultimate beautiful baby haha.

20. Do you have something new in the works?
Only some new kits coming up.