Hi, my name is Marika Spijkers. I was born on november 2 1970 in Den Bosch, the Netherlands.

One of my biggest hobbies is making dolls. The drawings of Brian Froud, who was the creative mind of movies like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, inspired me. I was also inspired by the puppets, dolls and sculptures of themepark The Efteling in Holland.

At the age of 19 I came in contact with paperclay and made my first fantasydoll. After a while I discovered Puppen-Fimo, a polymer clay. This clay was just perfect for me. But they changed the formula and it became really soft and unfortunately with a lot of moonies. These days I prefer Prosculpt and Sculpey Livingdoll, sometimes I still use airdrying clay, it depends on the project. Each kind of modelling material has its own qualities. I really enjoy making fantasydolls like fairies, trolls, but also characterdolls and other kinds.

There were a lot of questions about giving classes, so back in 1994 I gave it a try. It was a success, I ended up giving classes for about 7 years.

I am a self-taught, so I had to learn it the hard way. With the help of instruction books by Dutch doll artist Ria Odijk, I struggled my way through learning all kind of sculpting techniques. I'm still trying to improve my work; I'm not easily satisfied. My dolls are all sculpted by hand and one-of-a-kind, no molds used.

Because of Fibromyalgia with serious neckproblems, I would have to give up on a lot of things including sculpting. For me that was just not an option so I carried on despite the pain, it's still quite a struggle but now and then new creations will reach the gallery. ;-)

If you have any questions or comments please send me an email ! I can also be reached at Facebook, Hyves, DeviantArt and Twitter. Don't forget to sign my guestbook, I really like to know what you think. :-)

Some of my other interests are: computers, internet, games, webdesign, blogging, photography & video, reading (Dan Simmons/Stephen King/Dean R.Koontz, Catherine Duval -Dutch-), astronomie, music, my dogs (sadly they passed away) and my cats Tootsie and Bibi.