Gillie was born in Adlington, England only one mile from where she lives now. She loves to travel and has visited many countries. She always returns to her home surrounded by countryside, fields and woods. She played in these woods as a child. The rest of her time was spent playing with and making dolls. She made dolls from all kinds of mediums including cloth, wood, paper mache and ceramic. She went to collage and studied fashion design. This experience came in handy for making doll's clothes.

Bio
When she first started making dolls, she made poured wax dolls,now she makes paperclay, porcelain and wax over porcelain in small editions and one of a kind. In 1979 she became a member of the British Doll Artist Association and in 1997 became a member of ODACA.

Gillie has tried many differen types of materials, always exploring the design possibilities of each until she has 'drained it dry'. Currently most f her work is in porcelain, wax-over porcelain or poured wax. Her favorite doll type is the portrait, which grew from sketched faces of the unknown glimpsed on a train or bus. she has done quite a few members of royalty and historical characters, concentrating on making them more life-like and posable.

Gillie has her own studio and teaches doll making. She has recieved many awards for her dolls and has made dolls for films and TV. The Queen Mother has one of her dolls in her private collection. The doll is of the Queen Mother at the age 5. Her creations come from anywhere at any time. Sometimes her ideas are created from looking at a piece of old lace or fabric.

Gillie is currently working on a series of Queens and Princesses on thrones and Renaissance influence romantic ladies. Another ongoing project is the doll making workshop set up in an orphanage in Romania, where many of the children have been rescued from living on the streets. The children's confidence is built up by being creative. All the sales from the dolls goes back into the orphanage.

Gillie was featured in the MArch/April issue of Dolls with her lovely lady dolls.