Kori Leppart

I started my doll-making career in 1997. I am self-taught, mostly learning my skills from books. My early work featured mostly miniature fantasy pieces and full-scale child dolls.

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I am now making BJDs (ball-jointed dolls) primarily. I still sculpt my dolls originally out of either polymer clay or an air-dry clay, like LaDoll. The polymer clay dolls I make I either make as OOAKs (Original One-Of-A-Kind) or I make silicone molds from those sculpts and then cast them as very limited edition resin BJDs.

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I am also making porcelain BJDs. These porcelain pieces are sculpted and cast in my studio. Sometimes I direct sculpt the porcelain rather than pouring the whole doll (from my original mold), so that each doll is still one-of-a-kind.

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Finally, the last type of doll that I make is sculpted of stone clay (like Ladoll) and then coated in gofun. Gofun is a Japanese technique, using ground oyster shell and a binder (usually an animal skin glue). The gofun is layered over the stone clay, and polished between the layers. This is a very time-consuming process and I rarely make more than one doll a year. The final doll looks something like a porcelain doll but has a much more matte finish like bisque. I tell people the doll's finish resembles an egg shell.

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I teach online classes and also live in my Montana studio year round.

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