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"A lifetime passion for dolls has led Kaye Keene from doll making hobbyist to a professional doll maker with a reputation for quality cloth dolls, suitable both as collectors items and cherished playmates for children."

Like many doll makers, Kaye was drawn to the craft by a fascination with porcelain dolls and the desire to try her own hand at making them. Her friend Betty Turnbull from Queenstown proved a good teacher. Kaye soon mastered the techniques and made a wide range of dolls, most of which she still keeps in her personal collection.

"I loved making porcelain dolls" says Kaye "and I still make a few each year to keep my skills up and to satisfy commissions I get from time to time.
But I wanted to make dolls that I could give to my grandchildren to play with, not ones they could only look at from afar".

In 1992 Kaye went to classes to learn the art of making the Swiss "Glorex" style doll. With the appearance of a porcelain doll it is a soft-bodied doll with a hand painted face of fabric on a plastic mask. Using the "Glorex" face styles on her own body designs Kaye has created her own "Gloria and Friends" range. These are popular with collectors as they fit well in with a collection of porcelain dolls and as playmates for older children.

The demand for a doll that could also be a regular playmate for children still needed to be satisfied! With no models to work from, Kaye found a picture in an old book of her mother's. Using it as a guide she set about designing her own unique face and body patterns to create "doll children" that were both cute to look at and rugged enough sustain regular handling.

"When I was a child I spent hours with my dolls. They were my best friends and I took them everywhere I went. I loved dressing and undressing them, changing their outfits to suit the fantasy we were playing out. Wear and tear was an inevitable consequence".

"I needed a strong body and a virtually indestructible face that would wear well for years," said Kaye. "After experimentation with many fabrics I now use a strong cotton knit specially dyed to a warm skin colour. Both body and head are machine sewn and firm stuffed with fibre fill. I embroider and needle sculpt the faces to give them each their own individuality and live expression".

The result is a doll that can be machine washed and dried several times without losing its shape or colour. Although the design is both simple and traditional they were popular and sold well. Now made in several different designs and always beautifully dressed the dolls resemble rich little rag dolls from which the name of Kaye's business was born.

Kaye's love of fabrics and dressmaking has been redirected from clothing her four children, now all adults and living away from home, to wardrobes of clothes for her doll creations. Here too, quality is the prime consideration.
"Original designs that can be machine washed at least twelve times and still come up looking like new are the criteria I apply".

In six short years Kaye has developed her art from a spare time hobby to a full time occupation as a professional doll maker with an international reputation for originality and excellence. Working on her own to produce her unique collection, Kaye now makes more than 500 dolls a year for clients all over the world.

Each doll is quite unique in the colour of its hair, eyes and dress. It would be difficult to find two dolls exactly alike.

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