Sephie Doll Shop is a company run by two artists, Mayte and Juan Luis from Spain. They create all of their dolls themselves by hand. Their new BJD Bambú is now available for pre-order.
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Q: What was the first BJD in your collection?
Mayte: My first BJD was a PukiPuki PongPong by Fairyland, I love tinies, and I hadn’t much space, so tiny was perfect for me, but my resin family is growing up and expanding little by little with our new creations, hehehe.
A: How did you become interested in making dolls?
Mayte: I’m a very happy and crazy person and I reflect this in my art, my dance and obviously in the dolls I like, but I realized that there are not many happy or smiling dolls, and I needed to make cheerful dolls, with a little chubby body like a kid. Juanlu supported my project when I talked about it, and he helped me a lot, so we studied along a year (everyday, even late at night) about joints, materials, providers, processes and about the hard work on the prototype and resin casting. Then it came the trial and error, hahaha. In this process we have been completely self-taught.
I’m allergic to all art materials, so Juanlu had the idea that it could be possible and cleaner to make our dolls with 3D software and 3D print the prototypes, so he used his great talent and years of experience in 3D to do my concept doll. Now he is my 3D teacher, too, but it’s inevitable that sometimes we have to use traditional modeling clay and paint.
We have artistic ambition and passion and this was a good opportunity to share this to make an artistic project together.
Q: Are there any other people involved with Sephie?
A: The two of us are the only people involved in Sephie Doll Shop, taking care of everything by ourselves: design (both dolls and clothes, but also graphic elements such as certificates, packaging, advertisements, photo shootings…), manufacturing, mold making, dolls make-up etc… It’s really a lot of work for two people, but we enjoy the whole process.
Q: Did you make any other dolls before Helianth?
A: No, we have made some sculptures before, traditional and 3D sculpted, but no ball jointed dolls.
Q:Do you have a specific concept behind Helianth and Bambu?
Mayte: Yes of course! We always have an idea and I draw it (until now, because it’s my cute style) and then, Juan Luis carries it out using Zbrush and we modify some details together along the way.
Juan Luis: The main idea behind our dolls is that they have to be charming and happy, and to transmit those sensations to their owners.
Q: What plans do you have to grow your company in the future?
A: We want to increase the custom order options, and make different sizes of dolls. Also, in the last few months, we have been working on new resin colors to offer a wider range of possibilities that will be available at our shop once we are 100% happy with the result. We want to give the best quality to our customers from the beginning of any product.
Juan Luis: As I am also interested in fantasy creatures design, we may, in the future, increase our concepts to this field, but maybe under another brand name.
Q: Are you working on a new doll now?
A: Yes! we are developing a tiny doll (16 cm) that we want to release next summer. We will be showing our progress as soon as we have something more definitive, and we think you will like her/him.
Photo above: Illustration of Helianth and Bambú.
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From the artists:
Helianth:
Bambú:
