Aubrey Meeks of Meeksdoll creates distinctive BJD heads for 70cm boy bodies. She released Murphy last summer, and has recently opened a pre-order for her new head Lazlo. A third head, Vano, will be available soon.
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Q: Can you tell me a bit about yourself? I see you went to FIT. Were you always artistic? Were you first interested in fashion? How did you become interested in dolls?
A: I was always artistic. I’m sure everyone says that. But, one of my earliest memories is of being young and my mom asking why I don’t draw pictures anymore. I remember her saying I used to draw her pictures all the time and she missed it. We had a big drawer by the computer with office supplies and also markers and crayons and I went right to it and drew a new picture for her and haven’t stopped making things since then.
I wasn’t ever really interested in fashion unless it came to character design. The name of my University is a bit misleading. The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a New York State University for art now. You can study anything from fashion design to interior design to communications design to packaging design, to Fine Art, which is what I studied. I got my BFA in Fine Art with a focus on Painting and Sculpture and a minor in the history of art.
I always loved dolls. Always. I collected dolls, sure, American Girl Dolls and such. But I always wished I could have a boy doll. Not an action figure but a boy doll.
I tried to make cloth dolls when I was younger a few times over the course of my childhood. I remember having to do a project on the renaissance and I made dolls to show the fashion portion of the project. By the time I got to college, I was lost in my sculpture class and thought about making dolls for my final project. I didn’t know what BJDs were at the time but I made a conceptual piece about the way people fall in love, and tried my best to sculpt some dolls. Most of the ones I made were cloth again or sculpted figurines.
Finally, an acquaintance randomly told me my drawing style would be great for BJDs. Seeing that changed everything. I felt like I had found the perfect doll medium.
I joined Den of Angels immediately and bought a BJD sculpting book. I thought I should actually join the hobby before I tried to make a doll and I’m glad I made that decision.
So here I am, loving this hobby and shelling my characters, but now loving even more that I can now sculpt my own characters for that extra personal touch.
Q: So are the heads all representative of certain characters of yours, correct? When I saw your first and then the latest sculpts,I thought “interesting characters!” Are they representative of certain characters of yours or did they come about more organically during the sculpting process?
A: Oh my goodness yes absolutely. Thank you!
So the five-year plan is to get full sets in the works. I want to work with other artists in the hobby to get my characters together and offer them as full-sets. I used to think the only real medium to get my characters and story out into the world was in book form, but I don’t think I have the skillset to be a writer. But dolls, visual art, that I can do. That’s my medium. I have a rebel gang of witches and supernatural vigilantes so once I sculpt my core cast of characters, I can keep going with characters who can come and go into the group with their own personal stories to tell. Storytelling is very important to me.
Q: How do you create your prototypes? Are they computer-designed or hand-sculpted? If by hand, what materials do you use?
A: I do a bit of both. I love 3D sculpting. To me, it feels like sketching. So like a sketch, once I print the model, I don’t feel like it’s finished. I think dolls with perfect symmetry are beautiful, but for my personal style, I like to do a bit of work by hand to give them the personality I see for the character in my head.
Q: Are you planning on creating a doll body?
A: Oh yes! I’m working on three bodies at the moment, all in various stages. The first I sculpted in 2017 I believe and printed then as well, but I put him away to work on heads first. And then recently I started sketching another and working on a new torso for another by hand. But 2019 is my year of the doll bodies sculpting-wise because I’d love to work towards that full-set goal.
Q: What have been some of your inspirations for your dolls?
A: Personality. My inspirations are always the characters that I’m sitting down to sculpt. My main goal is always to bring my characters to life.
I like to start projects out thinking of the personality of the character and let it inspire how I sculpt the planes of the face. That actually doesn’t just apply to faces. I believe that bodies convey character just as much as face sculpt. I always keep personality in mind when hybridising dolls, and so it’s become something very important to my sculpting. I don’t make the prettiest dolls. My guys aren’t going to win beauty contests I don’t think, but I try to give them just a little something when you look at them.
Q: You have released boy heads so far, are you planning to add a girl?
A: I actually have two finished girls, Harlow and Amelia. I have about seven guys all at varying stages of completion. It is true I’ve only released two male sculpts, Murphy and Lazlo. I plan on releasing Vano next and then Harlow though, so yes, girls are in the future for Meeksdoll.
All the sculpts I think that will be released this year should have been featured on my Instagram at least once. Though I am a little forgetful and tend to post more on my personal account when I finish a sculpt.
Q: Do you have plans to work in other sizes?
A: Maybe. I do have a few friends who ask for some sculpts as MSD-sized. It’s not my natural instinct to make smaller dolls because I do personally prefer larger ones, but I do think it might be fun to make some mature MSD-sized dolls.
Q: Do you have other people working with you?
A: Nope, it’s just me. I sculpt the dolls, do all the sanding and priming, designed my logo and packaging and the whole brand identity. I made the website, run the social media, all that fun stuff.
I do however of course have a caster to whom I send my prototypes. Also my main promo pictures are all dolls painted by Lachlana Light and photographed by Ana C. Santos. I’m lucky to have them. Lachlana Light gives my guys the rockstar treatment and Ana C. Santos photographs real life rock stars so it’s a real privilege to have her photograph my dolls. I’m lucky to have good friends in this hobby. Cucudollfashion and AbsintheDreamsbjd also contributed to face-ups and photography on the Lazlo preorder.
Ideally, when I start making full-set dolls, I’d like to support and work with artists in the hobby. I have commissioned a lot of them over the years and I think there are a few people I’d like to work with professionals to produce a really unique full-set doll. So it’s just me right now, but I have big plans for the next few years.
Q: Is there anything you want to add that I haven’t asked? Also, when will the next head is shown on your site be released?
A: So I do have an open preorder right now for Lazlo which is open until February 15 and I plan on opening the Vano preorder for the beginning of March via Meeksdoll.com
I think that’s it. Thank you so much for approaching me to do this! The questions were really fun.
Lazlo may be pre-ordered until February 15th.
Photos above from top: Murphy head, Lazlo head
Links:
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Gallery: Click on a photo to view
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