(Marianna Nardin)

Dolls Delightfully Outside the Box

by Pam North

Born in Venice, Italy, Marianna Nardin always was a very creative child. “I remember that I loved sewing clothes for my dolls, and making furniture from old cardboard boxes for my doll house,” she reminisced. “I painted and drew all day, and sometimes crafted wool dolls with my grandmother. Art and creativity always have been in my heart.” Her early life served to guide her to the craft she now pursues - creating themed dolls that follow main holidays like Christmas, Easter, and, as she shared, “My favorite holiday is Halloween, as you probably could guess from the spooky nature of my characters. The walls in my studio are decorated with a Halloween theme all year around!”
Nardin’s early passion for art, especially for sculpture, culminated in her studying art and fashion design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, learning different techniques of painting, sculpting, and sewing, and she became a fashion designer. She started her dolls when she was still a student living and studying in Venice. “I remember passing in front of these fantastic shops full of handmade masks and puppets; they inspired me, and I always was trying to create similar pieces for myself.”
She migrated to London, England in 2001, and there she had her own small fashion business, Blackmirror Design. She designed and sewed tailor-made alternative-style clothes with a Victorian flair, which she sold online through Etsy. “ I worked full-time as an independent fashion designer, and my clothing line sold all over the world. My doll making didn’t become a profession until 2012. When I started selling my first dolls on Etsy, I was still working on my fashion business.”
Nardin’s first doll creations were inspired by fairies, trolls, and gnomes. Over the years she admired many talented artists online, and became passionate about art dolls, eventually experimenting with paper clay, and creating her first dolls for her own private collection.
A few years ago Nardin decided to create a new line of art dolls, At first her doll creation was a spare time activity, but it quickly turned into a full-time occupation. “I had started making dolls as a hobby, but the passion for sculpture became stronger, and I had to make the decision to make the leap totally into the world of art dolls.” She created The Circus of Lost Dolls website in 2016 as her online shop, and also sold her dolls on her Etsy shop. She quit her fashion design to work on her dolls full-time.
It was in London that she met and married her also-Italian-born husband. They moved to the United States from the UK in 2017, so now Nardin has brought her unique talents here. Nardin and her husband live in Georgia with their two cats and a dog. They love animals, and are proud vegans.
The pieces Nardin creates are unique, one-of-a-kind, and limited. They conjure up images of wondrous storybook and fantasy characters like those that that inhabited our minds from childhood, each with its own unique look and quirky personality. “My inspiration can come from different sources such as movies, locations, or directly from materials such as fabrics. One of my best selling characters are the Moons, which were inspired by the tarot decks that I collect. Some of my latest works are inspired by historical events or characters, or by novels such as Alice in Wonderland.”
Her creations have evolved over the years. “The more I create, the more I want to change my style or experiment with new materials and techniques,” she elaborated. “Every new piece I make is different from the previous one. I am very meticulous, I always want to improve and change the look of my creations; I want them to be unique and always different from each other, because in each one of them there is artistic, technical, and personal life evolution. People change over the years, and so does my art. There are many factors that influence my work: my state of mind, the environment that surrounds me. I am often inspired to create something new just by observing the world around me.”
“Everything about creating a doll is very challenging and takes time,” she continued, “Especially if the doll has many details on the sculpt, costume, and hair style. Working with paper clay is a complex process composed of multiple steps requiring a lot of patience.”
She uses air-dry paper clay. “Some dolls are completely sculpted, while others are mixed media, created with fabric. “It depends on the type of character I want to create at that moment,” she explained. “Some of my dolls have a cloth body, with sculpted head and limbs; some have internal metal wire armatures. Some are part clay-sculpted and part soft-sculpted with wool. For bodies and hair styles, I use the needle-felting technique.”
She recently experimented with new techniques to build and paint bodies in a more realistic style. The bodies of her dolls now are articulated with joints. The armature is created in cotton cloth, wool, or metal to allow movement in the arms and legs. She adds a wooden ball at each joint, creating knees and elbows. The hands are carved in paper clay, then sewn into a small hole at the end of the fabric section, allowing them to move also. Her new painting technique is using oil colors with a sponge rather than a brush, which imparts a more realistic effect once the face has been painted and left to dry. Nuances are generated with brushed pastel colors.
The future/direction of artist-made collectibles is of concern to her. “Handmade is becoming more and more sought after, but it is becoming much less widespread because it is overwhelmed by mass productions and 3D printing. Luckily there are still many collectors who appreciate and buy only handmade. I don't think collectors are decreasing; indeed there are many young people who prefer and try to buy unique creations. It is a niche industry, and I do not see it becoming mainstream in the future, but that is exactly what makes it fascinating.”
As for what's next for Nardin and her creations, at the moment she’s busy working on a new collection for the Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween art show, which will take place in Marshall, Michigan on September 25. 2021, and where, she says, “I am looking forward to meeting fellow artists and art doll collectors.”

Contact Information:
Name: Marianna Nardin
Business name: The Circus of Lost Dolls
Email:  mariannanardin76@gmail.com
Websites: https://www.thecircusoflostdolls.com,
 https://www.etsy.com/shop/thecircusoflostdolls
Instagram: https://www.thecircusoflostdolls.com/instagram
Address: 2930 Commonwealth Cir. - Alpharetta, GA 30004
Telephone: (404) 940-3590