marina bychkova: doll sculpture

Marina Bychkova’s porcelain, ball jointed dolls are more than just dolls. They are sculptures, statements, haunting reminders that beauty takes on many different forms.

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Cinderella
carved sterling silver corset, shoes and hair ornaments,
Indian Sari skirt, natural silk fiber hair

Captain Nemo’s Daughter

The Vancouver artist was born in Russia and moved with her parents to Canada when she was 14 years old. She has been making dolls since the age of 6, passionate about creating dolls that bear no resemblance to the vanilla-bland mass produced dolls on the market.

Lolita
24k gold plated corset and bra, 24k plated bronze stilletos,
stockings and fan embroidered with applique designs,
pearls, Ruby and 24k gold plated beads

Her skills are impressive: sewing, beading, porcelain, silversmithing, painting, metal, construction – she also makes all of the doll accessories. Take your time on Bychkova’s website and discover a treasure trove of information about dolls, the process – which includes models and molds made from Super Sculpey – and a great tip for making the articulated joints pose perfectly.

For the Costumed collection, the artist makes each gown, a time consuming practice, considering that one takes between 150-350 hours to complete. She embroiders beads and gemstones into the gowns, making every costume a true masterpiece. In the Tattooed collection the porcelain is engraved with a needle while still raw and then china paint is rubbed into the grooves after the doll is fired, creating magnificent ‘tattoos’.

Anna Karenina Survives the Train

“I’m interested in juxtaposing binary opposites within my dolls: beauty and ugliness, love and violence, eroticism and repulsion.  Giving dolls attributes that are not traditionally associated with dolls, gives them an existence beyond the realm of toys to which they have been confined for centuries.”

Bychkova’s dolls range in price from $6,000 – $33,000.

Read an interview with the artist on Pop Culture of Destruction

Her Deviant Art page

More images on Flickr

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