I have always been a maker and designer. I was a costume, set and lighting designer in theater and a production designer in independent film. After I had my daughter in 1999, I wanted to work in a field that was more compatible with being a stay-at-home parent, so I became a writer and doll maker, at last finding the artist within the designer.

My daughter's passion for all things doll led me into the world of art dolls. She was a little girly girl, and she and I shared many happy times playing, dressing and reimagining her play dolls. She is also a doll collector.

It was her idea to call my business Iggy Jingles, after an imaginary character I had started sketching. Iggy Jingles is a fun loving gal who likes whacky, colorful hairstyles, dangly earrings, stripes, dots and mixed patterns, makeup and has a zest for life and fun.

Most of my dolls are cloth dolls, made from my own patterns. Most of the fabrics I use were given to me by my mother-in-law from her extensive collection of textiles she gathered in her world travels in the 1960's and '70's. She had a passion for India, and I have gained from her love of screen and block printed cottons and her secret stash of fantastic Indian Musk essential oil.

I love mixing beads and materials, recycling and re-purposing, mixing new and vintage and hand dyeing or hand painting to customize the final results.

My store started in 2008, when I realized that I had a lot of dolls living inside me, waiting to come out. Now I make cloth dolls in several sizes, polymer clay and wire-frame dolls, and assorted other mixed media figurative sculpture, as well as textile art pieces as the spirit moves me. I wrote The Top 5 Questions People Ask Me About My Dolls - which you can read on my blog: http://iggyjingles.blogspot.com/2012/04/top-5-questions-people-ask-me-about-my.html

People also ask me what my dolls are for, how to use them. I wrote the long answer here: http://www.iggyjingles.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-use-my-dolls.html
but the summary is: "They are decorative objects to beautify your environment and inspire loving thoughts."

My workspace is messy, crowded and eclectic. Actually the size is insufficient. You can read about my ongoing decluttering journey - making room for creativity and clarity - on my Making, Mothering, Musing blog: http://robyncoburn.blogspot.com

In my process I start with color. I look at the Pantone color trend reports, and also look for holes in my inventory, because people like different colors, and I want to be able to offer something that every visitor will like. Sometimes I'm inspired by beads or charms.

I make the doll bodies, and then I paint a bunch of faces. I match the faces to the bodies, then choose the beads that will work. I do the skirts and charms next. The hair, which gives the dolls a spark of life, goes on last. My daughter, who has an amazing eye for color combinations, often chooses the yarns for their hair.

I also have a Cafe Press store where I sell tees and stuff with hand drawn graphics and sayings in Latin or something like it.