Hanna Goetz Biography

Since 1977 Hanna has been sculpting dolls.  Her timeless clay and wax one-of-a-kind works of art are beautifully unique. She not only sculpts a beautiful doll but first comes up with a concept and then tells you the story thru the expression and costuming of her dolls.  She is known to use simple props that allow the dolls to be open to interpretation.   Her clothing, described as ‘haute couture,’ is inspired by the 20^th Century fashion techniques of Madame Vionnet of Paris  She does not usually dress her dolls in current fashions.  Hanna’s dolls are made of high-fired clay with wax.  The bodies have a strong moveable skeleton with soft stuffing body.  She uses hand knotted human hair and mouth blown glass eyes.  Hanna starts with a sketch and then creates a wire armature for the intended position of her dolls.  Small bits of clay are attached to define bones and muscles.  As the clay hardens, finer surface details of the head, breast plate and limbs find definition.  Body parts are cut from the armature and a plaster cast of each piece is made.  Detail work is done on fluid clay that has been applied to the casts and dried.  After the first firing, the surface is smoothed with sand paper and features such as nails and detail lines are completed.  The second firing occurs and the pieces are dipped into a mixture of hot wax.  Face painting occurs next and the pieces are waxed again.  Some dolls bodies are made of linen that is stuffed and made flexible with a plastic armature.  Many bodies are made entirely of clay.