Kimberly Lasher Biography

Kimberly Lasher has been an artist as long as she can remember. She was always drawing, painting, sewing or crocheting little blankets for her Barbie’s. Making dolls was just something she did from a very young age. When she first saw a one of a kind polymer doll she knew that was what she had to do. Formally trained as an illustrator and graphic designer, her career path changed when she pursued her love of doll making. In 1990 an artist representative in Chicago, saw some of her dolls and took her, along with several other of his artists, to Toy Fair in New York City. Her Victorian and turn of the century dolls and faeries, sold out in 30 minutes and she had orders to keep her busy for the next year!

She has been published in Dolls Magazine and Contemporary Doll Collector and has won awards over the years for doll making. Her dolls and fairies are collected by well-known Hollywood celebrities and have been shown in many galleries and stores throughout the country and in Paris. She took a 10-year hiatus in the late 90's to work in advertising and web design, but then while being at home with her first baby, she picked up the clay again and from that moment on, hasn’t stopped. Whether sculpting babies, or little girls, the thought of the next "perfect" doll always calls to her.  She feels very blessed to be able to work from home and be with her children... all while she plays with dolls.

Her sculpting and “obsession” took an interesting turn in 2008, when she saw an Asian BJD in person. She was fascinated with the detailed jointing and amazed at the pose ability. It was something she always missed doing with her one of a kind dolls. When she was done sculpting them she always wanted to play with their pose, to hold a doll, or seat them on a chair. She purchased her first BJD for that very same reason… to “play” with her. She was thrilled to have a doll that she could dress, buy different outfits, shoes, hats for. It brought her back to playing with her Barbie dolls as a child, where she had all kinds of furniture and settings for them.  

She sees her new line of dolls not as BJDs first, but as an art-doll that you can pose and dress. The faces and bodies are still Kimberly’s style; really the only difference is that one can actually play with these art dolls! This new line from her will all be very limited editions; all will come dressed in their own unique outfit, custom designed for each individual doll. All will be hand painted and assembled by her in her studio.

Kimberly says that BJDs have been around and widely popular in the Asian market for many years and says it will be interesting to see how American doll collectors may start to gravitate toward the BJDs as these types of dolls become more and more available and affordable here in the United States.