Linda Macario Lets Her Sculpts ‘Speak’ to Her

Italian-born artist Linda Macario started her professional dollmaking career in 1999, focusing on baby dolls and sculpting in polymer clay. By 2009, she’d begun creating ball-jointed dolls (BJDs) and explored many different mediums for creating her dolls, including air-dry clay, silicone, resin, and porcelain.

Now living in the U.S., Macario recently took time to speak to DOLLS magazine about her current projects and plans for the near future.

Work-in-progress photo of doll head and torso.

Work-in-progress photo of BJD torso in mold-making stage — Macario is preparing her new prototype BJD for casting in porcelain in a small limited edition. A resin edition will follow, with preorders starting later this year.

DOLLS: What projects are you currently working on?

Linda Macario: I’m working on a big project right now, a new BJD that will be reproduced first in porcelain, directly in my studio, in a limited edition of just five pieces. The same sculpt will be offered in resin, with preorder sales on my website around late October/November.

I will also have some of my customized resin dolls available at the BJDC convention in Austin, Texas, the last weekend of October.

Goldilocks is a 7.5-inch porcelain BJD painted using China paints, to make the colors permanent. This is number four of a special customized limited edition of six. She has green/blue silicon eyes, dress, straw hat, and Italian leather shoes.

Outfit for porcelain Goldilocks BJD. — Goldilocks is a 7.5-inch porcelain BJD painted using China paints, to make the colors permanent. This is number four of a special customized limited edition of six. She has green/blue silicon eyes, dress, straw hat, and Italian leather shoes.

DOLLS: What sorts of inspirations or themes do you draw on to create new designs?

Macario: I like to capture the innocence of children’s faces — many of my dolls represent young kids and toddlers. My new project is more about a young teenage girl, when you still see a glimpse of a child in the face of a young adult.

Pictures, movies, paintings, anything could spark the new idea for a doll. But is when the clay is modeled in my hands, that’s I see where I’m going, I like to keep an open mind through the process and change everything while I’m sculpting until the new face is ”speaking” to me, telling me that now it is ready for the molds.

In addition to dollmaking, Macario enjoys drawing and painting.

DOLLS: When you’re not working on your dolls, how do you like to spend your time?

Macario: Being a mother of teenagers, I spend most of my free time taking care of my family. But I also love to paint and draw, and of course there’s sewing for my dolls.

DOLLS: Is there anything else that you’d like to let our readers know about?

Macario: I want to thank my collectors for their support, it’s amazing how much it means to me to see them coming back to buy more of my dolls! I’m very grateful for all of them.

My goal is to create valuable pieces of art for collectors all around the world; I’m always available for any questions through my email and my website.