Wendy Froud
Wendy Froud has been a doll maker since the age of five. As soon as she could bend a pipe cleaner and tape bits of fabric together she began to make the kind of dolls she couldn't buy. Dolls of centaurs and satyrs, unicorns and faeries, all to populated her childhood world. She continues to do so to this day.
Wendy worked as sculptor and puppet builder for Jim Henson for many years, primarily on the films THE DARK CRYSTAL, LABYRINTH and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. She sculpted "Jen" and "Kira" for THE DARK CRYSTAL and fabricated "Yoda" for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Other work for Jim Henson included THE MUPPET SHOW and THE MUPPET MOVIE. In addition to her film projects, Wendy has also made puppets for use in television commercials.
Wendy's dolls and figures are highly sought after and are in many prestigious collections around the world. She now devotes most of her time to making dolls and figures for exhibition and sale throughout the US and England. Her work has been featured in three books created with fantasy author Terri Windling: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S FAERY TALE, THE WINTER CHILD and THE FAERIES OF SPRING COTTAGE. Reproductions of her dolls have been created by Sideshow Collectibles.
Her first book, THE ART OF WENDY FROUD was published in 2006 by Imaginosis. Her latest book with Brian is THE HEART OF FAERIE, a book and card set was published by Abrams Books in 2010.
Wendy lives in Devon, England with her husband Brian Froud.
"I like to think of the figures I make as companions for a personal journey. I try to fill each one with healing energy that responds to the person who owns it, and conversely, I hope that the person who owns it will respond with a true heart connection. I feel that my work is a sign post to the half forgotten world that we all carry inside of us. When people look at my work, I want them to think "Oh, now I remember." If they do that then I know that they have been successful." - Wendy Froud
“I'm so involved in the process that sometimes at the end of a day, I can look at the piece on my desk and really wonder how it got there. At other times, I really have to struggle with a piece to turn it into what I had in mind. Sometimes, I give up and leave it half finished to work on something else. Then in a few days, when I come back to it, I can see what it wants to be... which sometimes is not at all what I had in mind. When I just let that happen, things seem to go more smoothly.”
“My mother used to read to me every night when I was little. We got through most of the major fantasy books of that time. The Narnia books by C.S. Lewis were my favorites and, later, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. I started making dolls to fill in the gaps of the dolls I had. Obviously we couldn't buy centaurs and fauns and elves and fairies, so I made them to play with the normal dolls I had. I must have been about six years old when I started making fantasy dolls.”
“I suppose I was artistic as a child. Our house was so full of art and artists that it never occurred to me not to be constantly making things. I just assumed that all kids liked to work with their hands as much as I did. I was an only child so I did have a lot of time to be creative by myself and with my parents.”
“People need to believe in more than what they see in everyday life. Somewhere inside, we all know that there is more out there than we experience normally. A belief in the other world can help explain why things happen to us. It can give us hope. I feel that we all hope we never get to be too old to fly to Never-Never Land or go through a wardrobe into Narnia. We want to think that there is something looking back at us when we look at the stars. We want to think that just around the bend in the forest, we'll find fairies dancing in a ring. I hope that my work affirms those beliefs," she continues. "I want people to think of my work as a key to that other world.”
“I like to think of the figures I make as companions for a personal journey. I try to fill each one with healing energy that responds to the person who owns it, and conversely, I hope that the person who owns it will respond with a true heart connection. I feel that my work is a sign post to the half forgotten world that we all carry inside of us. When people look at my work, I want them to think "Oh, now I remember." If they do that then I know that they have been successful.”