Katya Tal grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, and studied at the Institute for Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. For many years her primary specialization was illustration and theater costume design.
After moving to the US, she continued taking on projects in character design and children's book illustration, but ultimately she moved into sculpting, to her true passion: art dolls.
In the last few years, Katya has focused exclusively on dolls. Her pieces have been displayed in galleries focusing on fantasy art.
Each piece has a "scene" that accompanies the main sculpture, giving the doll a context and deeper life. Through dolls, she is able to morph her greatest passions: sculpting a fantasy character, designing a unique theatrical costume, and creating an enchanting story. Katya's work brings out the "inner-child," seeking to find both a sense of escape and fantasy.
In addition to creating and sculpting original characters, Katya is skilled in:
1. Designing and fabricating costumes
2. Proficient in embroidery techniques, including Haute couture embroidery with glass beads, sequins, chenille thread, feathers, stones, and canitel as well as Luneville embroidery.
3. Designing and creating original puppets out of wool using dry felting techniques.
4. Creating silk flowers in the "Somabana" technique
5. Molding and casting