Kathryn Belzer lives with her husband, Ed, and a host of other creatures, on a small, mixed, horse-powered farm in the Musquodoboit Valley of Nova Scotia. There is a house visible from one of her farmhouse windows. Other than that, the neighborhood is fairly quiet.

Kathryn has made a career of shoveling out house and barn in pursuit of sustainable domestic and agricultural practices. Her idea of a good time is being with friends of various species, children, grandchildren, other kinfolk, or all alone in the studio.

Kathryn’s main paid employment has been as a patternmaker for theatre, film, touring, and reenactment companies. Dollmaking has been a life-long passion. The empty nest, and Ed’s 1995 retirement from an off-farm job, have fostered a greater concentration on studio work, dollmaking, and teaching.

In 1996, after Kathryn constructed a number of life-size figures and a couple of larger-than-life puppets in the livingroom, Ed began to yard out logs for a detached studio.

In the fall of 1998, Kathryn moved into the new studio space in what used to be a harness shed, and hasn’t stopped smiling since.