Update twigling confirms extended agreement with BatAss&Co to cast Artifex Kindred

Collectors of ball-jointed dolls by Madrid-based sculptor Reese Olsen, best known under the brand name twigling, can look forward to inspiring new developments this year. Thanks to the intensive cooperation of Marcos Lorenzo’s art studio BatAss&Co, the duo can now disclose that they are in the final stages of completing all remaining backlogged orders for her Artifex Kindred line. Patient, if somewhat careworn buyers, have been waiting for their custom-made dolls since the doll artist was forced to end working relations with a previous manufacturer due to uncontrollable cost increases during spring of 2022. The new collaborative partnership anticipate finalising all open orders by March 2024.

“It’s been a challenging but also very rewarding journey to get to this point,” asserts Reese “but since working with Marcos, I’m confident my sculpts are in the best possible hands. If anything, the team are even more perfectionist than myself, and have shown unwavering determination in finding solutions to every issue that has surfaced,” she continues.

BatAss&Co have had to climb a steep learning curve to make ball-jointed dolls to the high standards that collectors expect. Each stage of the artisanal production process requires close attention to detail. Everyone on the team have extensive prior experience within design, fine arts and engineering, and possess technical skills and sensibilities to fulfil the brief. Even so, it’s been necessary to unlearn and rethink certain habits and assumptions along the way, and almost two years passed before Marcos and Reese are now ready to announce their long-term plans for cooperation and formally introduce BatAss&Co to the BJD collecting public.

“Up until now, we have been laser-focused on casting Reese’s work. Opting to work exclusively with her has allowed us to adapt to the specific requirements for the finished output, and develop methodologies that streamline the production process, reduce margins of error and increase capacity, all without compromising on quality,” affirms Marcos. Making ball-jointed dolls is a manual craft operation, which in part is what makes it more like an art-form that has little to do with manufacture on a mass-industrial scale.

“Now that we can demonstrate the output of our efforts, we see potential for BatAss&Co to position itself as European casting foundry for BJD artists. We will continue to work with Reese, but can also consider taking on new clients that need our services.”

BJD collecting hobby has morphed a lot since it first began to expand into the occidental world as an obscure niche, and today the ability to prove the authenticity and provenance of an artists’ output is imperative. Production and sale of unauthorised copies undermine profit margins and integrity of original creators.

Marcos Lorenzo admits he is proud of what his art studio has achieved in the past couple of years. “Proposing to expand into casting ball-jointed dolls was the right move for us, and the opportunity to do so was, in all honestly, just as unexpected and timely for me as it was for Reese. We understand each other on a human level, and communicate openly to resolve what needs doing, when and by whom. I’m also a huge fan of what she makes, and could’t think of another BJD artist I would rather be working so closely with”.


As they now near the completion of inherited orders that BatAss&Co agreed to take over from twigling’s former casting provider, Marcos and his team are preparing to take what they have learned to the next level. While continuing to cast the Artifex Kindred, they also co-conspiring with Reese on a number of new collaborations and expansion into other materials, production methods and services, which will be announced gradually as testing sample-making gets underway.



Artifex Kindred can be preordered from Reese’s website twigling.com and aside from BatAss.Co, Marcos also maintains a showcase of his designer toy label Some Strange Things, which are originally brought these creative forces together back in 2014, making this Leap year the 10th anniversary of their artistic connection.



Reese Olsen [email protected]
Marcos Lorenzo [email protected]