Sara L. Wilson
A doll is more than a plaything for doll maker, Wendy Luann Barber.
“All of my dolls right now are collectors items,” she says. “When I first started making them I made play dolls, but not anymore. I guess I got tired of it because I couldn’t get the detail that I wanted.”
Wendy has been making cloth dolls for more than twenty years, but recently she’s been exploring a new medium: needle felting.
“It’s been around awhile, but it’s just now finding its groove,” she says of the process, which involves repeatedly poking an old steel-mill needle up and down into a pile of wool to compact and create shape.
Wendy, who started making dolls around the age of eight, can turn out a doll in about two days flat. From the bodice to the clothing to the painted-on face, her creations are influenced partly by her costuming and design degree, and partly by her imagination.
“I’ve always had a very good imagination; I love fantasy and SciFi,” she says. But what she loves most about making dolls?: “The artistic part of it; being creative; taking a flat piece of fabric and making something [people] recognize,” Wendy says. “When people ask me what I do, they automatically think ‘play dolls,’ but when I whip out a picture they say ‘that’s not a doll, that’s art.’”
Wendy’s dolls are decked out for Halloween at Hampton House Art and Framing this month. Stop by for the artist’s reception on October 6, 5:30–7:30 pm.
