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They sit around the table having tea in their Sunday best, hair perfectly groomed, smiles fixed on their faces. A baby sits in a highchair but never needs anything to eat or a diaper change, although she gets plenty of attention from visitors.
They are the creations of Ellen Sherman of Simi Valley, doll artist extraordinaire. The dolls can be seen in little settings throughout her Victorian-style house. One wears glasses and sits quietly reading a book, another holds a teacup daintily in her lap (Sherman also made the cup and saucer).
She currently has about 20 dolls in her collection, ranging from a tiny 1-inch baby to a 3-foot adult. She has been working in the art of porcelain and ceramics for 25 years.
A girlfriend made dolls as a hobby, then started teaching doll making in her home and Sherman was intrigued.
"I decided to make one for my mother," she said. She ended up making a whole dollhouse family: a tiny baby, brother and sister, mother and father and even grandparents.
"When I first did it, I was just going to make one doll," Sherman said. "Then it was two and then I was hooked. My mother got addicted, too, and it was my father who bought us the first kiln."
The first dolls she made were from existing molds. She took a sculpture class at Kennedy Adult Education in the San Fernando Valley, followed by numerous workshops in specialty topics like painting features.
In 1982 she formed a company, Ellen's Dolls, with eight employees. They made about 30 to 40 dolls a month. "I had three kilns and had them going at all times," she said.
Kilns can be tricky and one time a rod in a kiln tube assembly went out, destroying all the dolls being fired, right at the beginning of the busy holiday season.
"When a rod goes out it fries everything," Sherman said. "What a horrible thing you open the kiln and everything is ruined six to eight weeks of work!
"Stores wanted the dolls by November," she said. "But a lot of people came to my aid and we filled every order."
Her dolls consistently won awards and were sold in boutiques and galleries. When Reagan was president, four of her dolls were selected for an animated Christmas display at the White House.
About 14 years ago she started doing her own sculptures.
"People usually sculpt their children or themselves," she said. "That first sculpture did wind up looking like my daughter."
After making a mold and letting it dry, you pour in liquid porcelain, wait a few minutes and pour it back out, Sherman explained. "You have the shell left."
After removing the porcelain slip from the mold, you clean the seams, cut the eyes and mouth and sculpt teeth and then let it dry for three days. The first firing is at 2,500 degrees for 10 to 12 hours. That is followed by more firings after each application of paint.
"You can do up to four firings," Sherman said. She also designs the costumes the dolls wear.
More devastating for Sherman than the kiln disaster was the earthquake of 1994. She lost more than 100 of her dolls and a third of all her molds.
"People were coming to the house to see the damage," she said. "I couldn't even stay inside the first couple of weeks. I lived in my van."
Sherman closed the studio last May, although she still repairs dolls. Now she teaches doll making and other ceramics through Simi Valley Adult Education. No experience is required to take the classes, she said.
"It's open to beginning to advanced levels," she said. It takes about a month to make a doll and students can expect to finish two or three in a semester, she said.
"Every doll is basically one of a kind because no two artists finish everything the same," she said. "It fulfills that instinct to create. Women doing dolls, it's almost like creating a person."
The class meets from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday at the Simi Valley Senior Center, 3900 Avenida Simi. The next class begins Wednesday and continues until late January. The cost ranges from $35 to $50 for the semester, depending on the number of days attended. For more information, call Sherman at 52163.
Area artists interested in being profiled in this section may contact Nicole D'Amore at ArtProfiles@adelphia.net or 405-0364.
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