I was raised on the shores of eastern Long Island and went to college on the plateaus

 of western New York State, where I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1976.

 When I made my first doll, I wasn’t actually at school- I was at home during a summer

 break.  There were no teachers around or classmates to compare myself with- there

 was no critique or grade.

  I made a ballerina doll using my mother’s sewing machine. The doll I made was for

 myself, as a response to a longing inside of myself -for the first time in art school

 something meaningful to me had surfaced.

  It was a doll who showed me the way art comes- the way we are moved from within to

 express ourselves- how we reach out for whatever materials may be available to bring a

 vision to manifestation. 

That doll’s presence in my life moved me to create an Independent Study in Toy and

 Doll Making in my senior year, where I became familiar with soft-sculpture techniques.

Four years later, I came in to Galveston, Texas, on the Galveston/Bolivar Ferry, was

 completely charmed by the ferryboat ride and applied for a job as a deckhand.

My friends were the old “salt of the earth” men I worked with.  (You can see them

 reflected in my “Ancient One” dolls.) They encouraged me repeatedly to do what I

 really loved to do- so I bought a sewing machine and started making dolls again.

These were the first Wee Peeple Dolls. My first show was in 1980 at the Galvez Mall in

 Galveston, where I sold 32 dolls and declared myself- in business.

Twenty-nine years later I’m still in the doll-making business. I’ve made over eight

 thousand soft sculpture dolls, each one different from all the others. 

The dolls have evolved with my own evolving Intentions- I want my dolls to help people-

 I expect that of them- so if and when they do, it's like a fulfilled destiny-  a job they

 are supposed to do.

  A friend recently said to me:

 “You don't create dolls.  You create art that just happens to be in doll form. 

Your dolls "talk" to people and can best be described as guides to whatever a person

 needs to know or experience at the time they are brought together.

That’s the true test of great art,

the emotional reaction people experience by looking at it.”     

   My Intention is to serve humanity through doing what I love to do,

may my talents and efforts be ever aligned with that purpose.

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hee hee........

now for the Whole Story....

The Dollmaker's True Story

(also published in the September 2008 Wee Peeple Newsletter)

Once upon a time, a wayward little Dollmaker, (who at that time might have vaguely

 suspected that she was- but didn't actually know she was- a Dollmaker yet,) found

 herself living in the wild and wooley coastal village of Galveston, an Island resort. She

 mostly consorted with gruff but friendly old fishermen and ferrymen- who never could

 figure out how she had bluffed her way into getting a job as a deckhand on a ferryboat,

 and though they all shook their heads in disbelief, these "rough types" accepted her

 presence after a while, and regarded her as one of them (more or less) with raunchy

 good humor and unmerciful teasing.

Well, it wasn't just that the uniform fit her badly- both too tight and too baggy... it was

 just real obvious and others kind of politely noticed it too... that she just seemed out of

 place...kind of ...clueless... Her jovial old fishermen buddies would say- What are YOU

 doing here? You have a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree! You're an idiot!

Always kidding around! They were quite a bunch of characters!

All this encouragement got her to thinking, though. Doll-making. hmmm. Back in college,

 she had really taken a fancy to Doll-making... she wondered... hmmm... maybe she should

 buy a sewing machine... maybe make another Doll... maybe make lots of Dolls... maybe

 she could even sell them...

Wow.

That was in 1980. 

***************************

So the little Dollmaker did buy the sewing machine and did make a bunch of dolls, and

 she did sell them, and one day, tearfully waving farewell to her dear old comrades at

 the ferry, and armed with 32 dolls she had made from scrap fabrics, she set her little

 boat adrift on the much wilder Seas of her Dollmaking Career.

It wasn't long after she quit her job at the ferry before she REALLY felt like an idiot

 because being a Doll-maker was kicking her butt! It was not really that easy to just go

 out and sell dolls. But, though the rising and receding Seas of her Dollmaking Career

 often left her little ship high in the dunes, the Dollmaker was not to be swayed from

 her course. She now had a new bunch of friends... the Flea-Marketeers! These buddies

 were hip to the selling scene. The Dollmaker was taken under wing. They were a jovial

 group. They would say, "What are YOU doing here? The Flea Market is no place for

 dolls like that! You're an idiot!"

The poor confused Dollmaker, who never took a business course in college.

What was she to do?

Her new friends knew exactly what she should do, and they told her-

"You need to be in the Texas Renaissance Festival!"

The Dollmaker, not being from around those parts,

had never heard of a Renaissance Festival.

That was in 1983.

*******************************

However, once again, the humble (clueless) Dollmaker did listen to the sage advice of

 her friends who knew so much more about what she was doing than she did.

She applied to the Texas Renaissance Festival. 

She was told that there was a stern and powerful King- 

one King George- who ruled over his Kingdom with great discrimination-

(that is more or less what she was told), and in those days the King himself presided

 over the Application Procedure... so it was with fear and trembling that the little

 Dollmaker arrived to present her dolls to the King.

That day, now 30 years ago, the great King gave a nod, and one of the most important

decisions of the Dollmaker's life was made- she was now officially a participant in

(even then, the biggest Renaissance Festival in the country)...

the  Texas Renaissance Festival.

The only problem- 

she still had no idea what a Renaissance Festival was!

She had never heard of one, much less attended one.

Joyce, the craft coordinator at the time, gave her a location (an "Arbor Area"),

and a set of rules, which included- wear a costume.

Wear a costume. Right. What kind of costume? 

Well, that was easy- the dolls were magical, so- she and her husband dressed up like

 Wizards. Wizards? Yes, Wizards.

They went to the Halloween section of Walmart and bought big black witch hats

and decorated them with astrological symbols (in gold and silver glitter paint!),

and the Dollmaker made them a set of long flowing black robes- matching of course.

They looked positively ludicrous, but, bless their hearts, they didn't know it.

The fact is, all these 30 years later, the Dollmaker still cringes when she recalls

that during an interview with Texas Highways Magazine, she invited the Interviewers

to come and take pictures of her at her new location at the Texas Renaissance Festival,

 which the writer thought would make excellent copy; and the happy photographer

 snapped lots of pictures of those hideous black outfits and worse yet- published one of

 them! (See the December 1983 article published in Texas Highways Magazine

of the Dollmaker in her black astrologically symbolic witch hat! oh groan!).

That year the Dollmaker made new friends- her fellow merchants in her neighborhood,

 who jovially suggested, "You might want to dress like a shopkeeper,

you look like an idiot!"

She aquired a green leather vest from Lewd Lloyd that year, to the relief of everyone in

 the neighborhood, and she and her husband built a shoppe the following year.

There was one good memory of those "Wizard costumes" that first year though, as the

 Dollmaker fondly remembers: It was the day that Real Musgrave, Hap Hendrickson, and

 Don White (all of whom were also dressed like Wizards!) cordially invited the

 Dollmaker and her husband, who qualified, as Wizards, to join their newly formed

All-Wizards Kazoo Marching Band 

and march in the parade playing

"We're off to See the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz" on kazoos. 

(What a bunch of characters!) 

In fact, that was the first of a long series of memorably bizarre occurrences at the

 Texas Renaissance Festival, most of which the Dollmaker would, at best, not print, and

 at worst, flat- out deny. In spite of all that, and to this day, the Dollmaker is still

 having a jolly time participating in the Texas Renaissance Festival and will happily

 attempt to serve you should you wander into her little Doll Shoppe there.

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 Homepage

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Other Contact Information

  Phone Kandra:   512-332-6680      

  Write:   PO Box 326   Smithville, Tx. 78957

  Email:   BigKandra

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02/13