About
the artist
- Delois grew up on a family farm with
many brothers and sisters. She always loved dolls as a child and
every year at Christmas, she would get a new
doll to love. She had a hard time protecting her new babies from her
brothers who were not as gentle as she was and, unfortunately she no
longer has any of her childhood dolls.
-
- A few years ago, a friend brought a
collectible doll in to work for everyone to see and Delois was amazed
to realize that grownups could play with dolls too. Her friend
told her about porcelain doll making classes and her enthusiasm took off.
She signed up for classes and started making her own dolls the very
next week. Now her workshop is always humming with
creative activity and she is one of the most prolific doll artists
around.
-
- Delois' first dark skinned ethnic
dolls were made using dark brown or tan porcelain slip colors but she
felt she was not getting a true depiction of the various tones in
African Americans' complexions. She studied people's faces, the
underlying tones, the changes of color in the palms of their hands and
the creases in their skin. She began experimenting with lighter
colors of porcelain slip, and building the skin tones with multiple
washes using numerous shades of brown china paints. Her efforts paid
off with beautiful, more lifelike dolls.
-
- One day, while displaying her dolls at
a large Doll and Teddy Bear show in Massachusetts, a well known
artist, who had written several articles for Doll
Crafter Magazine, spotted Delois' dolls. Soon after she was
contacted by the editor of Doll
Crafter about writing an article on her ethnic painting
method. She reluctantly accepted the challenge and her article
appeared in the April 2002 issue of Doll
Crafter Magazine, a popular publication in the doll making world.
Contact
Information:
- DeloisPowers@aol.com
- 1670 Sixteen Section Road
- Starkville, MS 39759
- 662-323-6443
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