THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502160126
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
In the darkness, with a doll nestled in the crook of her arm, many a little girl has fallen asleep whispering her secrets.
``Kitty hurt his paw. The dark is scary, isn't it? Tomorrow Uncle Tom's coming and Mommy's going to visit Nana because she's sick. The dark is too dark!''
The doll hears all and never tells. She's a cherished companion.
The love of dolls never leaves a woman. For anyone who has forgotten, all they have to do is take the peaceful journey down a long country road to an old schoolhouse built of heart pine. There in the heart of Stumpy Point is the Village Dollworks.
Inside the very walls where 52-year-old dollmaker Linda Barbee learned her ABC's - and where her father also went to school - is a room now filled with porcelain ``babies'' ready to awaken hidden memories of youth and innocence.
Barbee has been making porcelain dolls from scratch for the last 12 years. In wooden cases, her babies peek out from behind antique glass: Victorian-style Melissa dressed in black velvet, satin and lace complete with petticoats, stockings and shoes; Emily with one tooth; Granny with bunions on her feet; and Joey with a flannel shirt and a fishing pole.
Barbee has molds for 50 doll styles. Some finished dolls are totally porcelain with as many as 12 movable joints; others have soft stuffed bodies and porcelain heads. Antique reproductions have felt tongues and hand-set porcelain teeth.
Dolls of all ages and eras, races and hair colors, with freckled faces, sleepy or wide eyes and parted, pursed or puckered lips wait to be held.
Lined on the shelves like prizes at a fair are plain, porcelain, eyeless heads ready for painted brows, lips or rosy cheeks. Small plastic packages filled with shoes, eyes and wigs hang in rows on the wall.
Arms, legs and heads lie on a bed of sand in a small kiln. The heat will turn the powdery fragile porcelain into a toy tough enough to withstand the reckless play of a child.
Groups of women come to Village Dollworks to create their own fantasy baby. Perhaps it will be a gift for a daughter or granddaughter, but more often than not it is for them.
``Right before Christmas it is usually for a child, but most of the time it's the ladies doing it for themselves,'' Barbee said. ``Some ladies that come have made 20 dolls. Grandparents had to do `baby' babies in the christening gowns and all the stages of their grandchildren's life. Everyone that comes in wants one that looks like their child.''
Women come to class with photographs, hoping to match hair and eye color. Familiar expressions can be created by altering the molded head, lowering the bottom lip and using paint to create expression in the eyes. The eyes can be set, each differently so they don't stare straight ahead like most toy store models.
One woman brought in an old picture of her sister so Barbee's seamstress, Sheryl Hooper, could copy the clothing of that time. Hooper makes the cloth bodies, arms and legs. The bodies are weighted to feel like a real baby.
Hooper can create just about any style clothing imaginable, with or without a pattern. ``She has a real talent, a real talent,'' Barbee said.
All details of the dolls' clothing are tended to with care. They can have petticoats and panties, stockings and hats, dresses and coats. Newborns may be wearing a child's original christening suit.
Making the doll is a two-day process. Barbee pours and fires all the porcelain pieces before the class arrives. The women choose their doll style, then begin sanding away seams on the porcelain heads, arms and legs.
The heads are swabbed with baby oil. It gives the porcelain a satin finish and allows the paint to flow smoothly. ``Then they start smelling like babies,'' Barbee said, smiling.
During the two-day period the women talk, eat lunch served by Barbee's husband and make many decisions. Hair is chosen and styled, eye colors are mixed. Eyeless heads spring to life as brows are painted and lips receive color from tiny brushes.
Babies begin to resemble favorite sisters, firstborns, sons, grandfathers and friends. The dolls are fired a second time, then Barbee sets the eyes. The women return. Hair is styled and real eyelashes are applied.
``We have a hair dresser usually in the shop making a doll, and they cut and style and play,'' Barbee said. ``It is adults playing dolls.''
Hidden just under the hairline at the base of the head, a special message is inscribed: To so-and-so, love so-and-so, happy birthday or merry Christmas. ``I sign mine from Nan and Poppa,'' Barbee said.
Barbee's daughters were already grown when she began her dollmaking, but she has two granddaughters, age 4 and 6, who love the shop.
``My grandchildren were raised here,'' Barbee said. ``They've gone in and play and paint. They were very careful. `Nan,' the girls would say, 'we want all your dolls.' ''
And, of course, they do own many.
``They call them their specials and they just guard them when other children come to play,'' Barbee said.
Folks up and down the East Coast have visited Village Dollworks. Linda Barbee has probably made, helped make and sold more dolls than the population of Stumpy Point.
Just think, nestled in beds in Maryland, West Virginia, Florida, and North Carolina are sleepy-eyed girls hugging their specials, and sharing their secrets. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
Linda Barbee makes her porcelain dolls in a 1920's converted school
house where she attended first grade.
KEYWORDS: DOLLMAKER by CNB