 SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER --
Doll making is an evolving art.
by Susanna Oroyan, NIADA Artist
The guiding principle of a "good doll" is, and always has been, the figure designed and executed in all parts to the maximum possible for that controlling idea. For example, if the controlling idea is "little girl in a party dress" has the sculpture, finish, costume design, and construction been done as carefully and completely as possible? For any doll we have to add the phrase "for its time." For older dolls and secondary market figures, the time factor is key.
Why? Doll making is an evolving art. It is always building on what went before, changing, and improving. Doll makers learn new techniques, experiment, and make design changes all the time. We are eed to new materials, methods and styles all the time. Above all, we are usually people who are self-challenged. We like to solve new problems. Therefore, what we do in one year is likely to be very different from what we did last year or ten years prior. When you put that together with the number of people making dolls, the picture of the doll world product in one decade is radically different from the product of the next. How does this relate to NIADA work? When a person goes through the Standards process and is elected to membership it is because the Standards Committee and membership at that time feel that the work they see has achieved its maximum  potential at that time. A person whose work qualified for election to membership in 1980 did work that was considered to be the best work possible in 1980. When you buy a NIADA doll made in 1980, you buy a time capsule representing the best of that year. Much early NIADA work seems - perhaps a good word would be juvenile by contemporary standards and tastes. It is. Remember, doll making builds on what is available at the time. When the artists first gathered to create this organization, the doll world they saw was composed of play dolls and costume figures. Construction methods were what they found or figured out from very basic traditional forms of carved wood, ceramic, wax, or wire and cloth. Little instructional material of value existed, classes were virtually not existent. Few of the early artists even had art training. Is not going too far to say that the artists of the 1960s pretty much created the foundations of modern art doll making. They did the best they could with what they had. And they were able to make dolls that were the art of the doll in their time. Successive makers added, varied, and developed. What took me a decade to learn in the  1970s, (because it was being invented) is now possible to learn in a year or less with a multitude of classes, Internet, and publications to provide good information. The unstated, but strong, feeling is that all NIADA artists will and should continue to evolve. A member elected in 1980 is expected to improve his work as long as he remains an active member. Consciously or unconsciously, most of us do. Some artists make technical changes like going from one medium to another. Some make stylistic changes like going from children to adults, from realistic to abstract. Some may not change either, but will change by making increasingly stronger statements. Some changes are minute, others are radical. Either way, in my observation no artist in NIADA more than 10 years is doing the same work he or she did when they were elected. None of us is static. So, when you buy a NIADA piece, you have the opportunity to have a piece that represents a slice of time or a stylistic trend, in the artist's creative life. In the art world, this is referred to as "period." You might have a piece representative of Oroyan's fairytale period or her Mulliner period or her Empress of the Universe period. You might have a piece representing Lichtenfels' street people or you might have one representing her Shamans. You might have an Akira needle sculpted piece or you might have a painted piece. You have a piece of history. -- SO
PHOTOS
TOP: Empress Expectant, c. 1996, paper clay
MIDDLE: Evolving Spinning Gold, c. 1982, polymer clay
BOTTOM: Ms. Millicent Mulliner, c. 1990, polymer clay
Photo Credit: Don Smith
MORE TO CONSIDER
If in 1965 10 NIADA artists each produced ten dolls = 100. If in 1986 30 NIADA artists produced an average of 5 dolls a year = 150 (based on 1986 artist survey). If in 1996 50 NIADA artists produced an average of 5 dolls a year = 200. So in any average year we could say that NIADA production total would not exceed 150. Therefore in 35 NIADA years the total amount of NIADA dolls in world is not more than 5,250. Ten percent (500 dolls) is probably still in the hands of the artists or their families. Twenty percent (1000 dolls) is probably in the hands of active NIADA patrons. If NIADA artists quit producing tomorrow, and if 100 people bought just one doll per year, the available supply of NIADA work would be gone in less than 50 years. In the area of one-of-a-kind or limited editions, totally artist made pieces, I can be considered a major producer and I have only produced about 130 NIADA dolls in 18 years. Seven dolls a year. Discounting the ones I kept or donated, I probably only put 90 into the market. A few people have done 10 to 15 pieces a year, but more people do 3 or 4 pieces a year. So, the total number of NIADA artist works is probably considerably less than 5,000. For about $60,000 you could have bought one nice piece from each artist in the NIADA sales room in 1999. NIADA dolls are a rare good buy...and likely to remain so. -- SO
NIADA ARTFORM is a publication for and about NIADA members, patrons and friends of the National Institute of American Doll Artists, a world-wide doll art organization. Each issue features articles about NIADA art dolls and historical and contemporary perspectives of doll art, the practical applications of doll art, networking opportunities, information and resources for learning and change within the NIADA and greater doll art community.
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