All dolled up > Creation becomes collector’s item

Tudi Lynn is all dolled up in her light peach outfit and just waiting to be snapped up by a collector. The doll, designed by Mavis Snyder of Alexander, recently attracted national and international attention when it appeared in Doll Reader, a doll-collector’s magazine.

Tudi Lynn has an engaging smile that shows off her four tiny teeth and a little pink tongue that protrudes slightly from her mouth, giving the appearance of drooling.

“We have tried to make her as realistic as possible, and I think people are impressed with the real-life look,” Snyder said.

Several years ago, Snyder said, when she visited her mother-in-law in Michigan, she attended a doll making class with her and became hopelessly hooked on the process. “I was in love after that. … All it takes is just one doll sometimes,” she said.

In the past Snyder used existing doll molds, but this year it was her own creation that attracted national attention.

“She is my first original doll. I started with clay and sculpted her from pictures of my daughter who was less than a year old at the time,” Snyder said. Snyder’s daughter, Carol, after whom the doll was patterned, recently graduated from Calais High School. Snyder also has two sons, Dan, 16 and Matthew, 13.

Snyder, a native of Alexander who has a background in sketching, painting and sculpting, said she designed the first version of Tudi Lynn about two years ago.

“She was a smaller doll with closed fist and cloth legs. … She was cute, but I wanted a larger doll, and I wanted her to have porcelain legs,” she said.

Snyder described the doll-making process. She said that once the mold was created, porcelain was poured into it and left to set for five to 10 minutes.

“You pour out the excess, and what sticks is the actual green ware. The moisture goes into the plaster mold and that is what forms the porcelain. I fire them in my kilns. The first firing produces the bisque, or hard stage. That occurs at about 2,300-degree Fahrenheit, It takes anywhere from eight to 12 hours to get the nice bisque,” she said.

Once the material has been fired, seams caused by the molds are removed. “Any imperfections are removed and then we prepare the eyes. The eyes protrude like human eyes,” she said.

Snyder’s interest in doll making has spread to friends and family members. “My sister-in-law, Dana Dwelley, helps me. We call her my elf. My mother, Viola Dwelley, also helps,” she said.

The clothes for the doll are made by a neighbor, Theo McDonough. “I couldn’t do this without her,” she said.

Snyder and her helpers produce about five dolls a week. When it became instantly popular, the 50 dolls she had on hand sold within 1 1/2 weeks. Since it is a limited edition doll, only 250 will be produced. The collector dolls are signed and numbered. A collector doll can cost from $300 to $1,600.

The porcelain Tudi Lynn dolls have been sold to dealers and collectors. “The dealers who buy them are buying them for collectors. … Since I am a new doll artist they do not know me or the quality of my work, but when they see these in doll shops they have a better idea,” she said.

Snyder, who said she still was in shock over the overwhelming response to her doll, said she planned to have the molds reproduced by a Wisconsin company for sale to other doll makers.

“A number of doll makers called who want to make the doll in their shops for Christmas. These are reproduction molds. They will be a little smaller. … I have decided to go with the molds because I am a doll maker myself,” she said.

A second marketing strategy will be to manufacture vinyl reproductions. “Where there are 250 in the porcelain, you can sell several thousand each year in the vinyl, depending on the market. … The price is more reasonable for the average person and a little girl can play with it. There is a big demand for vinyl out there, and a lot of my callers ask when the doll will be released in vinyl,” she said.

In addition to her own design work, since 1982, Snyder also has taught doll making. She said that people from as far away as Bar Harbor and Bangor had heard about her work and had taken classes from her. “You’d be surprised at the number of people who like to make porcelain dolls,” she said.