Last Saturday, Sherwood Assisted Living in Sequim hosted the Olympic Peninsula Doll Club’s “Timeless Treasures,” an exhibit and sale of antique to modern dolls. Members of the club, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, have as intriguing and varied a background as the dolls they were sharing with the public.
Connie Holtz’s Japanese doll collection began while she spent a year in Japan in her position as a set-designer at Tokyo Disney Sea.
“We’re very close,” she said about the doll club. “We’re like sisters.”
Members of the doll club, whose mission is to celebrate and preserve the artistry and history of dolls as well as to gather with like-minded individuals, said that they had a good turnout, both from the public and residents, and that it was interesting to see which dolls various people gravitated toward.
The club meets once a month for a program about a specific doll or some aspect of collecting. It is part of a broader organization known as “The United Federation of Dolls,” and was founded in 1974 by Sandy Brehan, then a recent arrival from Seattle, and the now passed Dolly Creasey, who used to operate a doll repair shop in Carlsborg.
Christine Brehan, current president and child of founder Brehan, grew up in the club. She said that these days people with broken dolls go to Vicki Carlisle for restringing and restoration, who “learned at the feet of Dolly.”
Carlisle said that Dolly was excited by her interest and mentored her. She explained that she enjoys fixing the dolls but has no plans to open a repair shop herself.
Brehan drew much admiration for (a selection of) her collection of clothed miniature mannequins from the 1930s -50s. Christine explained that “stores that sold clothing would make up the mini clothes,” from patterns sent to them and “customers would look at a mannequin and order their size” of the outfit. Brehan uses the original patterns to make clothes for the mannequins.
Although the show exhibited dolls as old as 124 years, it also featured modern dolls that hearken back to other times, like Christine’s collection of “Orphan Train” dolls, which are individually named after some of the “200,000 poor, orphaned, and abandoned city children who were sent on trains to the Midwest from the East Coast between 1854 and 1929,” as “Orphan Train” author Christina Baker Kline described on her website. The dolls are handsculpted, each with their own face, by artist Elizabeth Cooper.
Anne Monday, who was a medical photographer for John Hopkins and a fashion design student, also displayed modern dolls called Gene (Marshall) dolls: a stylish 15.5” fashion doll with an early movie star background and a dazzling array of outfits, first marketed in 1995, designed by illustrator Mel Odom. Less than one-fourth of Monday’s collection filled one of the three rows of tables at the not-for-sale part of the exhibit, as she is an expert in the doll. Monday wrote and illustrated the book, “Gene: Dolls, Outfits and Accessories, 1995-2017,” a gorgeous and detailed hardback sold out in its second edition.
“She came home and said ‘I’ve got three dolls on layaway’,” said her husband, Mark, “and that’s how it began.”
The Olympic Peninsula Doll Club usually meets on the third Tuesday of the month; interested parties can contact Christine Brehan at ckb104@gmail.com.
A fraction of author Anne Monday’s collection of Gene dolls were on display at Sherwood Assisted Living Saturday as part of a show from the Olympic Peninsula Doll Club. Monday said that the Gene doll “really triggered people’s imaginations and creativity.” The lady in pink received a new face from artist Teri Norcia, who “really raised the bar on Gene repaints,” according to Monday.
A fraction of author Anne Monday’s collection of Gene dolls were on display at Sherwood Assisted Living Saturday as part of a show from the Olympic Peninsula Doll Club. Monday said that the Gene doll “really triggered people’s imaginations and creativity.” The lady in pink received a new face from artist Teri Norcia, who “really raised the bar on Gene repaints,” according to Monday.
Christine Brehan, left, current Olympic Peninsula Doll Club president, and Sandy Brehan, cofounder of the group, share some of Sandy’s collection of miniature mannequins dressed in clothes that she made from original 1930s-1950s patterns. The blue skirt suit on the left was made by another member. The Brehans shared some of their collections with visitors and residents of Sherwood Assisted Living on Saturday.
Christine Brehan’s collection of Orphan Train dolls, hand made by artist Elizabeth Cooper, were some of the dolls shared at the Olympic Peninsula Doll Club’s “Timeless Treasures” show at Sherwood Assisted Living on Saturday. The club is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Olympic Peninsula Doll Club member Connie Schulz stands with two fully apparelled dolls, part of her Japanese doll collection which she shared with this public last Saturday at Sherwood Assisted Living. Schulz was a set-designer for Disney stationed in Tokyo when she began her collection.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ During the Olympic Peninsula Doll Club’s “Timeless Treasures,” a resident of Sherwood Assisted Living (which hosted the event) admires an antique baby doll. She was one of many residents and visitors enjoying the trip into the past.
