Doll Doctor on Duty : Newhall shop has supplies for owners and collectors and will repair heirlooms and favorites.
“A birth! All right! You guys, we have a birth!” shouts Theresa Smith-Costin, owner of One Stop Doll Shop in Newhall. At her jubilant call, a dozen or so women put down the porcelain heads, paint palettes, tiny outfits and glass eyes they are working on. They congregate around the beaming “mom,” Jessica Parmann, 13, who is holding up the curly haired moppet she just completed.
“She’s so cute! She’s beautiful!” members of the group say admiringly before returning to their seats to continue their doll-making lesson.
Dolls are serious business for Smith-Costin, 37, a doll collector-turned-entrepreneur who describes herself as “just a big kid.” The former computer consultant opened her shop three years ago as a place where doll owners and collectors can find dolls and supplies and have an heirloom or favorite doll repaired.
Most aficionados seek her out for her popular doll-making classes. About 90 students, from ages 4 to 85, are enrolled. As “Mother Theresa” (as Smith-Costin is jokingly called by some students) hovers, novice doll makers practice every intricate step of the craft, from choosing a mold to shaping and painting tiny features on porcelain faces to attaching dimpled arms and legs to the trunk.
“Creativity--making the doll look the way you want it to look--is the emphasis,” Smith-Costin says. “It’s really fun when someone makes a mistake, then takes that mistake and creates around the flaw.”
The dolls in Smith-Costin’s shop reflect the creativity she treasures. Sometimes the results are a bit incongruous, as is the case with the pig doll whose snout perfectly matches its frilly pink dress. Another doll has three faces. One moment she is smiling, but with a twist of the neck she is crying. Twist her neck again, and voila! She is sleeping. The smallest doll is less than three inches high; the tallest stands five feet.
One student, Gail Rocco, a Valencia realtor, is making a baby-faced doll with a stuffed-bear body. The doll, a gift for Rocco’s 13-year-old son, who takes flying lessons, is smartly attired in a pilot’s jacket and aviator mask.
Another student, Angela Elmer of Newhall, is working on Romeo and Juliet dolls, and she plans to re-create the entire cast of “Les Miserables.” “I kind of live here,” she says of the doll shop.
Renee Telese of Saugus, a former food editor of a local newspaper and a regular in the classes, explains the powerful attraction of the quaint pastime. “It’s fun because I don’t have to deal with anybody except myself,” she says. “I am here in my own little world, and there is no right and no wrong in doll-making.”
The result of their efforts is not a mere plaything, but a real work of art, according to Smith-Costin. “These dolls are not toys,” she says. “They are gorgeous creations. They are decorator items.”
The dolls better be, considering the time and money involved in their creation. A student’s first doll usually takes several weeks and costs at least $200 to make, including supplies, tools, paint and clothing.
Some students attempt to recoup their expenses by selling completed dolls. But others have a hard time letting go. “You spend so much time with them that you get to know every little crease in their fingers and toes,” says Gail Thompson of Valencia, who takes classes with her daughter, Amber, 12. “They become such a part of you that you just don’t want to give them up.”
WHERE AND WHEN
* What: Classes in doll-making at One Stop Doll Shop, 22722 W. Lyons Ave., Newhall.
* Hours: Throughout the day, Mondays through Saturdays.
* Price: $5 per two-hour class.
* Call: (805) 259-8393.
