Artist on Display at the Black Bear Winery

Stevi T

The artist behind these whimsical characters, Stevi T, developed her creative talents while nurturing her three young children at home. After creating a rag doll for her daughter Kristen, Stevi T began her career. Spirited and striving to be different, she launched her own line of soft sculpture gnomes and elves.

Stevi's one-of-a-kind fantasy characters are direct sculpted Cernit or they may be "Needle Felted" using Alpaca fiber. The dolls are poseable with wire armatures wrapped with polyfill. Each with their own personalities, many with a mythical lineage, they are adorned with vintage or hand dyed fabrics, trims and beads or accented with the richness of natural materials. Several of these natural materials include feathers, furs, wings and leaves. These enchanting dolls are sold both privately by the artist and through galleries of doll art. Commissions are always welcome.

Stevi T has been featured locally and nationally. Several articles have appeared in newspapers throughout the New York tri-state area praising her artistic ability. Her talents have led to several guest appearances on "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee" and pictures of her work have been included in Contemporary Doll Collector, Dolls, and Doll Reader.

Linda Kays

Linda Kays Studios offer unique hand sculptured artist dolls ranging from Santas, Elves, and Gnomes to everyday elder characters, celebritries, and Fantasy pieces.

Each doll starts out by hand sculpturing using a polymer clay or plastiline clay. The artist spends a great deal of time to bring out the character's personality in the facial features. Glass eyes and natural wool fleeces and furs are used in combination to get the characters desired look.

The bodies are constructed by using a wire armature for the skeleton, and wrapping and stuffing with batting and fiberfil. A body stocking made from stretchable fabric is then sewn to cover the entire body.

If the doll is to be reproduced in resin or silicone, the artist makes a silicone mold of the original sculptured piece. Then a resin cast is poured and cured under pressure. Linda Kays Studios only produces low edition sizes to keep up the value of each piece. Every portion of the doll making process is artist produced.

Linda Kays Studios also supplies a casting service to the artist. She creates molds, and reproduction pieces from the artist's original sculpture, wood carving, or proto-type, so that the artist can take their creation to a new level.