In 1981 Alice purchased a refrigerator magnet of a little old lady. The face was made of nylon. Alice studied the creation and decided she too could sculpt faces from nylon and polyfil. She began experimenting with stitch lengths, placement, and sequence and was able to form different forms and expressions.
In 1984 she bought a pattern written by Judy Mahlstedt for a little baby doll/puppet. The first time Alice showed the little puppet/doll she made from the pattern to others, she received orders for 8 more. So began her journey as a professional doll-maker. She made the doll and sold them for the next 2 decades. During this time, not being satisfied to only create from someone else's patterns, Alice continued to experiment and with form, materials, and began to design figures of her own. She sculpted heads as small as a grape as well as adult-size heads, and many sizes in between. She entered juried fine arts and craft shows and won accolades and ribbons for her creations. Even tough the bodies of her dolls have in themselves great personality; Alice's favorite things to create are faces. Around her studio and home, one will view baskets of heads she has sculpted waiting for bodies to be designed for them. To more quickly give these heads a place to belong, Alice began creating what she calls "people-wreaths" -- a wall art of an occupational or other theme person. Always being fascinated with the stories the lines in the faces of the elderly tell, Alice has strived to create such faces in her "dolls. She desires that the faces of her dolls will relate a story of life and adventure to viewers. Her own favorite works are ones with plenty of detail, wrinkles and character. Continually striving to push her talent into more expressive works, Alice has begun working in various other mediums, including papier mache', polymer clay, and air dry clay. Her desire is for her dolls to represent real people that will, within any minute, seem to begin telling wonderful stories. The mediums may vary, but the expressions, the signature of Alice's work, compel a feeling a familiarity with the "people" she has created. Hearing viewers exclaim "Oh my, I know her!" gives Alice the joy of knowing her goal has been realized.
