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Publication Date: Friday, September 13, 2002

Famous folk art dolls born right here in Pleasanton

Nicol Sayre often warns her family: Don't use the oven, I have some heads baking.

In her comfortable home off Valley Trails, she creates her folk art dolls, which she dresses in period costumes made from antique fabrics. Since a story on her appeared in the October-November issue of "Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion" last year, orders are pouring in from all over the country, turning her home into a workshop for the handcrafted dolls.

"Since the article came out, it has been overwhelming," said Sayre last week. She was also busy preparing for tomorrow's show at American Harvest on Main Street, where she has long been selling her creations.

An upstairs room in her home is devoted to her doll making, with her sewing machine and ironing board ready for action. An open closet holds stacks of antique cloth found at flea markets, and hanging baby dresses of yesteryear, which she cherishes for their worn patches where the baby's knees would rub when they crawled.

"I love French linen sheets and old wool baby blankets," she said, rubbing her fingertips along the soft fabrics. "The homespun look is what I like."

Shelves hold old photographs and bowls of odds and ends, such as glittery bits of tinsel, popular in the Victorian era. She said she gets inspiration for her dolls from old books and photographs.

"Stuff like this thrills me," she said, nodding at miniature antique coin purses, little shoes, trinkets and knickknacks, much from the mid to late 1800s. "I find it absolutely fascinating."

On one high shelf rested half a dozen dolls, faces painted, waiting to be dressed. They may look alike, she noted, but closer inspection reveals that each is different.

"My dolls are pretty primitive," she said. "Some are pretty. Some are not. Sometimes they look sad. If they look annoyed I sand them down and paint them over."

In the end all of them have appeal, she added. She studies each one's face, looking for her story, and then decides how to dress her. A tag on each doll tells the history of its dress and accessories. She finishes many of the hems by hand because that's what mothers did in the 1800s when they were making dresses for their little girls' dolls.

"It's so fun with Nicol's pieces," said Sharon Mattern, owner of American Harvest. "Each one is truly unique. Her dolls are the fastest selling."

Sayre's mother, who lives in Valley Springs, makes the bodies of the dolls. She sews fabric from damask tablecloths into the body form and stuffs them tightly with cotton, weighting them with sand so they will be able to sit. Nicol sculpts the heads, forearms and feet out of papier-m‰chŽ, then carefully dries them in a slow oven. Then she wires them on to the body at the joints, paints the faces and ages them with glaze to give an antique look.

She places some of her dolls on top of old-fashioned round candy boxes, which she covers with antique music paper or pages from yellowed old books. She also makes little cardboard "theaters" that hold the top half of a doll, perhaps with wings and a crown.

"What's so fun is that I can make them whatever I want," she said. She also creates vintage pincushions out of antique baby shoes.

Her mother was a dressmaker and restored antique clothing, and Nicol, now 40, made her first doll at age 8. "I used to draw dresses all the time," she said, "with bows and hoop skirts."

"I read 'Little House on the Prairie' hundreds of times, so I'm not surprised that I'm doing this," she said. After high school, she studied fashion merchandizing at Chabot College.

When her daughters - Amanda, 16, and Katrina, 13 - were first born, she began to explore her interest in crafts, making dried flower wreathes and other gift items while they were napping. She also became acquainted with the world of arts, crafts and antiques as she sold her goods at shows and shops in the area.

"When both kids were in school, I started a pattern company," she recalled, drafting the patterns of the cloth dolls she'd been making. The kits were popular, she said, but when her partner moved on, she went back into creating finished dolls.

"At holiday time, I got into making Santas, which slowly evolved into dolls," she said. "I've evolved quite a lot."

"She did one spectacular Santa, the size of a 2-year-old, on an antique sled holding a sack of antique toys," recalled Sharon Mattern. "It took up one whole section of our window at American Harvest, and was gone within a week, for $650."

Sayre laughed to recall that particular Santa, which she assembled in her living room. "The dog went crazy," she recalled. "He barked and barked."

This year Sayre went to a wholesale show in Ohio in August where she sold her 50 dolls in the first half-hour. "Everybody was so complimentary and wonderful," she said. She has also been accepted into a February show in Pennsylvania called the Gallery of American Craftsmen, a huge honor.

"All of my dolls are one of a kind," she said. "I tried custom orders but when someone asked for something specific, my 'picture' and theirs might not be the same. I do better when it comes out of me."

She said she is in negotiations with a big gift company to design a line of papier-m‰chŽ figures that would be manufactured. "That would give everybody the opportunity to have one of my dolls," she said. Her handmade creations sell anywhere from $50 to $800, so mostly serious collectors purchase them.

Nicol (Freymann) Sayre moved to Pleasanton in the 1970s and attended Lydiksen Elementary, Wells Middle and Foothill High School. Her daughters now go to Hart Middle and Foothill. "I love the fact that my kids are going to the same school," she said. She still works with old high school friends, one who does her Web site, NicolSayre.com.

She walks with her husband Phil at 5:30 each morning for 45 minutes, which gives them the time to exercise - and to talk to each other, since she often works late into the night. Her family is very patient with her, she said. "They enjoy that I'm happy."

Her new problem - her goal - is finding more workspace.

"I paint and sculpt in the kitchen," she said. "My computer and copy machine are in the dining room." When she prepares from 50 to 100 dolls for a show, they are seated all over the house, from the studio to the living room.

"The problem has been making enough dolls rather than selling them," said Sayre.
Meet the artist

American Harvest, 438 Main St., which features antiques, primitives and folk art, is presenting a day with doll artist Nicol Sayre from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 14. She will be previewing her fall and holiday folk art creations, and it will be a chance for collectors to meet and talk with Sayre, considered by many to be one of the best new American doll artists.

"It will be a wonderful, relaxing kind of intimate time for collectors and artists," said Sharon Mattern, owner of the shop. Call 485-1577.