We’re talking fashions and paper dolls with paper doll artist Brenda Sneathen Mattox. (Click here for Part One of the interview.)

How long now have you been making the paper dolls?

That first convention was in 1988 and I have considered myself a professional paper doll artist ever since. I have been selling my work by mail since 1989 and online since 1996. I have been a contributing editor to OPDAG’s newsletter since 1989 also, which has turned into more of a magazine now; it’s called OPDAG Studio News.

So, is this a full-time gig then?

I have been a full-time artist since 1990 and no, this is not the route you go if you want to make lots of money!

Describe the process of making a paper doll; what do you do?

After in idea comes and I decide to pursue it then there’s the research. I have a fairly extensive library and can usually find what I need, if not there’s the Internet. If I’m doing an actual person I must have good reference for their likeness and clothes they wore if possible.

The doll is done first, of course, sketched on tracing paper and then transferred via lightbox onto the art paper. I find it’s best to complete the doll, either in ink if B & W, or painted if in color, before doing anything with the costumes. Then I rough sketch the clothes on the tracing paper, this is mainly for determining where to place them on the page so there is room for big skirts, etc or for more than one outfit.

I refine the drawing on the finish paper and keep checking the fit on the doll via the lightbox. Believe it or not even after nearly 20 years at this, I’ll still find fit problems after the set is completed and have to go back and fix it.

(For more details, interested folks can visit here.)

About those black & white dolls… I didn’t want to interrupt the art lesson, but why are there black & white dolls?

Before color copiers and home computer printers, B&W paper dolls were the only ones that we could self-publish at reasonable cost and most of we artists started that way. Then there are some doll subjects that just don’t translate that well into color, brides for example as most of the costumes are white or shades thereof. Personally I like doing inkwork, it’s simpler and a change of pace from painting. And there are some collectors who like to color the B&W sets themselves.

As a designer, tell me, what’s the furthest you’ve gone, the hardest you’ve worked, to make that doll?

That’s a good one, I think the best is trying to sketch costumes from a paused video on a TV screen (before DVDs), or working from teeny, tiny grainy B&W photos… I attribute my having to wear glasses now to years of this!

How do you select which women to make as dolls? Do you focus on a particular period for the dolls?

This is a kind of hard to answer. Ideas can come from anywhere, I tend to view just about anything I see on TV or the movies or read about in paper doll possibilities. I don’t limit myself to a particular era, I just want the clothes to interesting to draw and paint. I love lots of detail and I have made myself crazy with it at times! As to selecting a historical figure for a paper doll, it has to be someone I admire — or am intrigued by and they had a varied wardrobe.

How many dolls are there in the collection?

Right now there are about 85 sets available on my website; though if you add in the books I’ve done for Dover Publishing, it comes to a little over 100.

How many are men?

I currently only have two sets that feature men but that will be changing. I used to dislike doing male figures as I could rarely get them to look truly masculine. However in the past couple of years (maybe it’s a mid-life thing) I have really been into the guys and if I do say so myself, they’ve vastly improved. I even created a mer-man paper doll!

Have you retired any paper dolls? And if you do retire dolls, what moves you to retire them?

I used to retire sets after they had been available a year or two or there had been a decided lack of interest. Now they are sent to the Archive on my website where they remain available indefinitely, but I don’t keep much stock and print only as needed. The Archive is exclusive to my site, these paper dolls are available nowhere else.

How many paper dolls do you own — your entire collection, not just those you make.

My collection is pretty modest compared to many. The vintage books fill one printer paper box, the contemporay books another box, and about 14 3-ring binders contain loose page paper dolls such as those by other artists. So it all still fits in the closet with some space to spare! I know people who have had to devote entire rooms to their collections!

That’s the same for all collectors — addictions are addictions, right? Based on your experience, why do people collect paper dolls? What’s this specific addiction all about?

That’s very subjective, but what I’ve observed is that just about everyone begins with “buying back” the sets they remember having as children (myself included).

Then it generally becomes more specialized such as babies or movie stars or even particular artists’ work. The latter is often very difficult with older commercial sets as they were rarely signed. For me I collect primarily other artists’ work and it is the costumes that appeal to me.

Who do you think buys/collects paper dolls more, men or women?

Traditionally women have been the big collectors, but I know of several men with extensive collections. I think more men have been getting interested in recent years though either with their wives or girlfriends or as artists.

One last question, Brenda, but it’s a doozey: What is your favorite doll that you’ve created?

Oh man that one’s really hard! I tend to regard my artwork as my “kids” so I don’t like to play favorites.

But Brenda, you must — I’m going to make you select just one…

I had to pick one from the current crop I’d say The Romantic Hero. *sigh*

Huh. I was expecting you to pick a bride paper doll. Just when I thought I had you all figured out!

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If you’re thinking of starting a paper doll collection, the OPDAG has a nice beginner’s guide to help you figure it all out.

As for figuring out the paper doll designers themselves, there’s no guide for that yet — you might say it’s hard to keep tabs on ‘em *wink*

All images © Brenda Sneathen Mattox and FancyEphemera.com

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Article Tags: Brenda Sneathen Mattox, Dover, fashion, OPDAG, paper dolls

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 6:07 am and is filed under interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.