Garden City woman helps bring dolls to life

A hotel banquet room will be transformed into a massive doll house next week when the Manitoba Doll Club presents its Village of Dreams show and sale.

Marie Egnell, one of the organizers of the annual event, is expecting at least 55 tables displaying and selling everything from dolls and bears to antiques and supplies.

“There’s going to be a little bit of everything,” said Egnell, who lives in Garden City, “because this is our one and only big show of the year.”

The show will take place Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Canad Inns Polo Park, and will include a charity table to benefit the Children’s Wish Foundation.

Members of the club have donated 100 dolls and one stuffed dalmatian that will be on display at the table. Anyone who makes a donation will be entered in a draw, which will see all the donated items given away.

“We’re hoping to make as much money as we can,” Egnell said. “We’re doing this so some of the sick kids can go where they want to go and do what they want to do.”

Egnell has been organizing doll shows for years, and has been making her own dolls since the early-1980s.

She estimates she has made between 400 and 500 dolls, ranging in height from two inches to three feet, many of which she has sold.

“I’ve done pretty much everything by now,” she said. “I own about 200 of my own and over 30 antiques from the early 1900s.”

Egnell’s love of doll making has taken her to places near and far. She has done workshops throughout Manitoba and has attended shows in California and Minnesota.

“This really has kept me going since my husband died 19 years ago,” Egnell said. “I don’t know what else I would have done.”

Starting with an artist’s mold, Egnell creates the doll from porcelain clay. She painstakingly paints the various parts with four to six layers before putting them together with hooks or cloth. Then she adds the eyes and either paints on hair or adds a wig before dressing the finished product.

“The most challenging thing is painting the face,” she said. “It takes about 24 hours of work to make a doll from scratch.”

Egnell isn’t sure why there seems to be less interest in the world of dolls in recent years, but she hopes it isn’t a continuing trend. The Manitoba Doll Club used to hold two shows each year, but now there is only one.

The club is still active, with about 50 members attending meetings and activities and receiving its newsletter. Egnell is hoping people attend the show and consider becoming members.

“It’s a really great hobby,” she said. “Once I got hooked, I was hooked for life.”