The Art of Dolls

This article appeared in "The Artists & Their Creations," a special text edition of The Professional Doll Makers Art Guild in 1998:

Alla Bereshkova, Artist Member

Alla Bereshkova, a native of Russia, has always worked hard to pursue an education and find a rewarding career. As a result, she has Masters¦ degrees, one in economics and one in journalism, and was considered top of her profession in Russia. However, life often has many interesting twists, and four years ago Alla¦s life was dramatically altered.

In 1994 Alla arrived to the United States with her two children. Upon arrival, Alla became a homemaker, which she states were (dramatic changes for an extremely socially active, emancipated woman!÷

In comparison to her former lifestyle, Alla had a lot of time on her hands and spent day after day with her young daughter, Alina. Accordingly, it was Alina who introduced Alla to the world of dolls by asking her to make a rag doll.

The next step in her career was the mistaken purchase of a copy of Contemporary Doll Collector magazine (Alla thought it was a toy catalog that would entertain her daughter). Flipping through the pages of the magazine, All was enthralled; she had never seen such gorgeous dolls in her life. In the spring of 1995, Alla picked up a lump of SuperSculpy for the first time and created the face of her first doll. Oh, how wonderful it was- she only wished she could sculpt dolls 24 hours a day! As her passion for doll making increased, she admits, (My family was slowly starving to death on a diet of junk food and I forgot about cleaning my home and doing the laundry.÷

Soon Alla had made 25 one-of-a-kind, sculpted dolls. In 1996, the budding artist took part in her first competition, the Third Annual All Georgia Ceramic Craft and Doll Show. One of her dolls, (Jesus,÷ was awarded the blue ribbon for Best of Show. Three of her other dolls won second and third places. Alla was excited and shocked by the results of her first effort in a competition.

That same year, Alla was elected into The Professional Doll Makers Art Guild. Her dreams came true as she was recognized as an artist by her peers and was admitted into one of the most prestigious and original teams in doll making business and art.

Alla¦s future plans? To study and create more one-of-a-kind dolls. She is intrigued by the culture of the Old South as a subject, believing it to be reminiscent of the nostalgia of the forgotten culture of pre-revolution St. Petersburg, Russia. She is also very interested in the history of the United States and attracted to the strong, sometimes rough, characters of the people who first came to this land centuries ago.