Article by Marcia Darnell
Local Artists -April 2006 -Colorado Central Magazine
PEOPLE COME to the San Luis Valley from very different places and lives. Often the move to El Valle means a shift in latitude, a morph in altitude, and a radical revision of lifestyle.
Laura Lunsford was a radio personality on WCOA in Pensacola, Florida, soaking in coastal rays and local celebrity. Now, she and her second husband, Jerry, live outside Monte Vista, on 160 desert acres with goats, sheep, llamas, chickens, and dogs. What prompted such an extreme change?
“Elk,” she replies.
Jerry came to the Valley for the elk hunting and fell in love with the place. Laura joined him on a trip and likewise lost her heart. Their search for a vacation home turned into permanent settlement in 1997.
“People here are just so incredible,” Laura says. “They’re real friends.”
Laura describes herself as “retired,” but this warm, bubbly woman seems to have energy to burn. In addition to working and raising three kids in Florida, she taught silk ribbon embroidery and created papier mache sculptures. One day she picked up a magazine that featured a pattern for making a doll and decided to try it.
“By the time I got through I had three dolls,” she says, “But they didn’t match the picture in the magazine, so I made them into angels.”
She took her work to a crafts show, sold the entire batch and picked up a bunch of orders for more.
“I was overwhelmed,” she recalls.
She’s been in the doll business ever since.
“The thing that’s so neat about it is you can do so many things,” she says. “Design, beading, embroidery. Even when I use the same pattern for several dolls, each one is unique.
“I still play with dolls,” she says, laughing.
Each doll begins with an idea, inspired by anything from a real person to an accessory.
“I was cutting up an old Visa card once,” she recalls, “and I saw the tiny Visa emblem on it. That became my Shopper doll.”
Laura begins by crafting the most difficult part first. “I start by making the head,” she says. “That determines the size of the body. The most difficult part of a doll is the head and face. That dictates the rest of the doll.”
The rest of the doll’s body is determined by size and pose.
“I experiment with different hands, legs, everything.”
The body sculpture depends on the “person’s” clothes and age. Shoes are sometimes made of cloth, sometimes painted on. Some dolls have mitten-style hands, some have movable fingers. Laura finishes with the clothes and accessories.
Her work is incredibly varied, from Dugan the Dragon (a friendly green monster with wings) to her guardian angel, Mitzie, who carries her own doll, Minnie.
“When I made Mitzie, I knew I wanted to pose her flying,” Laura says. “I redid her head and body so they were connected by ribbon for independent movement. The old body became a new doll.”
Laura also creates poetry, and sometimes pairs the two crafts. Her “Ken and Barbie” dolls were patterned after a Del Norte couple by the same names. The accompanying poem celebrates both the traditional and real-life Ken and Barbie pairs.
Laura made a trio of Red Hot Mommas as a tribute to the Red Hat Society; she also created a Hussy with a red teddy and black fishnet stockings. Her Senior Citizen Ladies have sagging breasts, support hose and orthopedic slippers, while her Yoga Lady features tattoos, long wavy hair and limbs in the lotus position.
LAURA HAS BEEN FEATURED repeatedly in Soft Dolls and Animals, the magazine that originally inspired her. She won the publication’s “Me, Myself and I” Contest with a doll of herself. The re-creation featured her “horrid double chin,” dangling earrings, and her trademark colorful wardrobe. The Laura doll sews a tinier doll-in-the-making.
Other contest honors have included “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and “Me As I Was and As I Am.” She has been featured repeatedly in Quilting Arts Magazine.
Some of her dolls hang on the wall like art. The Tortilla Lady is mounted on a tortilla made of muslin. She also makes Kitchen Angels and Kitchen Saints.
Laura’s most interesting sideline is portrait dolls. Send her a photo and $100, and she’ll recreate you in cloth.
Making people doesn’t use up all of Laura’s energy. She’s affiliated with The Art Thing, a group of Valley artists. The organization meets every three weeks for a potluck meal to plan shows and exchange ideas.
“We have potters, paper makers, beaders, painters, everything,” she says.
“Sometimes we challenge ourselves,” Laura says.
The Art Thing recently challenged members to create an “altered book.” Laura’s book, “I Still Play with Dolls,” is a three-dimensional work. Each “page” is a diorama with a doll, or a doll with poetry, or photos of her work with poetry, or any combination of work with beads, ribbons, and hand-drawn designs. The book, which began as a fun project, now serves as a portfolio to show prospective customers.
Laura also writes for the Valley Times, a monthly independent publication. Her autobiographical articles nicely complement her profiles of other artists.
With energy still to burn, she recently discovered wild asparagus, mushrooms, and gooseberries, and preserves, and she assists her husband in his winemaking efforts.
But even all of that isn’t enough to keep her busy. Recently she took time out to master the computer. Her Internet skills “are getting better all the time,” she says. She now sells her work and doll patterns on the web and participates in online doll clubs, too.
SHE ALSO MAKES JEWELRY. Some of her creations are on display at the Rio Grande County museum in Del Norte. Laura sells her dolls at the annual Artwalk in Alamosa each spring, but she doesn’t retail her work, preferring to sell online. Her creations run $18 to $100.
“I’m not looking to get rich,” she says, laughing. “I’m just looking to pay for it, so I can keep playing with my dolls.”
You can see photos of her work at picturetrail.com/Laurasdolls. To contact Laura directly, write LarLuns@starband.net. For information about The Art Thing, call Jane Rhett at 719-852-5210.
Marcia Darnell lives and writes in El Gran Valle de San Luis.
