Doll maker, doll maker, make me a doll
Artist uses photos and turns them into
look-alike dolls

JEFF HUNTLEY Joan Gavornik works in her attic studio in Red Bank.

Joan Gavornik works in her third-floor attic in Red Bank surrounded by the character dolls that she lovingly creates, mostly of her favorite musicians and celebrities. But she can create a doll of anyone, all she needs is a good, close-up photograph and she will paint an almost life-size caricature face on cloth. She calls her business Living Dolls.

Last month when singer Boy George appeared at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, she presented him with one of the two dolls she had made of him. This is her way of getting noticed, she said. She makes two dolls, one for the celebrity to keep and one for the celebrity to sign for her to keep.

Gavornik says she has given away many, many dolls. "My goal is to get as many dolls as I can out there. Maybe someday, someplace like the Hard Rock Cafe will ask to buy them."

It wasn’t easy to get the doll to Boy George. She had to be persistent.

Joan Gavornik poses with the “Living Dolls” of her favorite musicians and celebrities. David Letterman, BB King, Chrissie Hynde (right) and Jay Leno (below) are some of the dolls she has created.

"First I slid the two dolls on stage with a note to please sign one and keep the other," she explained. "But he didn’t sign it, so I went to the tour bus after the show and spoke with one of the backup singers. He took it in the bus and had Boy George sign it for me. Boy George kept the other one."

Gavornik has been working for 35 years in the cosmetic industry and would like to have a flourishing doll business going when she retires in a couple of years. She is a technician in the lab at L’Oréal USA in Somerset and works from 3:30 p.m. to midnight, color matching their products to industry standards.

"I’m getting older now. Working nights takes a lot out of me. I’ve always been a high-energy person, but I can feel a difference. I don’t bounce out of bed in the morning," she noted.

She started making dolls in the early 1990s. "I made a doll of myself. Shortly after that, I went to New Hope and saw two singers named Amy and Jenny doing an outside concert. I was intrigued by the way they looked, so I asked to make dolls of them as a gift."

A month later she gave them to the sisters, and the idea was born to make dolls of musicians because, she said, "I love music."

She doesn’t just love music from a distance. She is also a musician and a singer, as well as the wife of a musician named Tom who has four CDs out and is about to release another one, she said.

"I’ve been a lead singer and guitarist and for most of my life, I have been a part of rock bands," she explained.

Gavornik now owns four signed dolls: BB King, Johnny Winter, Chrissie Hynde and Boy George. Her dolls have almost life-size heads and small, cloth bodies.

"The heads are large so that I can buy wigs and hats and not have to make them. I cut the hair, style it, sometimes color it or highlight and curl it. I also make the little guitars," she explained.

Recently she was commissioned to make dolls for a musical group that had six musicians. "It was for the cover of their CD," she explained. "Each of them had individual hair styles. I knew a hairdresser named June, who spent hours on the hair for these dolls."

Sometimes she has to improvise when making the clothing. For the doll Zena, the warrior princess, she cut up a perfectly good carry-on bag because it was just right for Zena’s costume. "I used stuff from a tool box, like washers, to decorate the dress," she explained.

Gavornik’s creations range in price from $250 to $500. "It depends on the amount of work. They take hours and hours to make. They are totally handmade, even the clothes," she explained.

She uses close-up photos of the face and asks for as much history on the person as she can get, especially their clothing and jewelry taste. "I want to know everything," says the artist who studied design and illustration at the Traphagen School of Design and Illustration in New York City. "It doesn’t exist any longer, but it was a good school."

She has contacted several recording artists and recently got a call from Christina Aguilera’s business manager. "I sent her a brochure because I would love to create a Christina doll. They called me back and said she loved my dolls, but I’m still waiting to hear from her again."

Gavornik says she had done the same thing with Britney Spears, but was informed that Spears already has two dolls out. The same thing happened with her Rosie O’Donnell doll. "I sent a video to Rosie but didn’t pursue it because she came out with her own doll."

She and her dolls were shown briefly on Entertainment Tonight when Chrissie Hynde was being interviewed about her jacket cover. "As she was talking they showed a video clip of me with the doll I had made for Chrissie. We were hugging."

Gavornik also made two Jay Leno dolls. "I sent a photo of the doll to his people out in California. I was invited to be a guest at the show, and after the show I went on the stage and gave Leno his doll. I met his wife too. They are really sweet people."

She did the same thing with the David Letterman doll she made. "His people said they loved the doll too, but so far I haven’t received tickets to the show."

Besides musicians, Gavornik has created Laurel and Hardy dolls and posed them with reels of unrolled film and an 8-mm projector.

Although she specializes in celebrities, she wants to do dolls for everyone, like the daughter who commissioned dolls of her mother and father when her dad was dying so that she could give them to her mother.

Gavornik, who was born and raised in Red Bank and is an identical twin, says she remembers drawing all of the time when she was a child.

"My mother was very artistic, but she worked at the Eisner building, now the Galleria, sewing. Then she had children and there was no time for art," she recalled.

She has won awards for her originality and style in doll making. Her custom-made dolls have won first place in various craft shows around the tristate area, including the prestigious SHADFEST in Lambert-ville.

It takes guts and determination to push on with artwork and to push your work on stage. "I feel blessed because my passion keeps me going," Gavornik said.

Gavornik may be reached at (732) 933-9630.