When Did You Fall in Love With Black Dolls? is a profile series that celebrates the artists, collectors, and visionaries whose passion has helped preserve and promote the beauty, history, and cultural significance of Black dolls. Alongside photographs of their work or collection, each profile shares the individual’s personal story and provides contact information, inviting readers to connect with and support their contributions to the Black-doll community.
This month’s featured self-taught doll artist is Priyah Bhagat, whose handmade Black art dolls invoke Afrodiasporic imagery of past, present, and future. She answered our main question and a few others as outlined below:
When did you fall in love with dolls, and what inspired you to begin making them?
I always felt that the doll found me. It was not my intention to become a Black-doll artist and develop a passion for Black dolls and their history. I just wanted a creative decoration to hang on my front door. That decoration turned out to be a wicker broom decorated like a doll. My friends and family loved what I made, and I began to make more and sell them. My reason for making them was for money, but the doll pulled me into its history, function, and magic.
How long have you been making dolls?
I have been making dolls for over 20 years.
What medium(s) do you use in doll making and why?
Using a variety of media is one reason I love making dolls. I started off with cloth dolls and still use cloth in making my dolls. With doll making, the medium is endless. I consider myself a multidisciplinary doll artist using mixed media by way of found objects and unusual materials to create my doll structure. I have used lamps, cast iron pans, and tennis rackets to make my dolls. I love this part of my doll making. I’m making the earth a little less trashy.
Do you sculpt and/or create molds for your dolls?
No, but I have created my own doll patterns.
How tall are your dolls? Is there a size range or average height?
My large cloth dolls are 37 × 15 inches. The small cloth dolls are 15 x 15 inches. The mixed media doll dimensions vary. My cast iron girls are 41 × 15 inches, and a cast iron mixed media doll measures 56 x 10 inches.
Do you name your dolls?
Some I name and some I don’t. For me, it’s the energy a doll holds. My larger art pieces have titles.
What is your favorite type of doll to make?
I get enjoyment out of creating all my dolls, but I love it when I can combine different textiles, textures, and objects together to create a doll; it makes the story and energy richer.
Are you still making dolls?
Yes!
Do you teach doll making, and if so, where?
Yes! I don’t have a set location. I will contact different organizations if they are doing an event and present my doll workshop, or organizations will get in touch with me to do a workshop. I have secured spaces to do workshops. The Black Folk Festival reached out to me, and I reached out to the Virginia History Cultural Museum to do a workshop for their Barbie exhibit; however, all workshops for the Barbie exhibit were canceled.
What tips would you offer novice doll makers?
A doll doesn’t always have to be a cloth doll. There are items around your house you can use to make a doll. Have fun and experiment.
Do you have any upcoming events?
I was scheduled to speak and host a workshop during a brunch at the Virginia History and Cultural Museum’s Barbie: A Cultural Icon exhibition. However, as I indicated previously, all workshops at the Barbie exhibit have been canceled.
Have your dolls been featured in publications, museums, exhibits?
Yes. My dolls have been featured in articles, local museums, and exhibits, both local and out of town. Recently, 18 of my dolls were in the What’s A Doll: From Ritual to Play exhibit at the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, in Glen Allen, Virginia. In October, I conducted a workshop for the Black Folk Festival here in Virginia: Earth Dolls: Dolls We Create from the Earth.
Do you sell your dolls, and if so, please share where they are sold and the average price range?
Yes, I sell my dolls. I vend at festivals, cultural events, business events, exhibits, social media, and art shows. My dolls range from $20 for small crafts, $400 – $700 for large cloth dolls, to $2000 for mixed-media art dolls.
What is the most fulfilling aspect of doll making for you? The process of creating: gathering the different elements and materials to create and give life to this object we call a doll. I likened it to being a doll alchemist. It’s magical and powerful.
Where do you see yourself as a doll maker in the future?
I want to do more doll workshops and would like to do more lectures on the importance of the doll and its influence on social development in the world.
About Priyah Bhagat
I not only love creating Black dolls, but in creating them I have developed a passion for textile history and how dolls are used for transformation and healing. I am inspired by found objects, textiles, and otherworldly images. A self-taught figurative Black doll artist, I began by wanting to create a door decoration, and that has grown into a practice spanning over 20 years. I continue to journey inward to elevate my work and tell the story of the doll.
I can be reached at simplycre8@yahoo.com, @Priyah_Bhagat on Instagram, and @PryiahBhagat on Facebook.
Gallery
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Thank you, Priyah Bhagat, for sharing your doll artistry and journey with DeeBeeGee’s Virtual Black Doll Museum, and thank you for “giving life to the object we call a doll.”
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Call for Submissions: If you are a doll collector or doll artist who chiefly collects or makes Black dolls and would like your profile included in this monthly series, please contact the curator at virtualblackdollmuseum@gmail.com for participation details.
