In December 1986 Karen Rozmus was featured in the Hometown section of the Forest Park Review, for her dollmaking. “Dolls. There are hundreds of porcelain dolls everywhere you look …” is the opening line of the article. What started as a home hobby blossomed into an enchanting almost full-time career. She made 800 dolls that year and sold them all over the country including Carson Pirie Scott & Co. With dolls it started after a visit to her great-aunt Hazel Maule in Oklahoma City who showed her the process. It included pouring the liquid porcelain into doll molds, drying them in open air, cleaning and polishing the pieces, firing them in a kiln, painting the faces with oil paint, firing again at a lower temperature, then final painting and sewing the doll parts onto the cloth body. The last step was creating dresses for the dolls and her favorite was the late Victorian period (1867 to 1898).
Jill Wagner
