Cameron created 11-1/2Ó Emma, in 1991. SheÕs costumed in bits and pieces of vintage fabric that the artist finds in antique shops and flea markets. Cameron stores each piece of material, as well as old buttons and trims, in her Oakmont, Pennsylvania, studio and waits for just the right time to use it.

Because the artist so loved sculpting SantaÕs wrinkles and crinkles, she began creating moving sculptures of elderly men and women. Grama was made in 1990. The Cernit doll is 15 inches seated.

Sculpted in 1992, Daniella, is about 13 inches tall. Like all of CameronÕs little girls, Daniella has natural, childlike features and detailed hands.

The floppy Fimo charmers below were created by the artist early this year. When seated they measure six inches.

Milk and Cookies Santa, was one of four pieces created for TiffanyÕs 1990 Christmas window display. The personable Santa is 17 inches seated. All of CameronÕs Santa scenes are highly complex; you canÕt possibly see all their detail in one viewing.

Hug Me Tight, a dramatic Cernit sculpture created in 1990, is seated on a bench made of twigs.

RachelÕs Santa, like all of CameronÕs Santa figures, is a universe of detail. The perfectly in-scale piece is 15 inches tall and was made for one of the artistÕs two daughters.

Inspired by the work of Raphael, this magnificent Madonna della Sedia was one of two Madonnas created for the 1992 Christmas windows at TiffanyÕs in Boston. The Madonna is 18 inches seated.

After years of making Santas, Beth Cameron is experimenting with a new medium and a new subject

On the Cover are Beth CameronÕs new porcelain creations, which are being made public for the first time. Like the artistÕs Cernit sculptures, 26-inch Rachel and 27-inch Kate have open gentle faces. Each doll has a weighted, moveable body and removable clothing and is limited to an edition of 90 pieces.

In The Sound of Music, the character Maria sings about some of her favorite things: raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Were Beth Cameron starring in that role, sheÕd probably sing about red cheeks on Santas, old fabrics and laces, elf ears, sweet young girls and warm wrinkled faces. Not to forget graceful stances, generous detail and expressive features, all the wonderful things that collectors have come to expect in the figures sheÕs been sculpting since 1984.

Now however, the artist has done the unexpected and is giving many collectors something new to sing about. SheÕs created her first porcelain dolls, 26-inch Rachel and 27-inch Kate (named after her daughters), which are being made in the United States in editions of 90 pieces each. Craftspeople located throughout the country will pour, paint and costume the dolls. Then they will be returned to Cameron for finishing touches, including her signature. ÒNothing will go out,Ó the dollmaker says, Òunless I feel itÕs excellent.Ó

When an artist creates a limited-edition porcelain doll, itÕs usually not headline news, but it is for Cameron. Though sheÕs been widely known and admired in the doll world since her debut at the 1985 American International Toy Fair, sheÕs likewise maintained some distance from the field. She hasnÕt heavily promoted her workÑshe didnÕt even appear at the 1993 Toy FairÑshe has refused to design traditionally cute dolls for mass-production. But while the artist has no desire to jump into the mainstream, she has, for several years, wanted to get her work into the hands of more collectors. At prices ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, her one-of-a-kinds are out of reach for most.

The answer was to offer something completely different, which sheÕs done with her two Signature Edition Porcelains that will sell for about $1,300 each. ÒThis is an attempt to offer something to the doll world that I feel very happy with, rather than sacrificing the way I present my other work and making any changes in that,Ó Cameron says.

Despite the differences in medium and size between the porcelain and Cernit young girls, there are also similarities. Kate and RachelÕs faces are open and gentle with childlike features, and their charming dresses are in-scale and truly suitable for a child. ÒNo glamour girls at age seven!Ó Cameron says with a laugh. Unlike the Cernit sculptures, however, the porcelain dolls are dressed in modern fabrics and their clothing is removable.

ItÕs precisely this lack of glamour that attracts many collectors to CameronÕs Cernit sculptures in the first place. ÒHer pieces are not your typical Ôdoll-on-a-stand,Ó says South Carolina collector Patricia Voorhees. ÒShe goes down a different avenue than most doll artists. Her dolls were never meant to be pretty; theyÕre like Ôplain JanesÕ in that they are low-key, like little waifs.

ÒCollectors say, and IÕve heard this so many times, that BethÕs work has a homespun quality,Ó notes Brigitte Sutton-Hess, owner of Puppen Stube in East Amherst, New York. ÒHer skill is tremendous, and her work is professional, yet her dolls are completely unpretentious. Her little girls convey the true sense of the innocence of a child.Ó

Sculpting the models for Kate and Rachel was CameronÕs only pursuit for six months. Determined to imbue them with as much detail as possible, she spent weeks on many of the parts. ÒI wanted a fully sculpted shoulder-plate with little shoulder blades in the back,Ó she says. ÒEven if you donÕt see it, I think itÕs important that itÕs there; it helps with the total gesture of the body.Ó Because of the detail, many parts required multi-piece molds. Head and feet molds, for example, are four pieces each. ...

ÒIt is very intimidating to me to think that if the piece as going to be reproduced, that face would haunt me 90 times!Ó the artist says. ÒI had the first two heads packed and ready to send to the mold maker, and I just said, ÒI canÕt; IÕm going to start again.Õ ... I was glad I did, even though it held up the project for quite some time.Ó

Because CameronÕs one-of-a-kinds arenÕt poseable, and she wanted the porcelains to be, she had to learn how to make a moveable body. She spent many hours in a friendÕs doll shop, examining different doll bodies. In the end, she constructed a weighted cloth body thatÕs sturdy and flexible. ÒThe movements are geared mainly to a seated position,Ó she notes. To see one of the artistÕs innovations, you have to look up the dollÕs dresses. Their bottoms are shaped into two-separate beanbag-style pouches filled with plastic pellets that keep the dolls from flopping over.

Though making the dolls was at times grueling, Cameron says it was fun, too. ÒIn many ways it was like being in art school again,Ó she says. ÒThe whole process has just been fascinating to me. ItÕs made me realize how much I enjoy the process of making things.Ó

Making dolls was definitely not on CameronÕs mind when she began studying art at Carnegie-Mellon University, where she concentrated on sculpture and figure drawing. After earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts, Cameron worked as a director of a Pittsburgh crafts gallery. About this time, in the early 1970s, she made a cloth European-style Santa Claus based on one sheÕd seen in a store several years before. She sold this first doll and continued making cloth Santas, as well as elves, witches and what she calls Òweird little men.Ó In the mid 1980s, at the suggestion of Thomas Boland (he distributed her work for several years), the artist tried sculpting. Òclay opened the world to me, and I never wanted to go back,Ó she says.

Cameron eventually concentrated on positive, personable Santas. Garbed in vintage fabrics and toting armloads of toys, candy canes and other booty, her Santas are the ultimate three-dimensional celebrations of Christmas. (Because the Santas are so complex, they appear large in photos, but they average just 17 inches tall.) ÒFor our collectors, to own a Beth Cameron Santa is reaching a pinnacle,Ó says Sue Sheedy, owner of SuzanneÕs in Phoenix Arizona. ÒSanta collectors are particularly concerned with faces,Ó she adds, Òand when they look at the faces on BethÕs pieces, they fall in love.Ó

Besides thrilling collectors, CameronÕs Santas have inspired other artists, including Catherine Anderson and Mary Alice Byerly. ÒIÕve never seen anything that compares to BethÕs work,Ó Byerly says. ÒThe depth of detail never ceases to amaze me, and you rarely find her awareness of scale. With dolls made by other artists, the concept is there, but thereÕs a candy cane twice as tall as the Santa, and the buttons on his shirt are bigger than a quarter!Ó

Cameron incorporates most of her Santas into ÒenvironmentsÓ or scenes (many come with antique furniture, miniature Christmas trees, even snowy landscapes), and in 1988, she sculpted her first little girl to be a companion for one of her Santas. ÒI enjoyed the interaction between the two figures, and showing the very old and the very young together,Ó she says. ÒThe faces are so different; the hands are so differentÉ.Ó She enjoyed making the girl so much that she soon began creating girls without Santas, in groups or by themselves. ÒFor a long time, I really shied away from doing little girls and children, because I didnÕt view my work as dolls,Ó she admits. ÒI was an artist. I wasnÕt a dollmaker; what was I doing in this doll world! So as long as I didnÕt do children, I didnÕt do dolls!Ó

Sculpting elderly men and women was another outgrowth of the Santas. Cameron loves the lines and wrinkles of old age and hated always covering them with billowy beards! ÒTheyÕre not caricatures of old people,Ó: the artist says of figures such as her seated Grama, a touching sculpture created in 1990. ÒI think so many of the sculptures or dolls of older people are really making fun of them.Ó she adds. ÒBag ladies, funny old ladies in Florida, that was never my intent.Ó

Just last year Cameron explored the other end of the age spectrum when, for the first time, she sculpted babies. It started with the 1992 Christmas window display at TiffanyÕs in Boston, for which she created two scenes of the Madonna and the infant Jesus, both based on Renaissance paintings. As a spin-off of this project and, admittedly, for the fun of it, she sculpted three additional babies that can only be described as adorable.

The Madonna scenes were serene, majestic and inspired. Creating them was a thrill for Cameron, but what pleased her most was having the Madonna displayed six full weeks at TiffanyÕs. ÒChildren, anybody walking byÑnot only collectorsÑcould respond to the work, and l like that very much,Ó she says with a smile. ÒIÕve done TiffanyÕs windows for the last three years, and itÕs sort of spoiled me,Ó she adds. ÒI like exhibiting the pieces, so that many people can enjoy them.Ó Exhibits, she adds, also have great fund-raising potential, and sheÕd like to see children benefit from her work someday.

One project she wants to develop into an exhibit is a series of pioneer figures, ÒThe Women of the West,Ó which sheÕs been researching for several years. ÒIÕve never completed any other pieces,Ó she says. ÒI never seem to have time to complete a body of work.Ó The porcelain dolls, she believes, will eventually help her do just that. SheÕs hoping theyÕll fill the gap when she starts making one-of-a-kind figures primarily for exhibition and necessarily for sale. More signature edition Porcelains are planned for 1994; the artist is even toying with the idea of offering vinyl dolls (with different faces than the porcelains which would make owning a Beth Cameron creation a possibility for many more collectors.

ÒIÕm really looking forward to doing that,Ó she says. Òvinyl is such a beautiful medium now. ThereÕs no sacrifice in quality, unlike years ago.Ó Vinyl, she adds, is Ògreat for poseability.Ó She continues, ÒI hope collectors will want to move the porcelain dolls and set them up in various ways; thatÕs what I do in my studio.Ó The artist pauses, then laughs. ÒI donÕt believe it,Ó she adds, ÒIÕm really back to playing with dolls!Ó