Sculptor/dollmaker Kecia Deveney teaching class at Angela’s Dollhouse in JC this Saturday - nj.com

"The Royal Rebel Rouser's Dollmaking Class" with renowned artist Kecia Deveney is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Angela's Dollhouse, in Jersey City, on Saturday, Nov. 9th. Price is $85. Deveney's work, which runs the gamut of dolls and portraiture, is seen in this photo she's provided.Kecia Deveney Photo

Before dolls were mass-produced, they required a level of craftmanship some artists still work in. Angela Huggins of Jersey City is one and Kecia Deveney is another. Saturday, Deveney will be coming up from the Asbury Park-area to teach a day-long class at Angela’s Dollhouse, at 1709 Kennedy Blvd. in the Greenville section of Jersey City.

Deveney’s pieces are renowned for their fanciful and evocative nature – though her work runs the gamut. Peruse her site, keciadeveney.com or Instagram and viewers are sure to see something that looks like it’s in a stop-motion film – and she talked about that earlier this week, ahead of Saturday’s event.

“You know, the second people hear that you’re a doll maker,” Deveney, 60, said, “they just think it’s weird. … In the last few years, I’ve shifted from saying I’m a doll maker to soft sculptor.”

Deveney has found people can be more interested in dolls when they have a different title. “Then they’re like, ‘Oh, what is that? Tell me more about that.’ So then you get more of a chance to explain what you do versus automatically being dismissed for saying ‘doll maker,’ so to speak.”

In a world where dolls –- both in the form of more traditional “dolls” and action figures -- are big business, it doesn’t entirely make sense. But those tend to come from molds tapping into a form of devotion to some figure in popular culture.

Artists like Deveny are not – at least not exactly.

“I believe that we’re just recreating things that maybe we’ve lost in our lives or never were able to have ...,” she said. “For example, when I was growing up, I never got to play with dolls. My mom didn’t like dolls, and so as an adult I started to experience dolls with fresh eyes … I think, in the sense of recreating things in maybe our childhood, so to me, that’s what I’m all about.”

Deveney has known Huggins for a long time. “Especially since we connect through making dolls,” she said. “I know that (Huggins) does a lot of different techniques than I do, but it‘s all sort of a very well-rounded thing. I see things that other people make and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, how do they do that? I want to know more about that.’”

Huggins’ studio allows Deveney, a full-time caregiver in addition to being an artist, her first opportunity since the pandemic to teach a class in-person. The online classes that came with the pandemic have largely dried up, but Deveney believes you can’t substitute the in-person nature of seeing art, or even the experience of sharing the techniques with adults who are looking for creative mediums to help express themselves and find camaraderie.

“That Angela has the studio now and she can have artists come in and teach dolls is very exciting, “ Deveney said, “so I’m really excited to go there and teach things that I have sort of created in my mind, using techniques that I’ve learned over the course of years and then just sending it out into the world with other people learning it. I think maybe that’s the thrill of doll-making …”

Some of the pieces Deveney makes she calls “weirdoes”

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“I just make them. I don’t worry about them being beautiful or, you know, perfect,” Deveney said. “I just like them to be very soulful and I feel like immediately you look at them and it’s telling a story about what you’re looking at and that’s really important to me.”

Deveney and Huggins will be joined by mixed-media artist Seth Apter who will be vending.

Enrollment for Deveney’s class is $85; attendees can pay with either PayPal Or Zelle via [email protected]; or Venmo @Angela-Huggins.

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