BMmcaUf FamUnfl, Saturday, May 2, 1992 Corn Husk Dolls Preserve American Heritage .JWHiW U' I’' 1 ’' JOYCE BUPP York County Correspondent GROTTOES, (Virginia) Us ing a crop residue that is normally tilled back into the soil, Pat Broy les creates works of art It’s an endeavor that sends the rural Virginia woman and her family hurrying into neighboring cornfields each fall to harvest comhusk. From the vanloads of husk-enclosed ear com the Broy les haul to their log cabin home, Pat gathers and stores a year's worth of raw materials. After husking, the ear com is returned to the grower. The comhusk creations design ed by Pat Broyles’ nimble fingers are not just craft items, but folk art collectibles. In fact, Pat’s limited edition comhusk Santa with Elves piece was featured as the color cover of the 1991 Christmas edi tion of Early American Life maga zine. Pat Broyles’ career as a corn husk folk artist began in 1982, when she read a magazine article on the traditional dolls. An aunt of Pat’s husband, Steve, showed her how to make her first basic doll. “It interested me because it was an early craft; and I love being creative with my hands,” recalls this lifelong-lover of antiques. “I made a couple of dolls, did a few craft shows and I was hooked.” Pat’s dolls range from the tradi tional bell-skirted type to lifesize, intricately-crafted ones, complete with hands and fingers made of twisted-shaped comhusk. Lifesize dolls are dressed in vintage baby fZ\ -m. garbed In a vintage dress and shoes, this cornhusk doll is a unique, folk art col lectible. was featured on the 1991 Christmas issue cover of EARLY AMERICAN LIFE magazine. garments and shoes she acquires through auctions and antique shops, costly both in the time it takes to locate them and the ex pense. Other dolls wear garments sewn from vintage fabrics. An initial part of many of the designs is dyeing the husk to the soft shades which enhance the tra ditional look of the dolls. Pat soaks quantities of the husks in various dyes until they reach the desired shades, then spreads them on her enclosed back porch to dry. Stored dry. in plastic bags, the husk keeps well. Before use, the husks are soaked in warm water for about 10 minutes for pliability. Faces of the large dolls are flat husks, their soft skintone shades and facial features painted on. Customers, Pat says, often ask if the heads are made from wood. “Fingers took me a long time to get the way I wanted,” she smiles. “I’d work awhile, throw the husks down in frustration, then go back to it later and try again.” Persistence paid off for this self-described perfectionist. The hands on . her large dolls, with fingers and thumb of rolled, twist ed, comhusk, look almost realistic enough to open and close. Using real hair was another challenge Pat tackled, after read ing that the very early dolls had human hair. Tedious to work with, the hair must have enough length for fashioning into a style typical of the earlier era the doll repre sented, like braids or twisted into a bun. “I’ve never seen anyone else take comhusk to this extent,” Pat admits of her passion for detail on her art pieces. That attention to tiny detail is evident in all of Pat Broyles' work. Tiny birds and miniature vt *>. t>, :•* Cornhusk dolls, Santas and shredded husk trees are among the folk art crea tions Pat Broyles displays at regional craft shows. Pat Broyles displays her cornhusk folk art on furniture pieces crafted by her hus band, Steve, from salvaged, Civil War-era wood. packages - all of cornhusk - decor ate her soft-green, shrcddcd-com husk trees. Her Amish dolls each holds a pieced, handmade minia ture quilt; one of the four quilt de signs incorporates more than SO tiny pieces of colored fabric. And. the numerous Santas that take shape from Pat’s gifted fingers sport beards of soft, curly, white sheep fleece. Santas are popular with the cli entele at the numerous country craft shows Pat attends. Many of her Santa ideas are gleaned from those depicted on antique Christ mas postcards. Her limited edition Santa piece with elves selected by Early American Life for its Christmas Is sue cover stands nearly two feet high and features a wooly-bearded cornhusk Santa, dressed in a tick ing-striped cobbler’s apron, sitting on a chair of antique wood. Small, red-capped elves work about a doll at his feet and on a wooden ark he holds on his lap, with one “overseeing” from the vantage point of Santa’s shoulder. The piece takes Pat about two months to complete. Both Santa’s chair and the toy ark are crafted from antique wood by Steve Broyles. Broyles, an arti san with old wood, built some furniture pieces for Pat’s use in her party craft show displays. Be fore long, customers were inquir ing about purchasing the tables and cupboards. “I love old buildings; old build ings talk to you,” says Broyles, “You find bum marks, dates, carv ed initials on old pieces of wood. And, if there’s such a thing as working at your hobby. I’m doing it.” Employed by the Museum of American Frontier Culture at Staunton, his love of old wood and old buildings is lavished on the living history structures of several working farms. The Shenandoah Valley museum depicts how the German, Scotch-Irish and English style-farms of the early settlers evolved into the American farm. Years ago, Broyles set about salvaging wood from his father’s “home place,” where the old bank bam had deteriorated beyond re pair. “I thought he was crazy,” laughs Pat “He made us save every piece that had any possible reuse value. Now, we’re using that wood.” The “old” furniture he creates A v jiature ladder, fashioned from old wood by Steve Broyles, holds a band of Pat’s whimsical cornhusk elves. of brightly-striped snakes. One of the ark sets was presented as a gift to America’s ambassador to Eng land. out of vintage wood is already “distressed,” even down to the chipped, cracked paint Occasion ally, some paint touchup is neces- sary, but even that is carefully matched and applied to retain the look of antiquity. Old wood goes into the Santa chairs, forms the wings of the comhusk angels and is the mater ial from which the Noah’s Aik toy in Pat’s line of designs is crafted Steve builds the aiks in two siz es and Pat crafts and colors the people and pairs of animals for the ark, from comhusk sheep to a pair Vtcmesfead t/f/oies ' 'o'i *J*: '■ Their love of wood and an tiques set the Broyles on an un usual task some years ago. With a 16-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter, their log house was be ing outgrown, so they purchased a log cabin to move and add to their home. “The four of us spent a summer building a stone wall from the old chimney; we had to go to the creek (Turn to Pago B 3)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers