Many porcelain dolls can put smiles on many faces

October 19, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Bill Rea
Porcelain dolls can be very attractive, and they make wonderful collectors’ items.
But it is possible to have too many.
That is the situation facing some Caledon residents.
John Sgro and his twin sister Anna Rizzardo aren’t sure how many dolls that have in their house.
“We never counted them,” Sgro said. “They just keep coming.”
Rizzardo estimated there are more than 200 of them.
It’s her brother who supplied them and she keeps restoring them. It started as a hobby, but it’s also become a form of therapy to help her deal with painful back problems.
“It calms me down,” she said. “I just concentrate on what I’m doing.”
She added there’s always the joy that goes with accomplishing something.
“It’s relaxing,” she said. “Very relaxing.”
“She does all the hair,” Sgro said. “She does the make-up.”
“She basically restores them, almost to the original condition,” he added.
The dolls are not really toys in the conventional sense.
“They are not playable,” Sgro observed. “You can’t play with them. They last forever.”
But the problem is the dolls have started to represent too much of a good thing.
“It kind of got out of hand,” Sgro said, although he added his sister still enjoys working on them. “Now it’s getting too much.”
They are looking for ways to give some of the dolls away, possibly through donations to outlets like the Hospital for Sick Children, or raffling some off or selling them through some sort of silent auction.
“When I was a child, I always wanted dolls,” Rizzardo said, adding they weren’t always available.
And now, working on these dolls is a passion.
“I kept working on them for hours and hours,” she said. “Every morning I go upstairs and just look at them. It’s breathtaking.”
She added there really isn’t a plan on what the doll is going to look like when she starts, in terms of hair, costume, etc. “I just look at it and figure it out,” she said.
“They’re all remarkable,” her brother observed.
Rizzardo thinks of the joy in a child’s face when they see their doll for the first time.
She has three sons and 11 grandchildren, and that includes three granddaughters. And each one has at least one porcelain doll.
They are looking for ideas on what can be done with these dolls.
Anyone with suggestions can reach them at 905-584-8048.