Catharine Nutt WHAT Santa Doll Maker WHERE Catharine's Heritage Santa Dolls, Kinburn, 839-2793 Catharine@santadollmaker.com SHOWS Red Trillium Studio Tour, West Carleton, November 2004 WHY "Doll making has something of everything I like doing in it. It's never boring." See samples of Catharine's work	Previous Artist Trading Cards

Nutts Over Nick
By Sally Hansen

Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Sante Klaas, Father Christmas - riding in a sleigh, on a moose, a motorcycle, a goat - Catharine Nutt creates Santa dolls that represent Christmas legends from around the world.

Over the past decade 682 uniquely detailed, heritage-quality Santas have emerged from Catharine's home studio in Kinburn. A jaunty sign says "Santa's Workshop" over the door, and ribbons and fabrics and miniature wrapped packages and other Christmas baubles spill out of every nick and cranny. A luxuriously soft, silky angora fleece waits to be transformed into Santa eyebrows, moustaches and beards.

Santa Baby
Catharine remembers being enchanted as a young child by the Santa Claus embodiment of Christmas generosity and good will. At nine years of age, however, she had begun to have doubts. They were put to rest when the real Santa Claus showed up at their front door in Kitchener (her younger sister tried really hard to pull his beard off), and they found footprints and hoof prints on the roofs of all the houses on their block the next morning.

She started her personal collection of Santa Claus dolls when she was 14 years old, and now has more than 400 examples of how this beloved Christmas symbol has been celebrated around the world. It takes her more than a week to decorate their country home for her favourite holiday.

A Worthy Claus
Catharine began her career as a Santa Claus doll maker ten years ago after she and her British husband Peter returned to Canada with their two children and bought their lovely home in Kinburn. Her enjoyment of the exacting and enchanting work she does was obvious as she guided me around the collection of Santas she was completing for the recent Red Trillium Studio Tour in West Carleton.

"Doll making has something of everything I like doing in it - sculpture, embroidery, gorgeous fabrics, beadwork, hand sewing, painting, even manual construction of the body frames. It's never boring!" I'll say not! She also showed me the finger that is still healing after she severed a tendon when a 60-pound Santa in a crate accidentally smashed it.

Catharine has spent a lifetime assimilating the multitude of skills that go into creating life size, heritage quality dolls. In a curiously ironic twist of fate, she learned to sew as "punishment" for making her first doll at the age of six. Bored after several days of rain at her grandmother's Haliburton cottage, she cut up the curtains and pillow cases in the children's bedroom to make three rag dolls for herself and her two sisters. Her punishment was to help Grandma make new curtains. Her great grandmother taught her to hand sew.

As the young Canadian wife of an RAF Officer posted in Woolwich, UK, Catharine learned to design and make her own evening gowns for the weekly cocktail parties and frequent balls that were an integral part of their British military life. She also was obligated to not only learn flower arranging, but to design and supervise the decoration of the Grand Hall for the Officers' Mess. She took pottery classes from a Naval wife; they formed their own cooperative, and Catharine discovered that she vastly preferred hand building to wheel work, sculpting owls and vases.

Santa Lady
When Catharine returned to Canada, she missed the variety and sophistication of the Christmas figures she had been able to collect in Europe, and decided she could do better. Initially she bought porcelain heads for her dolls, but found them intrinsically dissatisfying. At a craft show she watched someone working with a polymer clay, and began sculpting her own delightful personalities - Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Father Christmas, elves and others. She uses Cernit, Prosculpt, Premo and Sculpy III to achieve different textures for each figure, and applies dried cosmetics to the faces before baking to achieve remarkably lifelike results.

Catharine has also taken classes from Almonte's master puppeteer Noreen Young, and has created three wonderful Santa puppets that seem to enjoy her as much as she enjoys them.

She designs the clothing for each figure and makes them by hand, using marvellous fabrics, recycled furs, feathers, beads, leather and a wealth of materials in her more elaborate creations. Many of the toys and accessories in her compositions are either handmade by her or for her, and then painted by hand. She also makes the functional stained glass lanterns carried by some of the figures. All pieces are signed, numbered, photographed, and one-of-a-kind.

Catharine's figures range in price from $55 for her "cartoon" series of smaller dolls with pine cone bodies, and from $200 for her "Heritage" figures, with some selling for over $2,000. Over 90% of her work is custom work. She consults with her clients extensively, and incorporates furs, fabrics, props, photos and other treasured items into her more lavish creations.

In addition to winning many awards, her unique figures have been featured in "Dolls" magazine and area papers and TV shows. One upscale builder in the area is a repeat client, frequently purchasing Catharine's Heritage Santa Dolls as a welcoming seasonal touch for his clients' new homes.

Visiting the North Pole
Click here for a virtual visit to Catharine Nutt's Santa's Workshop to get a good look at some of her magical Christmas personalities. To schedule a visit to her studio and/or to discuss a commission, give her a call at 839-2793 or contact her by email at Catharine@santadollmaker.com.