Lyn Raftis
of

By Lisa A. Lawrence

Until recently, Lyn spent her entire life in Southern California. She was born in Marina del Rey, California, where her family lived on a houseboat until she was three. Her family moved around a fair amount while Lyn was growing up, but they always stayed in Southern California, primarily San Diego. Lyn loved to go to the San Diego Zoo and to Sea World. She was inspired by the many museums and art galleries in La Jolla. Three years ago, Lyn and her husband, Alex, relocated to Southeast Texas for his job. "I love the ocean and the beach," Lyn notes; "I really miss it now that we're in Texas. We are close to the Gulf, but it isn't the same. Of the places I've lived in my life I would have to say my favorite was San Luis Obispo, California. I moved up there from San Diego after I met Alex (my hubby), and we hope to return there someday." An "only child" (her sister is 18 years older than Lyn), Lyn spent most of her time with her very creative Mom, who placed great value on nurturing Lyn's artistic abilities. As a kid, Lyn spent much of her time reading books and taking drawing and ceramics classes at the local recreation center.

Asked about her employment history, Lyn is concise: "I used to be a bookkeeper and payroll clerk . . . I hated it! LOL!"

Lyn's first doll bought as an adult was a Tyler® Sport. "She is the one that sparked my interest in the bigger dolls," Lyn acknowledges, "but I have very few dolls that I can claim as 'mine.' I have an RTW Sydney®,  a Spring Tyler, and a Show Stopping Sydney. Recently, I treated myself to keeping one of my own enhancements . . . a 24KT Sydney. But then I ended up trading her for some of Lyanne Newton's wonderful outfits! The plus side of collecting dolls is that I get to live vicariously through them! They get the wardrobe I could never afford (or dare to wear) for myself. I'm a diehard jeans and t-shirt girl."

Initially, when Lyn started doing repaints in late 2003, she intended to keep her repaints. "While I love the creation process of transforming a doll," Lyn observes, "I couldn't afford to endlessly get dolls to repaint. So, I began selling them and turning that money into more dolls to paint. It's a vicious circle!" Lyn sells her repaints on her website:  http://raftis.net/~lyn/dollz. Recently, Lyn collaborated with Lori Lyon on a Brenda Starr® Cinderella Charity doll for the Children's National Medical Center, auctioned on eBay®  through the 2004 Doll and Teddy Bear Expo. Lyn did the repaint while Lori made the outfit. Their Brenda Starr Cinderella just won the Judge's Choice Award.

"I am a Tonner snob," Lyn admits. "I am most comfortable with Tyler and her friends. My other favorite doll to work with is Tiny Kitty®  . I have definitely been 'Bitten by the Kitten'!" Lyn also loves working on Matt®  who was her first doll to reroot.

As well as doing doll repaints, Lyn also earns money doing ceramics. "I have always been artistic," Lyn recalls, "but in recent years I was involved in the model horse hobby and sold both ceramic and resin horses that I painted. I burned out on them and turned my interest into dolls. A lot of my painting technique and style still comes from painting horses, like my love of colored pencils and mixing complimentary colors.

When asked where she gets her inspiration from, Lyn admits, "I am a hair magazine junkie!" Recently, Lyn was inspired by Helen in the movie Troy. "There are a lot of times when my husband and I watch movies," Lyn states, "where I am right up next to the TV screen trying to figure out how to mix a fabulous lipstick color that some actress is wearing. It drives him bananas!" Lyn is also inspired by actresses Elisabeth Shue, Sandra Bullock, Roselyn Sanchez, and Jennifer Aniston. Recently, the movie Ocean's Eleven has greatly inspired her interest in repainting Matt.

How long do her repaints take? "It depends on how inspired or motivated I am," Lyn laughs. "I can be the quintessential fussy artist and be hot one day and cold the next. Initially, I was taking a week to a week and a half to do a repaint, which is on the slow side. But I am picky and refuse to settle for less. I am very detail-oriented that way (which is a nice way of saying anal retentive! LOL!) It must be the Virgo in me. Now that I've been at it for a while, I'm much faster. My repaints take about three to five days, depending on how much time in a day I have to paint. Rooting takes longer." 

Lyn's favorite part of the repaint process is repainting eyes and lips, as well as rooting hair highlights. She also enjoys choosing the wardrobe for her photo shoots and creating little vignettes. Her least favorite? Eye shadow and taking pictures. "I had a 1.3 megapixel camera," Lyn says. "At times, it was a challenge to say the least." Happily, Lyn just purchased a 4.0 megapixel camera that she loves!

While Lyn would enjoy just doing the designing for repaints, and having someone else do the actual painting, she notes, "I would still have to do a doll every once in a while. Hands-on is very gratifying: to have a little piece of beauty and think 'I made that.'" To do just the designing, however, Lyn would have to change her process, as she currently doesn't draw out a face ahead of time. Instead, she is usually just inspired as she paints, working from magazine photographs. "I usually work from several photographs at a time," she notes, "since I may like the eyes on one model, the hair on another, the makeup on a third, etc."

Lyn's goal is to keep her repaint business fun. "I want to keep in my vicious little circle of selling dolls to fund making more dolls," she laughs. "The bit of extra that comes in goes to the Visa bill and maybe for an occasional dinner out with my husband. He likes that!"

Asked what the most challenging part of her business is, Lyn responds, "Recognition, I think. Getting my dolls out there into people's hands. When people see my work in person they almost always comment to me on how much better a doll looks in person, which pleases me greatly because I paint for how the doll will look in person. I sometimes look at my repaint photos and think they are okay, but they don't fully capture the doll's 'personality' all the time. It can be discouraging when dolls don't sell or generate much interest, because I know they are a high quality product. But, I just keep at it, creating dolls that I myself would want to buy. That's what makes them special. There is a little bit of me that goes into every one. It just takes time to gain recognition and a reputation for doing nice work."

"I sell dolls in my salesroom and/or on eBay," Lyn continues. "I am lucky to have a very supportive customer base who really seem to enjoy my dolls. I also have a fair number of repeat customers, which is also very nice. Their support of my work is very inspiring. I value their emails and the pictures of their dolls that they send to me. The best part of all is that some of my customers have turned into very good friends. You can't ask for any more than that!"

Currently, Lyn works on something doll-related pretty much seven days a week, whether it be re-rooting while watching TV, writing html for her website, the ever-hated "resizing of pictures," or painting. She hasn't yet had the opportunity to attend a doll convention, but hopes to someday.

Asked about her hobbies, Lyn volunteers that she is a huge anime/manga fan. Huh? She explains, "Anime is Japanese animation. Manga are illustrated graphic novels that are published in Japan. Manga has become popular in the US and are translated into English and sold in bookstores. A lot of manga series are made into anime. Cartoon Network (the cable channel) has started airing a lot of popular anime series, such as Cowboy Bebop, Inu Yasha, and Dragonball Z. Shows for younger children, for example, are things like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh. My husband and I watch a lot of anime. I don't care for most TV that isn't sci-fi or animated."

As to her future plans, Lyn admits, "This is really hard for me to say. I have a tendency to live in the now and not plan ahead very well. I don't know what the future brings, but my 'plan' is to keep doing the things I love and be happy." Sounds like an excellent plan! After all, it's said that if you want to make God laugh, just tell him your plans!