Annie Baird and Yvonne Walrond have fashioned a partnership that seeks to popularize their colourful and decidedly attractive fashion dolls that have to potential to set a new trend in home-decoration.
Both are passionate about developing a craft which they embraced as a hobby into something more – a successful business. In entrepreneurial terms, they are still light years away from success but their talent is evident and with trends in home décor changing these days, like the wind, a major market may well be just around the corner.
Both women are 59 years old. Baird is a Pouderoyen resident who, along with her husband, has created and vended items of craft for years. She learnt to work with her hands under the tutelage of her mother-in-law, Dolly Jacobs, a one-time Home Economics teacher. For more than 40 years she had been involved in the making and marketing of crocheted products, including dolls. Lacking in either meaningful investment capital or conventional marketing skills, Baird’s promotional pursuits were confined to travelling to open markets in Parika, Linden, Leonora, Georgetown and parts of Essequibo. The craft markets and shows were a no, no; she simply could not afford them. She plans to be at GuyExpo this year for the first time.
There were other challenges too. She never believed that her crocheted products could ever measure up to elaborate exoticism reflected in the more attractive imports. The notion created in her the persona of an underachiever. That was where Walrond came in. A relatively recent re-migrant from the United States, she too has a passion for working with her hands. Baird had gone to her sister’s home and seen one of Walrond’s woolen dolls which she had brought her as a gift. The proverbial penny dropped! The quality of the product reposed to a large extent in the type of material that Walrond was using to create her dolls.
Walrond’s manufacturing method was simple. Utilizing her ready access to products she acquired dolls and other accessories, she simply knitted the wool onto the dolls, an approach that left her free to apply her own creative touches. Walrond favours the internationally famous Red Heart yarn which she believes makes “all the difference” to the quality of the product.
A firm partnership has been established and when Stabroek Business met the two women at Pouderoyen last weekend they were discussing the importation of fresh consignments of dolls, accessories and wool. The partnership having moved into business mode they were considering the costs and how the money was to be accumulated.
The transformation has been considerable. For Walrond, particularly, the emphasis has shifted from simply gifting her creations to family and friends to seriously contemplating their market value.
The acquisition of the next consignment of raw material will coincide with Walrond being in the USA on holiday shortly. The two anticipate a short-term investment of around $500,000 in purchases. Red Heart wool, Yvonne says, currently costs US$3 per ounce, while the dolls cost around US$3 each.
Buoyed by the mutual support they now give to each other, their dolls have caught on considerably in recent months. Baird’s recent trip into George-town with a consignment of dolls, was, she says, a considerable success. The creativity of the partners has yielded a variety of dolls ranging from living room and bedroom fashion cushions to days-of-the-week dolls. They currently work for mark-ups of between $500 and $1000, their cost of production ranging from $4,000 to $8,000.
It takes several hours to fashion a doll and both women welcome the opportunity afforded by both the range of colour and texture which the high-quality wool offers to allow them to parade their creativity. Last weekend this newspaper was afforded the opportunity of viewing a varied collection of dolls adorned in costumes depicting cultural traditions, contemporary fashion, rituals and ceremony. It is just the sort of thing that could catch on among craft lovers.
Up until now the two women have focused their efforts on building a partnership and both say they are now keen to enter a phase of going after markets more aggressively. Establishing an outlet of their own and probing export possibilities is a longer-term ambition. Branding their product here and broadening the range of dolls they produce to cater for a wider range of tastes, occasions and socio-cultural appetites is the present priority. It is a pursuit that appears laden with promise.
