In 1984, Linda Miller went to Israel for the first time. Though she didn’t grow up Jewish, she felt a connection to the country and a deep attraction to the faces of Ashkenazi Israelis she saw there. Some of the faces reminded her of her Jewish Polish father, who died when she was 5 years old.
When she returned from Israel, the artist and dollmaker created her first Jewish folk dolls.
“I made a rabbi and a fiddler after that trip, and the response was amazing,” Miller said.
Now, more than two decades later, the character list of Jewish dolls has grown — each one with a compelling face and an equally compelling story, told by intricate accessories and the expressive lines on their faces.
Miller will be one of artists participating at this year’s To Life! festival. Each year more than 80 artists are juried and selected to participate in the festival. These artists sell a variety of fine art and craft items including jewelry, ceramics, paintings, handcrafted clothing, photography, Judaic items, glass and woodwork.
At the festival, Miller will sell her Jewish folk dolls along with other characters such as Charlie Chaplin, B.B. King, Bob Dylan and a Russian bear trainer.
The immigrant, one of her most popular Jewish dolls, comes with a tiny authentic passport, boat ticket and photo of his late Polish wife in an old-fashioned frame. He carries a letter from his wife in his pocket with her last wishes that he go live in New York with their son.
Miller began creating dolls the summer of 1981 while her husband worked long hours as a commercial fisherman in Alaska. She had lots of free time, and the dolls were an expression of her creativity and reflected her fascination with the human face.
The Jewish dolls are also a reflection of the Jewish roots she discovered later in life. Her father emigrated from Poland to Mexico, where he met Miller’s Mexican mother. The couple then moved to Los Angeles, where Miller was born. After her father died, her mother remarried and Miller says she was raised “with nothing Jewish in my life.”
Her trip to Israel stoked her curiosity about that unexplored part of her identity, and making these dolls was an occasion to delve deeper into the history of the Jews, and her own family’s history.
“I mainly express my Jewishness through these dolls. I am not practicing or religious, but I have a great interest in the Jewish faith and culture,” she said.
Because her grandmother, Maria Cadena, taught her how to sew, she named her business Cadena Studios. With the help of her artist husband, Roderick Smith, and a seamstress, Miller produces between 60 and 100 dolls a year. The dolls take several days to create — the process is painstakingly meticulous — and range in price from $850 to $1,800, depending on the level of detail.
One of their most detailed dolls is Rabbi Zadock, inspired by a story by Yiddish storyteller Isaac Bashevis Singer. On the rabbi’s desk is a small teacup with a miniscule bowl of sugar cubes.
Miller etches the face of each doll with a needle, and her husband creates each character’s story and tells it with tiny props such as books, pickle jars, poppy seed bagels and even wastebaskets with miniature crumpled letters. Each doll stands about 2 feet tall and can be customized to order, using photos, fabric or real stories of long-gone ancestors.
For each character, Miller and her husband do extensive research to get every detail right. The peddler’s cupboard, the cobbler’s workstation and the rabbi’s desk are all historically accurate.
Her Web site, www.cadenastudios.com, features the doctor, bagel man, bubbe and fiddler, among many others.
Celebrities such as Robin Williams and Steven Spielberg have bought these Jewish dolls, but Miller says that there is no “typical” type of buyer. Both Jews and non-Jews are drawn to her creations, she said.
“We have sold to people who have an interest in their cultural heritage or lineage, but mostly we sell to people who see the dolls and are moved by them or smitten with the looks on their faces,” Miller said.