Mary Ellen Frank shows off the work of Saint Lawrence Island artist Anacoma Slwooko at Aunt Claudia’s Doll Museum during First Friday on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

Mary Ellen Frank shows off the work of Saint Lawrence Island artist Anacoma Slwooko at Aunt Claudia’s Doll Museum during First Friday on Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)

It’s a stitch: Handcrafted dolls featured at doll museum

Meticulously made dolls will be on display through January

From a distance the dolls’ faces looked blankly pleasant.

But closer inspection revealed painstaking work that created a nose’s bridge and the individual stitches that made up each eyelash that make Anacoma Slwooko’s work remarkable.

“This is real stitchery,” said Mary Ellen Frank, director for Aunt Claudia’s Doll Museum and also a doll artist. “You just don’t see real fine stitching on handmade dolls.”

[Grocery shop from home]

Work by Slwooko, a late Native Alaska doll maker from St. Lawrence Island, was featured at the museum on the second floor of the Triangle Building for First Friday. Five dolls with red lips and fur-rimmed jackets were in the center of the doll museum’s first room to greet any curious attendees.

“She really made some wonderful pieces,” Frank said.

Frank said the dolls are a rarity because their owners often didn’t take particularly good care of them or store them in appropriate conditions.

Some of the dolls that were on display were Frank’s, and her expertise is why they’re still in great shape.

“I met her (Slwooko) and knew about her work,” Frank said. “When I noticed her work was available I tried to buy it or point it out to people who want to spend money on me.”

Slwooko’s work, Frank said, dates back to the ’40s or maybe the ’30s and continued for decades.

“They started with the tourist trade, so they’re not really early,” Frank said.

[Gingerbread contest raises money for nonprofits]

The dolls were influenced by Slwooko’s proximity to Siberia and her Siberian Yup’ik relatives, who Frank said, provided her with some of the patterns used in the dolls.

Materials used to make the dolls included seal and salmon skin as well as polar bear fur. Creation of the dolls incorporated sewing, embroidery and painting among other techniques.

Every feature on the doll’s face required purposeful stitches and careful assembly, Frank said. So while they were made with tourists in mind they were not the sort of thing that could be quickly mass produced.

“They do take a really longtime,” Frank said.

Slwooko’s work will be featured at the museum throughout the month of January, Frank said.

In that time, Frank hopes to accrue more biographical information about the deceased artist to provide to visitors to the museum.

“I’m working with the family to gather more information throughout the month,” Frank said.


• Contact arts and culture reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com.


More in News

The Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Encore docks in Juneau in October, 2022. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File)
Ships in Port for the Week of May 28

Here’s what to expect this week.

File Photo
Police calls for Saturday, May 27

This report contains information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

Dozens of Juneau teachers, students and residents gather at the steps of the Alaska State Capitol on Jan. 23 in advocacy for an increase in the state’s flat funding via the base student allocation, which hasn’t increased sizeably since 2017 and has failed to keep pace with inflation during the past decade. A one-time funding increase was approved during this year’s legislative session. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire file photo)
What’s next for the most debated bills pending in the Legislature?

Education funding increase, “parental rights” and other proposals will resurface next year.

Emergency lights flash on top of a police car. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire File)
Police investigate assault in Lemon Creek area

“JPD does not believe there is any danger to the public at large.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Feb. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. DeSantis has filed a declaration of candidacy for president, entering the 2024 race as Donald Trump’s top GOP rival (AP Photo / John Raoux)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launches 2024 GOP presidential campaign to challenge Trump

Decision revealed in FEC filing before an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire File)
Police calls for Wednesday, May 23, 2023

This report contains information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

A channel flows through the mud flats along the Seward Highway and Turnagain Arm in Alaska on Oct. 25, 2014. Authorities said, a 20-year-old man from Illinois who was walking Sunday evening, May 21, 2023, on tidal mud flats with friends in an Alaska estuary, got stuck up to his waist in the quicksand-like silt and drowned as the tide came in before frantic rescuers could extract him.  (Bob Hallinen / Anchorage Daily News)
Illinois man gets stuck waist-deep in Alaska mud flats, drowns as tide comes in

“…It’s Mother Nature, and she has no mercy for humanity.”

Most Read