The Extraordinary Apple Doll Lady

By Lilygayle Fleischer

Mrs. Provinzano with her display of dolls and curios at the Colorado State Fair.

Shiny red apples on the grocer’s shelves beam their way into the shopper’s basket as a focal point in an autumn table arrangement before they become the ingredients of a festive mealtime table delicacy, or so I thought until I met the “apple doll lady” at the recent Colorado State Fair.

Standing beneath the traditional emblem of the Red Cross, and clad in the costume of a Gray Lady, Mrs. Attie (Nick) Provinzano, radiated good cheer as she greeted the visitors that paused to view her display of curio-oddities within the glass showcase.

She extended her hand in welcome as I approached and we were soon oblivious to those about us as we renewed and reviewed old acquaintanceship and activities.

I remembered her as a Corona Park Garden Club member, when we returned to Pueblo during the depression days, for I had been fascinated by her verve and stamina. Though mother of five children, she was an active P.T.A. worker (for 19 years) and the dynamo that sparked the enthusiasm of her chosen garden club, organizing and directing a Hill Billy Band with great gusto. They presented programs in the city and surrounding areas, and derived greatest pleasure from entertaining shut-ins.

Unable to read a musical note she developed her own system of teaching others to play the harmonica (she played in the band) and the accordion; thus revealing the rugged individualism, natural instincts, quick thinking, determination and consideration for others that was so pronounced in both Kit Carson and Tom Tobin, her great-grandfathers.

These intervening years hadn’t dimmed her enthusiasm for meeting and helping people, it seemed, and I listened intently as she shared her knowledge of fashioning doll heads from various fruits; apples, peaches or pears.

“What started you on this hobby?” I asked.

“My grandmother in Germany sent me an 100 year old apple doll and I planned to keep it clean, so I placed a glass jar over it. It soon disintegrated and I was heartsick about it.”

“How old were you then?”

“Oh, about 10. My mother dried my tears when she suggested we go into the orchard to find an apple and 336 thought I might be able to reproduce another.”

“How do you begin?”

“By peeling the apple and setting it aside to dry, but pinching the features in during this drying process.”

“What do you use for teeth?” a bystander asked.

Mrs. Provinzano smiled as she said, “Lima beans, and see what I make of the skins of the lima beans, small artificial rose buds.”

The conversation became more animated as others questioned her. She explained that apples shrink to one half or one third their original size during the drying period and this gives the appearance of wrinkled skin. She devised a scheme to overcome the wrinkles and gently massaged cold cream into the apple doll. “It takes three weeks for it to dry into wrinkled features and it takes three weeks to massage those wrinkles out, for all time.” The apple heads retain the soft texture indefinitely, for they pick up enough moisture from the air to retain the texture, but not enough to rot. These heads are mounted on sticks, i.e., clothespins, and inserted into bottles. These are draped with a dress or tunic suitable for the subject, thus eliminating the need for making a body or wire base.

A mask fashioned from half a grapefruit and one of an orange were pointed out. She cautioned would-be hobbyists against using a knife to define the features, as the acid in the fruit rots the knife (metal) incisions. Toothpicks should be used for this procedure. Wall paper cleaner is used for the clay to fill the scooped out citrus fruit, pinching in the nose, punching out the eyes and mouth with toothpicks.

Mrs. Provinzano and her exhibit at the International Hobby Show in California.

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“What about this Nun doll’s head? It’s very pale compared to the apple doll’s head.”

“Oh, they’re fashioned of hard and dry marshmallows.”

“But how do you fashion the features?”

“I use an emery board to hollow out the depressions. I save all the powder that falls during this process and mix it with rouge and gently rub it into the cheeks for a bit of color.”

“Do they need a protective coating to keep them?”

“Yes, I learned by trial and error, for one doll was sent to India and the ants got at it, so I instructed them to send the head back to me and I’d make up another in exchange. The coating of shellac preserved it, even from the ants.”

“What’s this jewelry made of?”

“Some of it’s made of bubble gum. I neglected to coat it with a preservative when I first learned to fashion flowers from it, and one day in summer I could feel the earring lengthen, so I removed it to experiment with a coating of shellac, and it worked.”

“This Indian head looks like a wall plaque.”

“Yes, and it’s made of old bread.”

“Old bread? I usually feed mine to the birds.”

“Heavens, at my house everything is used to fashion some sort of plaque, or doll head or picture. I soak the old bread in a very little water then squeeze it dry, and add about ¼ cup salt to 1 cup of the bread dough and knead it. It will rise after salt has been added, but it will eventually stop rising and you will have a good clay to fashion your figurines with. Take this cowboy plaque. The plaque itself is papier-mache, the figure of the horseman of various materials; the upper body of gum, the chaps of dried banana peelings that are fashioned over rolls of clay, the seams laced with thread, and they dry resembling leather.”

“And this picture of apple blossoms?”

“Oh, that’s made of wall paper cleaner. I dye portions of it and use it for earrings and children’s dishes as well as for wall plaques or framed pictures. I dilute the mixture used as background.”

“Dilute it? With what?”

“Water, but only to the consistency of cream, then I cover the backing, usually a piece of cardboard. When that is dry I use a thicker mixture and press a bit, about the size of my thumb, on the prepared surface and add more petals until I have the desired picture. That one was made up so that you could hang it from any side and it would show flowering branches.”

Her most famous doll is the Kit Carson doll, patented and registered with the Doll Guild of America. The buckskin suits are made from old leather jackets. She carves the wooden guns and uses the spurs from chicken legs for the powder horns. A coon-skin cap and a cowboy hat complete each outfit. Although they sell for twelve dollars, these dolls are in great demand and there is a great backlog of orders.

She believes that everyone should have two hobbies, because a single hobby can become monotonous. As one alternate, she exhibits Indian belts made from pounded out soda pop bottle tops laced with colored yarn. She also works down gnarled tree roots for use as lamp stands.

Mrs. Provinzano has traveled thru-out the west exhibiting her dolls, which range from pioneer scouts to Indians and Mexicans, at various fairs. At the International Hobby Show in California, some years ago, she won a first place ribbon for “Ingenuity”.

She possesses the abiding faith in Divine guidance and protection that 338 was her grandfather’s, believing that she is on this earth to help others. She believes sharing brings its rewards, for often a remark dropped by another will open up a door to new achievements, and she has an illustrious record of achievements to her credit.

Records reveal that she taught swimming for the Young Women’s Christian Association, hobbies and handcrafts for the Steel Works Young Men’s Christian Association and devoted many years to showing crippled children at the St. Mary’s Hospital pediatric ward how to generate their own sunshine by making things with their hands, often deformed hands that responded slowly to determined little minds. She also taught harmonica and handicraft at Sacred Heart Orphanage.

The Provinzano home is called the Kit Carson Rancho, part dream and part reality, because Attie hoped some day to acquire a mountain ranch, destined to become a summer camp for boys, that they may know some of the wonders of nature, and the pleasure of living under the stars among the pines.

Whether this dream becomes a reality remains to be seen. Though she conquered serious injuries, she is familiar with the shadow of bereavement; a daughter, some years back, and most recently, last March, the husband who had planned to work beside her to enjoy her worthwhile hobbies that she now teaches to boys at Fort Carson.

As for me, and her close friends, the sight of polished apples and citrus fruits will always be a bright reminder of the vivacious, courageous sunshine lady who now operates a Hobby Shop at Beulah, Colorado.

Photo Courtesy Florist Telegraph FLORAL DESIGNS POPULAR AT CHRISTMAS

This table arrangement of carnations, holly and candles (above) forms an unusual background for a display of holiday greeting cards, and ranks high with all members of the family as a Christmas gift. This Christmas more Americans than ever before in history will give “Flowers for Christmas.”

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