A Poolesville artist will help you make your ‘spirit doll’

Poolesville’s Lois Sumser brings much of what she learned as a psychotherapist to doll-making — and is sharing the art with anyone who signs up for her doll-making classes.

Creating a “spirit woman doll” is a way to harness what she calls “feminine energy.” It’s fun, but also incorporates the personality of the maker and connects her to other doll makers, she said.

“It feels like you’re making something that’s going to mean something to someone rather than just a doll to play with,” she said.

Sumser’s next Spirit Women Doll-making class is scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. on Friday at Poolesville’s Riverworks Art Center. It costs $20 and is open to anyone, including men. Although no men have attended, she hopes some will.

She will teach participants how to construct a doll’s body, face, hair and clothing. Participants may bring their own fabric scraps, jewelry, feathers or yarn or use the supplies provided.

Now retired from psychotherapy, Sumser used to work with kids in foster care, people struggling with eating disorders, young cancer patients and their families, and female victims of abuse. Her experiences and conversations at a shelter for women who have been abused convinced her, she said, that “women need each other.”

A doll-making class is a place they can come together, she said.

Sumser’s artistic interests were sparked in the 1980s when, as a graduate student at the University of Michigan, she wandered into an Ann Arbor bead store. Charmed by the beads, she became a jewelry maker and then began working with fabric. She made her first doll more than three decades ago.

Her materials include buttons and fabric scraps found around her home and sticks from her backyard. “I can make a doll out of that,” she often says to herself as she stumbles upon both interesting and mundane objects. Toilet paper rolls, for example, add volume to a doll’s dress.

“There’s a little moment where they actually kind of come alive, and they sort of talk to you,” she said of the last step in the process, when she gives a doll a face and hair.

Sumser originally called the dolls “prayer dolls,” but renamed them “spirit dolls” when she realized the word “prayer” might not resonate for some.

Sumser said Riverworks has helped nurture her and other artists in the Upcounty. She also sells her jewelry at Locals, a Poolesville restaurant owned by Sandy Wright and Dave Therriault, who founded Riverworks in 2022 in honor of their late daughter, who had been an artist. The couple said they knew Poolesville had plenty of artistic talent but few places for people to share it.

Riverworks hosts jam sessions, choirs, a wind ensemble, art and dance classes, and exhibitions and is in the process of opening a new performing arts center.

“Sometimes being an artist is a little bit lonely, so [Riverworks] gave them a place to connect,” said Wright said.