Dollmaker par excellence

It was after she came to Bangalore that she started making dolls and over a period of 40 years she has created at least 500 dolls including Indian dolls, Western dolls, dancing dolls (Manipuri, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi among other dances), tribal dolls (representing tribes like Lambani) and religious dolls such as that of Mirabai with a tanpura.  Her flat dolls, representing Japanese women, affixed on a mat base serve as wall hangings. She has also made Russian dolls and Indonesian animal dolls.

A self-taught artiste, her ‘filmi’ dolls representing various actors stand out. She has created dolls representing legendary actors in landmark roles such as Dimple Kapadia (with the fisherwoman - kohli - costume used in the song ‘jhoot bole kauwa kaate’ in the film Bobby); Audrey Hepburn (Eliza Doolittle) doll as portrayed in ‘My fair lady’; Zeenat Aman (Hare Rama Hare Krishna) doll;  Sadhana doll (Ek phool do maali) and a doll depicting popular yesteryears Hindi film vamp, Helen, are among her creations. For making dolls she uses simple materials like wires of different gauges and woollen threads of different thickness for hair. She has held a number of exhibitions of her dolls.