African American Dolls

Jo Ann Bernard, is a self-taught artist of 30 years. In the 70's she discovered a hidden talent to recreate Louisiana landscapes through oil painting. Eventually, she evolved to painting portraits. After that in the early 80's her creative energy went toward duck carving. She attended Willy Badeaux's duck carving workshops. In 1987, she began sculpting. Jo Ann enjoyed creating pieces that expressed her love for Louisiana history. Through trial and error she created a line of character dolls that are reproduced in clay. The Introduction / Bio button below connects to the site that defines the development of her doll-making techniques. The Louisiana Heritage Doll buttons lead to the large doll photo pages. When viewing the large photo page refer to JoAnn's Comments to read about her experiences, inspirations and thoughts during the production of the Louisiana Heritage Dolls, "Days of Old". From the large doll photo page travel to the story pages for each character doll. We invite you to experience Louisiana by surfing through our web pages. Click on the Oil Painting button and view her Louisiana Swamp Scenes Paintings, French Quarter Scene Paintings, Magnolia Paintings, Slate Paintings and Louisiana Plantation Paintings.

An original clay doll collection, for the doll collecting enthusiast

Original African American Dolls recreating Louisiana Life in the 1800's. Learn about Louisiana Culture through this African American Heritage Doll collection inspired by sketches, photographs and stories of the 1800's. These African American lifelike handmade dolls have attached booklets and display cards with short historical essays about the character. All dolls are reproduced in clay using JoAnn Bernard's plaster molds developed from her original doll designs. Doll wigs, clothing, dress designs, and props are all handmade by the artist.