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"Tryon Dolls" emerged in early fall of 2008 in Tryon, North Carolina. Andrea (Cheryl) Miller began making hand-made African-American vernacular dolls to earn extra money so she could make a payment on her children's Christmas that was in lay-away at K-Mart. Ms. Miller first began using the terms Tryon Doll Maker(s) and Registered Tryon Doll after a logo was designed by an early supporter of her work. Ms. Miller was joined by her sister, Waverline (Petey) Wingo and others in Tryon's historic African-American neighborhood east of Trade Street on the "High Road" surrounding the Tryon City Cemetery.

Ms. Miller, Ms. Wingo and the other Tryon Doll Makers began selling their dolls locally at the Red Clover Gallery in Landrum, SC after Lucinda Bunnen (an Atlanta art collector) purchased 10 of Ms. Miller's dolls in November of 2008. The oval design used by the Tryon Doll Makers was first used in an advertisement for the Red Clover Gallery published in the Tryon Daily Bulletin in December 2008. The design as the Doll Maker's mark continues to be a popular design used to identify authentic African-American vernacular dolls made in Tryon's historic African-American neighborhood. Oval wooden plaques with the design can be found below the mail boxes of Ms. Miller and Ms. Wingo on East Livingston and East Howard Streets in Tryon.

The Spartanburg Herald-Journal featured the Doll Makers on their front page a week before Christmas 2008 in a half-page article entitled, "Dolls of Their Dreams." In April of 2009 the Tryon Dolls were exhibited as part of the exhibition, "The Hannon Barbershop" in a gallery on Tryon's South Trade Street. A 12' x 15' vertical installation was created for the exhibition by pinning over 300 dolls to the wall each separated by only a few inches. During the exhibition, a new group, the Bountiful Neighborhood Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (BnESCO) was formed to carry on the work begun before the exhibition and to provide support to the Doll Makers and other projects in the Tryon foothills. In May of 2009, a cultural craft exchange with Doll Makers in Accra, Ghana and Tryon, NC USA was organized by BnESCO to create inner-cultural cooperation between craft-makers on both sides of the Atlantic. Registered Tryon Dolls were shipped to Accra where they were worked on by doll makers there and shipped back to be continued to be worked on in Tryon. The resulting Dolls represent an inner-cultural aesthetic which combines African and African-American vernacular styles of both sub-Saharan Africa and the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Appalachia.

Yvonne Plange and the U.S Embassy in Accra, Ghana were instrumental in receiving the dolls and continuing the project funded by the Bountiful Neighborhood Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization BnESCO through the generosity and support of the Nancy DuPre Menke Fund 2009.

Source links

 * GoUpstate.com Summer 2009
 * GoUpstate.com December 21, 2008
 * Bountiful Neighborhood Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization BnESCO
 * Nina Simone Birthplace
 * Tryon Daily Bulletin

Category:Dolls Category:Play