By TC
Aug 6, 2004
Let’s get something straight. I’m not a "doll person." Never was. When I was a kid I had two toys, Mr. Mouse (a large stuffed pink mouse my mom tried to use to get me to forget my imaginary friend who flew on kites and sang opera) and my racecar. As I got older, my mother bought me a Mrs. Beasley doll. It was hideous. Its only saving grace is that it wore glasses. As I got older, I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas, a pull string Mork from Ork doll. I was obsessed with him. If you pulled the string in his back, he would say "Na Nu. Na Nu." I loved him so much, I begged my mother for rainbow suspenders. I was a weird child. 
Now that I’m older, my palette has changed. I collect even stranger objects. Stuff that if the Welcome Wagon committee came over, while I was unpacking, they’d run in terror and proceed to drop Christian pamphlets on my "Welcome" mat every Sunday. (Believe me, it’s happened several times through the years.) My prized possession right now is my autographed can of split pea soup, signed by none other than Linda Blair. She signed it "Sweet Dreams…" My Lizzie Borden, voodoo and Katrina dolls surround that disturbing can of soup, and strange action figures on a shelf. No one else gets it. I don’t expect them to. I just like coming home to my dark menagerie and enjoying the little sentimental meanings behind every strange, bizarre and wacky object.
Well, recently I had a friend do a photo shoot of some evil dolls for an art project of mine. I was in love with the concept of it. They came out beautifully. We beat the hell out of them, wrapped them in wire, drowned them and buried them in the dirt. Now that I have these photos all over the place, people are always suggesting new ones. I’m not talking dolls you give to your niece here. I’m talking dolls that maybe you would give that wicked nephew that burns ants with magnifying glasses and pulls wings off of flies. But you know late at night, he will hide that doll in the closet and will bite the blanket out of fear from every shadow.
That’s kind of how I came across Klio BeDevil and her dolls. A friend suggested her after seeing some of the evil doll photos. What Klio does is the real deal, though.
Klio started out doing make-up. No, we’re not talking in that sweet and glossy "look at the model" kind of way. We’re talking special EFX make-up. She started out terrorizing her family and friends until finally the neighbors found out. Now, all the neighboring families bring their kids over for her to do her hellish creations on them, just so that their photo can be in her killer portfolio of EFX wizardry. She ran out of neighbors, family and friends, so she picked up dolls. They don’t argue. They stay still. They don’t mind being immersed in dye for hours to get that lovely "walking dead" skin tone. Her main influence behind it all is the movie, The Exorcist. Her main EFX magic guru is Dick Smith, whom she studied under. If you call her in her studio you more than likely will hear The Cramps. She loves making evil dolls to their music, saying it influences her "horror" and is "great motivation."
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Each doll is hand dyed (to get that "proper" dead color). The hair is hand wrought and sewn in and she uses glasses eyes as much as possible. She hand paints all the injuries and hand sews all the clothes. She prefers doing custom jobs. (She does do dolls with sound boxes, with
hand-painted teeth or even off-sized eyes.) The more character the better. She strives that each doll be as unique as their new owners. Most dolls take around a week to two weeks, depending on how much hand painting your job entails. If you want blood, you got it, but it will take at least two weeks for that doll to be finished. When asked, if we’d ever see her launch any of dolls to be carried in mainstream stores, I got the response of. "I really enjoy taking my time with each doll. I feel it’s more personal and expressive. There’s a lot of people sicker than me, I hope to hear from them."
Klio BeDevil
