Buffalo Grove artist can doll you up

A group of Republicans once hired her to make life-sized Bill and Hillary Clinton dolls.

Her dolls of prominent Chicagoans -- including Jim Thompson and Al Capone -- sold for hundreds of dollars each.

One customer ordered a doll of herself, took it to Las Vegas and put it in her hotel room bed so her husband thought she was sleeping.

"I've met the most interesting people doing this," says Clone Dolls artist Rosalyn Sexner, of Buffalo Grove.

Sexner, a portrait painter, can create a doll to look like anyone -- all she needs is a photograph.

Working out of her home, she starts by painting a portrait of the person's face. Then she pastes her portrait onto a doll that's between 1 and 6 feet tall. Add fake hair and clothes, an optional voice-recorded sound, and the clone is done.

Sexner's Clone Dolls sell for as little as $49, but more elaborate dolls can cost hundreds of dollars. She also makes pillow portraits from photos.

"This is a business about humor and art," she said. "This, to me, is nostalgia."

Sexner, 67, retired from the doll-making business a few years ago but missed the fun of doing it and meeting the customers.

"I was being copied, and they were doing a nice job with machinery and computers, so I though, OK I'm done. But I missed it so much," she said. "Now, it's like, 'Hello Dolly, I'm back!'"

People order her clone dolls for bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings and corporate gifts.

"A lot of the wives of traders ordered them," she said. "It's something you can't buy from a store."

• For more information on Clone Dolls, call Sexner at (847) 955-9660.