Handmade dolls were a perfect fit for Terry Merritt’s many talents. As an artist, designer and potter, she has created dozens of porcelain dolls and dressed them beautifully, meticulous in her choices of fabrics and styles.

Ten of her Les Petites Belles of Natchez are on display and for sale at Uniquely Natchez on Main Street, where she also created the entire holiday season window display to showcase some of the dolls.

&uot;I’ve always loved to paint and draw,&uot; said Merritt, who moved to Natchez earlier this year with her husband, Doug. &uot;The dolls were a perfect medium for me. I like to sew, and I especially like researching antique dolls.&uot; Some of her dolls are replicas of antiques from Germany or France.

Each doll comes with a certificate of authenticity signed by Merritt, an award-winning member of the Doll Artisan Guild based in Oneonta, N.Y.

She keeps an eye out for just the right fabrics. Dresses always are in silk. &uot;I’m always searching for antique laces and just the right fabrics to make the clothes as authentic as possible,&uot; she said.

Merritt began making dolls about 10 years ago. She has sold them in Florida and North Carolina, two states where she lived before moving to Natchez.

With the 100-plus molds she has, she pours, fires and paints the dolls’ heads, shoulders, arms and legs. She makes cloth bodies to which the porcelain parts are attached. And she makes all the clothes.

&uot;People may tune into one of the shopping networks and find dolls that sell for $29.95. They ask me why mine are more expensive,&uot; Merritt said. &uot;Those dolls are porcelain, but they’ve probably been fired one time. They are mass produced and the painting is not very good. My dolls are works of art.&uot;

Sometimes the faces are fired five to six times to get the details just right. Some of the fabric is $50 a yard. One doll wears socks that

Merritt hand crocheted.

Though dolls and little girls are a perfect combination, Merritt’s dolls have attracted many different kinds of buyers, most of whom buy the dolls as a piece of art.

&uot;One customer had me dress the doll to match her bedroom. It just basically was a work of art for her,&uot; Merritt said.

Like her doll making, Natchez, too, is a perfect fit for Merritt and her husband. &uot;Seventeen years ago, we came to Natchez on the Mississippi Queen. We always loved old homes and history, and we fell in love with Natchez,&uot; she said.

&uot;Our jobs didn’t allow us to move at that time, but we always knew we would come back. We’ve visited here probably half a dozen times since then.&uot;

They bought a historic house on North Union Street and continue to make it their own, creating a workshop for her and one for Doug, who enjoys finished carpentry.

She spent 24 years as a forensic scientist, the first woman in the field hired by the state of Ohio, her home state. He is a retired Miami homicide detective.

Perhaps the strenuous, often depressing kind of work a forensic scientist has to perform led her to the softer, sweeter career in dolls, she said. Her specialty was in blood and other body fluids; she was among the pioneer forensic scientists working with DNA as evidence in criminal cases.

Merritt plans to create dolls dressed in costumes reminiscent of the annual Confederate Pageant costumes, she said, showing one of her first dolls dressed in antebellum period costume.

The dolls, now sold only at Uniquely Natchez, range in price from $125 up, depending on &uot;size, the outfit and how much work was involved,&uot; she said.

Merritt accepts custom orders. She can work from a picture. She makes the hair and, on some dolls, paints the eyes. Otherwise she uses glass eyes.

She has not yet entered the field of restoring old dolls. However, she will make clothes for existing dolls, she said.