AFRICAN ART AT HOME COLLECTORS DON'T HAVE TO TREK OVERSEAS FOR GALLERY-WORTHY FINDS.

Byline: Sandra Barrera

Staff Writer

Heading-Marchand, a former graphic artist, makes the decorative dolls in her Inglewood home. Her designs now range from small bottle-wrap dolls to life-size wrought-iron figures clad in fabric scraps, beads, clay and twine.

The 53-year-old bases some of her dolls on the Maasai of East Africa and others on masks she admires from Ivory Coast.

"I usually just start from scratch and build on it as I go along," she says. "I never know what it's going to look like, so when it's finished, it's a surprise."

Many collectors pay a premium for authentic African art purchased overseas. But local buyers need not dust off their passports or pay a fortune to bring one-of-a-kind artisanal African art into their homes. African-American artists are producing affordable, gallery-worthy works right here in Los Angeles.

This is especially the case during Black History Month, when the city comes alive with an assortment of embellished ceramics, quilts, woven goods, masks and more.

Heading-Marchand will be selling her dolls, which range in price from $10 to $1,200, at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza through Feb.19 as part of the 15th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival.

And new markets are emerging all the time, providing opportunities for artists to talk about issues near and dear to them.

Across the racial divide

Leora Raikin, a white South African, may be a U.S. citizen, but she remains loyal to her black countrymen.

For the past four years, the young West Hills mother, whose English is heavily accented with Afrikaans, has been teaching people of all ages and backgrounds the art of African folklore embroidery.

"I really enjoy doing it," she says of the craft. "That's one of the most important things for me."

Her art involves chain-stitching brightly colored scenes of everyday South African life onto squares of black fabric that can then be sewn into quilts, tablecloths or pillows.

Decorators seeking an elegant dose of color and some history to go with it can check out her creations from 1to 5p.m. Sunday at Candy's Quiltworks, 8917 Reseda Blvd., Northridge, alongside works by her students. Those who buy do-it-yourself kits from Raikin can feel extra good about their purchases, knowing that Raikin uses a portion of her profits to buy clothing and school supplies for the South African charities she visits every year.

Sipping tea at a dining room table covered in a safari animal print, Raikin says she loves engaging collectors in conversations about the cultures and traditions of South Africa's different ethnic groups, specifically the Ndebele (pronounced in-da-belly) people.

She then points out several dolls on her mantle.

"Those are hand-beaded by the Ndebele women," she says. "It's their main, pure source of income, and it's a very particular bead craft that is passed down from mother to daughter. Each of the dolls has its own significance, its own story."

Raikin has plenty of opportunity to share her stories at needlecraft conventions, after-school enrichment programs, birthday parties and workshops, where she is a popular guest speaker.

And she uses her art to spread the word about the doctor-run AIDS charity Kidzpositive. She even sells beaded key chains, pens and bracelets crafted by HIV-infected South African women on her Aflembroidery.com Web site.

Celebrating beauty

Authentic or not, art that evokes the history and culture of the African people is what inspires L.A. painter Tanya Harry, whose work is now hanging at the Star Eco Station, 10101 W. Jefferson Blvd., Culver City.

Harry, 27, creates India ink faces on paper, and her images speak volumes about the perceptions African-American women have about beauty.

"I'll exaggerate the nose and the lips because those are things that we tend not to like about ourselves, and I wanted to show that they are beautiful," she says.

As for the eyes, they're based on the African masks Harry admired during her summer as a Getty Grant intern at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.

"Like us, each one is so different," she says. "Some are really slanted or have big circles under them. So through my work, I guess you can say that I'm making that connection between the past and where we are now. And I think we're beautiful."

Sandra Barrera, [phone]

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CAPTION(S):

8 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) CRAFTING CULTURE

Artist put a face on African heritage

(2 -- 6 -- color) Sandra Heading-Marchand, near right and on the cover, specializes in creating dolls with African themes. She created "African Warrior," above, and the African pillow, center right. The South-African born Leora Raikin, far right, specializes in African folklore embroidery, such as the needlecraft of an African scene, second from left.

(7 -- color) Leora Raikin works on her African folklore embroidery at her West Hills home. She chain-stitches brightly colored scenes of South African life.

(8 -- color) Artist Sandra Heading-Marchand's "Traveler" (2007) is a mixed-media doll of a wandering tribesman.

Tina Burch and Evan Yee/Staff Photographers