Sheila Bentley: Hags and All Things Halloween

Sheila Bentley is creating one-of-a-kind hags, witches, zombies...everything creepy and Halloween. While Sheila will create young hags, her heart really is for more experienced ones.  Her motto is the more wrinkles the better.  She doesn’t plan or sketch; she works intuitively and never knows who is going to emerge from the clay.  

The weirdest character she ever made was a rat witch with a human face. One of her favorite things is creating the small companions for her larger pieces. Sheila is known for the detail and styling of the clothes on her dolls. She makes her own patterns and sometimes paints on the clothes because it is tricky finding fabric with patterns in the right scale.  

She started her career in the early 1990s doing craft shows. She created whatever was trendy, then moved on to Santas, and finally found her place in Halloween. Sheila loves that there are no rules with Halloween; you can be as sweet or as dark as you want.  

Her home studio is a “hoarder’s delight” with “hag parts everywhere.” Sheila lives on a farm with her husband, who grows pumpkins for wholesale. Farming and art are a family affair and Sheila’s sisters have assisted her with booth duties at Bewitching Peddlers of Halloween. 

Sheila is passionate for dog rescue. She has four dogs of her own and always has a foster dog or litter unless it is high Halloween creation season.  

She recommended the collage work of Janice Lowry and wickedly whimsical works of Lurena Williamson.  

You can find her work at: https://sheilabentley.com