Salmon Falls Artisans Showroom celebrates both Black History Month and Valentines Day with the Fetish Dolls of Belinda Lyons Zucker. Gallery Two will show her series of dolls and figures designed to celebrate and just possibly bring love into your life. Lyons Zucker, who lives in Turners Falls, is accomplished in ceramics, painting and the fiber arts. She has brought all these skills together to create more than 400 figures and dolls in her lifetime. She states that she creates her figures as ‘mediators.’  This idea of object serving as mediator comes from West Africa, where Lyons Zucker has traced her own lineage back to her great, great, great grandmother on her mother’s side. This grandmother was brought over from Sierra Leone to work the rice fields in the Carolinas. To create a fetish doll in the traditional sense, there needs to be a person asking for intercession to get something they want, and a Shaman willing to create a figure for that person.  The doll or figure will become the object able to help the asker attain their desire. It is a contract of spirit and honor. Lyons explains that there is probably not one African culture in which dolls, figures or masks are not incorporated into everyday life to serve all kinds of purposes. Reception on February 11 from 3-6 pm. The experience of this exhibit is not just for viewing. Lyons Zucker invites you to make your own Love Fetish Doll Sunday, February 12 from 1-3pm at the gallery. The plain doll will be provided and Lyons Zucker will teach participants how to add the charms, words and embellishments to personalize it into their own doll. Please call the gallery ahead to register for the workshop at 413 625-9833 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . The cost for the workshop is $45 including all materials. To see more of Lyons Zucker’s dolls go to http:www.picturetrail.com/beezdolls.