By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writer
DeRue Johnson of Jackson-ville will be selling her whimsical dolls at the Arkansas Craft Guild’s 34th annual Christmas Showcase next Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
Next weekend’s showcase will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Admission is $5 at the door or free during the early bird shopper special hours from 8 to 10 a.m. next Saturday.
Johnson, 80, said her inspiration to create cloth fairies, elves, dragons, unicorns and more was the illustrated children’s books she read as a youngster.
And her other passion, growing flowers aplenty in her spacious yard, helped keep Johnson’s imagination alive.
“I can see them (fairies) out of the corner of my eye when gardening,” she teased.
Johnson started making dolls in 1980, when her first grandchild was born.
She made a prince for the baby and her family encouraged her to begin selling her work, which includes patterns Johnson designed so that others could also enjoy her craft.
“The biggest challenge is finding an outlet to sell at. They don’t sell well because people want more traditional dolls,” Johnson said.
She started selling her dolls in 1984 through a store in Hot Springs and at shows in Little Rock.
Johnson said she and her dolls have also traveled to shows in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas.
The doll maker said she has always been interested in sewing and has a good reason for choosing material for her creations rather than plastic or porcelain. “Fabric is soft, tactile, a sensation that is appropriate for dolls. I love fabric. I love the colors,” Johnson said.
She joined the craft guild in 1987. This year is the group’s 50th anniversary, Johnson said.
“I have always wanted to be a professional craftsperson,” she shared.
And quality is important, Johnson said. She explained that members of the guild must meet its standards. A committee reviews their work every five years.
Johnson said her dolls and other items made by the members of the guild must be handcrafted and original.
“The people who come to our shows to buy recognize quality,” she said.
Her love of making quality items with her own hands runs in the family.
Johnson’s grandmother was a dressmaker, and Johnson said she comes from a long line of seamstresses.
When she was a child, Johnson enjoyed fairy tales and mythology. Her mother was a librarian so Johnson would get to see the books that sparked her interest in fantasy before they were even put on the shelves.
She said that she once crafted 120 unicorns a few years ago, when they were popular.
Johnson said most of the people who buy her dolls are repeat customers, but she remembered a few who weren’t typical.
One of her customers was a teenage girl who had a brain injury. The dolls were the only things she would respond to, Johnson said. The doll maker received a thank-you letter years later from the girl.
Johnson also recalled a teacher from New York who bought a dragon for his classroom. He rewarded students for reading by allowing them to sit with it, she said.
Most of Johnson’s ideas just come to her, and it is difficult to do commissioned work, the doll maker said.
One of her recent pieces is a doll with a red dress.
Johnson agreed that it reminded her of “The Red Shoes,” a fairy tale in which a vain little girl is cursed to dance in her red shoes.
The doll maker joked, “I feel like the girl with the red shoes, except I can take them off to rest.”
Johnson said she tried to retire once and it didn’t stick. So, she sees no end in sight to her career as a craftswoman.
