LITTLE ROCK — DeRue Johnson's doll-making enterprise began with a box of Cracker Jack.
It was 1980 and her husband, George, was eating Cracker Jack. When he pulled his prize - a red demonlike figure - from the box, she remembers telling him, "I bet I could make a doll like that."
Specifi cally, she wanted to create a doll for her first grandchild, with whom daughter Jessica Bleichner was pregnant at the time. Since they didn't know if the baby would be a girl or boy, Johnson says, she fashioned a gnomelike fi gure.
That baby was a boy. Johnson, who lives in rural Lonoke County, now has five grandsons. She has made frog and dragon dolls for each one.
Since 1984, Johnson has been making dolls to sell (prices range $25-$150). She has made fairies and gnomes, whimsical woodland creatures, dragons, mermaids, unicorns and other types of fantasy figures. Last year, she says, she tried to retire but missed making dolls so much that she began creating them again.
Sewing is a family tradition, the 76-year-old says. Her mother, Rue Branch, sewed, and grandmother Jessie Jacobs Eubanks made dresses in the early 1900s.
As for herself, Johnson says, shemade her first doll when she was 8 or 9 years old. She continued making dolls and used ready-made patterns until she fashioned the doll for her first grandson. After that, she created her own patterns; now other artisans make dolls from her patterns.
The fantasy aspect of her dolls comes from her childhood, when her mother worked at the public library in Wichita Falls, Texas. Johnson liked to look at the illustrations in old children's books.
"I don't read fantasy books," Johnson says, "I just love the visual aspect of fantasy."
She and her husband, a former flight engineer in the U.S. Air Force, moved to Arkansas when he was transferred to Little Rock Air Force Base in 1970. Their home includes a studio where she makes her dolls.
"I really enjoy painting on the fabric, but the best part is getting an idea and seeing it through and completing it."
Johnson's dolls will be available during the Arkansas Craft Guild show Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. Hours for the show are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. For information about the show, call (870) 269-4120. See Johnson's Web site, djmysticgarden. com, for information about her dolls.
Family, Pages 33 on 12/03/2008