CORNHUSKS DOLLS FOR FUN AND PROFIT

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LESSONS

There's one fact you should face from the start: People will copy your dolls. You'll have "customers" who examine your wares at length, from all angles . . . and then go home and make their own. Wonderful! Enjoy your role as a transmitter of folk fun, and don't worry about the effect on your profits. There'll always be plenty of shoppers who lack time, husks, or scraps and decide that they simply must have one of your creations.

Then again, since your work will be imitated anyhow, why not make it official? When you've developed some expertise yourself, perhaps you can arrange-on your own or through a local craft or candle shop-to give lessons in the art and craft of cornhusk dollmaking.

The classes you teach can be run very simply: just seat your students around a big table or on the floor by the fireplace, serve herb tea, and demonstrate the creation of a doll while the pupils follow through each step with raw materials you provide. You might charge $2.00 to $3.00 a lesson, 'per person, and take up to 10 novices at a time. I wouldn't make the group any larger than that, though . . . you want to keep your class small enough to allow you to give individual help to those who need it.

What better use for a chilly afternoon is there? If you do teach a class in cornhusk dollmaking you'll be helping to preserve a traditional craft, showing others how to have fun, having fun yourself, and getting paid . . . all at the same time. Maybe there are other home business ideas that offer as much pleasure and profit for such a small outlay . . . but I haven't discovered them yet.

MAKE THESE SCARECROW PEOPLE TOO!

Just as I was about to wrap up my piece on cornhusk dolls, we stumbled on another way to create little figures from the same raw materials. These variations on the theme"scarecrow people", we call them-are closer to the original folk version that was made as children's playthings. They're cruder than the type I've described in the accompanying article, but sturdy and full of personality . . . and, since they're dressed in odds and ends of cloth, you can achieve subtle variations in character by means of costume.

In fact, although scarecrow people are easily made by children, the fun of clothing them in scraps makes this an addictive adult craft too. I've been constructing one doll every evening after milking and now have a basketful of assorted characters . . . most of whom I can't bear to sell. Since I've promised a dozen to a gift shop and another dozen to a craft fair, I'll have to keep myself from getting too attached to the next batch.

The following materials are all you'll need to people your house, barn, or cabin with lively scarecrows:

[1] Cornhusks and silk
[2] White glue
[3] String and thread
[4] Fabric scraps, used jeans, sweaters, dresses, etc.

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