Sewing for 20th Century Dolls: 100 Plus Projects, Vol. 2
Johana Gast Anderton began writing and drawing at an early age.  As a first-grader, she sent poems and drawings to the children's page of the Kansas City Journal Post. Johana's first efforts for collectors was a pioneer work on what is commonly known today as "Depression Glass."  Before going out of print, The Glass Rainbow, the Story of Depression Glass went through eight printings and is now considered a collector's item in itself.  The author is well-known in the doll and paper doll worlds for her Twentieth Century Dolls series of reference books, hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, and dozens of black-and-white and full-color paper doll sets published in collector magazines and as convention souvenirs.She is a founding member of the Original Paper Doll Artists Guild (OPDAG), a member of the executive board of the Modern Doll Convention (MDC), a member-at-large of the United Federation of Doll Clubs (UFDC), and a charter member of the Sun, Sand, and Sea Paper Doll Collectors Club of Florida.  She has created souvenir paper dolls for MDC since 1984, with the exception of 1986 and acted as MDC Souvenir Book editor for several years.  Her specially commissioned full-color paper dolls have been given as souvenirs for UFDC regional conferences across the country.  She is also a doll designer; her pattern book, Sewing the Last Christmas Doll, first in series, is now in its fifth printing.  Also in the works is a series of dolls she hopes to have produced by a mold company.  In her spare time she works on a book of fairy tales for children and two novels she hopes to publish "some day".Her activities have included teaching oil painting, instructing YWCA craft classes, personal appearances on television, radio, and at antiques and doll shows and conventions throughout the country.  Her experience in planning and directing conventions has made her, she says, much more appreciative of such functions.  She also teaches occasional workshops and does some lecturing, an activity that is necessarily limited by her full schedule.In 1972 she founded her own publishing company, Athena, and produced books on a variety of subjects in the collectibles field written by well-known authors.  The Athena books were sold to American Broadcasting Company in 1976 and were subsequently published by Wallace-Homestead Book Company and Chilton Books.After living in Florida for thirteen years, Johana and her husband, Harold returned to the Kansas City area in 1995.  There she has a spacious studio in which to work and her first major project has been completion of this second volume of authentic doll clothes patterns for Hobby House Press.  She looks forward to completing several more doll books and paper doll designs in the coming years.