For Someone Special Doll Company By Art Nadler Little Sparrow stands only 23 inches tall, but she's as cute as a button dressed in her little buckskin skirt and blouse with her hair braided and adorn with colorful feathers. Then there's Kenya the baker, who sports a spiffy matching white shirt and pants suit. He even comes with his own set of miniature cooking utensils. Both ethnic dolls are the creation of Carol Scott and Isar King, proprietors of the Las Vegas For Someone Special Doll Company, located at 5015 W. Sahara Ave., # 125. Formed only four years ago, the company specializes in ethnically enhanced dolls. By the time Scott and King are finished with a doll, its hair is restyled, physical features enhanced and clothing tailored to authentic ethnic attire.

King, who studied fashion design in high school in New York City, conducts extensive research on each doll's costume before she hand sews it. Historically, a doll becomes a virtual "mini me" version of what a person would have looked like during a special period in history. Scott is the business manager and driving force behind the For Someone Special Doll Company. She makes sure the dolls are delivered to customers, or featured at several trade shows around the country each year. "I go into my records on ethnic dress, visit the libraries and attend pow wows, just to see what's being worn," King says. "It takes a month (from research to enhancement) for each historical ethnic doll to be completed." A finished doll, Scott says in comparison, could wear a baby's size 0 to 3 months old outfit. A completed ethnically enhanced doll 23-inches tall sells for $219, she says. Scott also enlists help in sewing and physically enhancing dolls from her sister, Dorothy, who lives in New Jersey and her brother, Frankie, and sister-in-law, Magelene, who both reside in Tacoma, Wash. "I want to eventually become an umbrella company under which ethnic artists can work," says Scott, who personally owns 700 dolls herself. "Our dolls try to have stories of historical value." One such doll in the company's collection is called Juneteenth, referring to the month in which the slaves in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free. The doll is modeled after Sally Hemings, the African American slave who was President Thomas Jefferson's mistress. This housekeeper slave doll, which is dressed in a period gingham dress and matching headscarf, took a month to complete. The William Grant Still Art Center in Los Angeles was so impressed with the Las Vegas company's dolls that it bought several for its own collection, Scott says. And a new line designed to help fight child abuse is in great demand at the Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland. The dolls, who mirror bruises of abused children, are used by the hospital's social workers for classes in child abuse. The Social Workers Association in California has also ordered several dolls, Scott says. "We are willing to give the dolls free," Scott, a second-grade teacher in Las Vegas, says. "We just want to know how they intend to use the dolls. We also include a survey asking how we can improve the (child-abuse) dolls.'' Besides their own dolls, Scott and King carry a line of ethnic dolls created by artists from Jamaica, Australia and Alaska. The Jamaican Rastafarian dolls are 18 inches tall and wear authentic clothes modeled after garments worn by Jamaican residents. They sell for from $59 to $89. The Australian dolls are made of sock-like wool and stuffed with wool. These Aborigine dolls also exhibit traditional tribal body paints. They sell for $169. Scott says she is hoping to attend 12 doll shows across the country in 2000. Some of them, she says, will be very large. For more information, contact: For Someone Special Doll Co., 5015 W. Sahara Ave., Las Vegas, NV. 89102. Phone: (702) 253-6917.