NATCHEZ — Bonnie Jones is a doll maker, but her creations are not suitable for children at a slumber party.

Jones crafts her delicate figures out of polymer clay and spends weeks getting all the details just right.

“When people hear that I make dolls, they automatically think Barbie dolls, but these aren’t Barbie dolls,” she said. “Some people don’t like to call them dolls at all, but that’s what they are.”

Others call the craft figurative sculptures, but Jones said she’s OK calling her figures dolls.

But the process isn’t as simple as the word doll infers. Jones said the intricate process of crafting begins with a wood base and a handcrafted wire armature that Jones makes for each different piece.

“I never use a mold,” Jones said. “I could have created a prototype that was my own and used that, but I prefer to stay with one-of-a-kind pieces.”

To create her one-of-a-kind pieces, Jones used either an air-dry clay from the Netherlands or a FIMO clay from Germany that has to be fired.

Jones creates the head first, because that determines the height of the rest of the figure.

“Men are eight heads tall and women are seven and a half heads tall,” Jones said. “If you don’t get the proportions correct, nothing will look right.

“If I make a 1-inch head for a man, then I’m going to have an 8-inch figure.”

Because, the head plays such an important role, Jones said that is often the most time consuming portion of the entire process.

“One of the last ones I finished, had two heads,” Jones said. “I couldn’t get the first one right so I just ripped it off and started over.”

Before applying the clay to the wire armature body, Jones must apply a stretchy craft tape to the wire frame because “the clay won’t stick to just wire,” she said.

Most often, Jones sculpts fairies and mermaids, but got her start creating Santa Claus figures.

She made the switch to fairies and mermaids partially because the market demand — she sells most of her dolls on E-bay — was stronger, but she said she had also become tired of the Santas.

“Now you have to practically get down on your knees and beg me to make a Santa,” Jones said jokingly.

After creating the head and the body for her dolls, the fun part begins. That is when Jones begins to give her dolls personality through facial expressions, hair, clothing and accessories.

“I like to use on the finest silk and lace and fabrics because they are so delicate and drape so beautifully,” Jones said.

For her fairies, Jones puts a lot of detail work into creating the wings using a product called Fantasy Film. The product is a cellophane material.

“Once you hit this product with heat from a heat gun, it just explodes with color,” she said.

While Jones said she is still an amateur in her craft — “You should see some of the really talented artists, they are making really beautiful things that mine don’t compare to,” her talents have been recognized in national and statewide organizations.

Jones is a member of the Original Doll Artist Council of America and recently became a fellow in the Craftmen’s Guild of Mississippi in Jackson. To achieve that status, Jones had to submit three finished pieces for four separate reviews over a nine-year period.

“Over that period they are looking to make sure you have maintained your level of work and hope that you have even improved,” she said.

Jones retired in 2000, but her doll making began in the 1980s when she saw someone making cloth dolls at a craft show. Jones was intrigued by the craft and started purchasing magazines to learn how to make the dolls herself.

Not long after that, Jones saw someone using the clay to craft dolls and she wanted to expand her doll-making hobby to include that as well.

“I started just covering the head and hands with the clay and thought I was doing something really special,” she said. “Turns out that is what everyone was doing.”

One doll can take Jones several weeks or even months to complete, but now that she is retired she is happy to have something to fill her time with.

She said she hears so many stories of people being bored when they retire that she truly feels lucky.

“I haven’t felt bored for a single day since I retired,” she said. “The secret to a happy retirement is having something you are truly passionate about to do.”

And Jones’ passion for doll making is evident by the several dozen boxes, drawers, cabinets and shelves in her studio, that is connected to her home via a door in her bedroom, that are packed full of fabric, mohair, beads, glitter and other accessories for her dolls.

“Some of my best inspirations come in the middle of the night,” she said. “I think if you go to bed thinking about something, then the brain keeps working and the solution or answer will hit you in the middle of the night.

“Some people have a pad and pencil by the bed for cases like that, but I just get up and do it, but I close the door so I don’t wake up my husband or the dog at 3 a.m.”