It was a doily kind of thing, fancy and white and lacy, embossed with bright purple grapes and made by a company in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Would Americans buy it to put under their tea sets?It was exactly the kind of question that artist Terry Johnson had come to Russia to answer. As a volunteer with the Citizens Democracy Corps, Johnson had been sent from Ogden to St. Petersburg to help several small companies figure out how to market their wares.

If capitalism is to survive, Russians will have to learn to design, produce and market products that people will actually buy. If they want to sell linens to America, for example, they'll have to learn that Americans don't want doilies to put under tea sets and coffee services. Americans drink their coffee out of mugs.

This is the nitty-gritty of a free-market economy: You have to sell what people want to buy or convince people that they want to buy what you sell.

Johnson has been marketing her own art for two decades. A painter, sculptor, teacher and entrepreneur, she knows how to get commissions and sell her work. That's why the Citizens Democracy Corps, based in Washington, D.C., sent her to Russia and teamed her with several small companies hoping to sell their crafts to the rest of the world.

Let economists and political scientists debate the future of capitalism in the former Soviet Union. Johnson learned firsthand that a free-market economy also depends on little things like price tags and business cards.

The companies she visited had neither, so Johnson showed them how to design and make them. She also introduced her hosts to glue guns, fine-point pens and other tools that make art and marketing easier.

Johnson was teamed up with a crafts and souvenir company in St. Petersburg that employs disabled artisans. She also consulted with the Social Business Center in Schlissilburg, about an hour out of St. Petersburg. And she counseled a group of fine artists whose paintings are languishing in Russian galleries.

Johnson's own artwork can be found in places as diverse as Taco Time and trendy Aspen boutiques. She has sold painted Levi's coats to Nordstrom and a mural to Intermountain Health Care. One of her most visible works is a sculpture at Weber State University.

That sculpture, titled "Let's Try Again," was her first work after the death of her husband in 1993. Commissioned to do an ice-skating sculpture, Johnson chose to bypass the usual fancy spins and to depict instead a fallen skater being offered a hand by a friend.

"We've all fallen," says Johnson. "It's the decision whether to get up again that's important."

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It was the extended hands of hospice volunteers during her husband's illness - and the desire to give something back to other people - that encouraged Johnson to apply as a volunteer with the Citizens Democracy Corps. The CDC sends American entrepreneurs and executives to Russia and Eastern Europe to support the transition to free-market economies.

Although Johnson encouraged her Russian hosts to become more marketable, she also encouraged them to keep their distinctive style. "We don't want them to become Americanized," she says.

Johnson's own latest business venture is "Boudoir Suites," a collection of 9-by-18-inch doll bedrooms elaborately decorated with fancy sheets, comforters and accessories. Johnson designs and makes the suites with her sister, Lael Furgeson, and sells them for upscale prices ($500 to $600) at boutiques in Sun Valley, Aspen and Deer Valley. They are currently in negotiations with F.A.O. Schwartz.

The newest entry in the collection will be a Russian bedroom, decorated with hand-embroidered sheets from St. Petersburg.

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