New Ventures and Old Friends

Time is flying by here, but I have some very exciting news.  I will be joining PFATT in February.  This is a tremendous honor. There are so many wonderful artists on the site.  I have to admit, I feel like a waterboy being selected to the football hall of fame.  They have asked that I expand on my line of tin tinkering.   So, I have been busy studying the antiques, and designing reproductions with my own touch.  I have also been working out new items.  If you need a roiling pin holder or a dickensesque chamber stick with a vintage glass globe, check back next month. I  have also hooked up with a couple from California who will be hand forging brackets and bases to go with my lanterns and lamps.  I am very excited about this partnership.  They are very good to work with in designing just what I need.  I think these lamps and lanterns will give your home a nice early American primitive touch.

On the sculpting front, I am hard at work designing new Belsnickles for 2012.  I am also introducing a few new one-of-a-kind figures.   Be looking for my Tommyknocker in the future.  I am very excited to have found some nice antique and vintage accessories for him.  Don’t know what a Tommyknocker is?  If you like mining history, look it up.  I am also working on some large rabbits and pumpkin heads who will help me cultivate a new crop of some of my favorite crew.   Be looking for characters to pop up from my favorite fairy tales and celtic legends too. 

I have also decided that I needed to do something special for myself.  Something that didn’t have me sitting all day and night.  I started a martial arts class.  It is 3 nights a week right now, so my art is pretty much reserved for weekends.  I really needed to do this.  Aside from needing to strengthen my body, I needed a stress reliever.  Plus, there just seems to be more and braver criminals around these days.  I think that exercise that gets you in shape and allows you to toss a full grown man over your head is pretty great.

Until next time….

Hello holly berries!

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season.  Mine started off a little rough, but I am on the mend both physically and mentally. 2012 is going to be a great year.  We are going to make it a great year.

 I haven’t started my Christmas shopping yet.  That’s right, I am shopping this year. In years past, I have made most of my gifts, but I have to admit I kind of missed the commercialism of Christmas a bitJ. I miss the sales and the sparkle and the wrapping paper and Christmas music and the traffic and the people.  I know it seems insane.   I think it stems from my dichotic childhood. 

I had one grandmother with a real cut Christmas tree (I still love the smell of cedar more than any scent you can buy), old fashioned ornaments and a big home cooked Christmas breakfast. She i a make do kind of lady who rarely bought anything that wasn’t useful.   It was a cozy Emmitt Otter kind of Christmas with frozen ponds and wood stoves.  I loved it.

My other grandmother had all the sparkle, the latest and greatest.  I think she rarely bought anything that was useful.  She had an artificial tree covered in flashy garland and brightly colored balls.  The whole living room was decorated with nativities and Santas..  She had a giant record player that seemed to play Gene Autry non-stop the whole season.  She even had a candy dish full of ribbon candy…and yes, we had to pry it apart with a knife.

I had the best of both-- a down-home country Christmas and a kitschy, sparkly Christmas.  Fast forward a few years and you have my chaos.  Primarily, my house is decorated in primitive and handmade Christmas items.  I made my own feather tree and decorated it with antique and handmade items.  The first impression would probably be a pioneer/early Victorian Christmas. And I love it.

But in one corner of my house, I cannot get away from that other side of me that likes sparkle.  It takes all the strength I can muster to resist purchasing all that beautiful glittery stuff I see at places like Hobby Lobby. I try to keep it real… as in vintage.  I have a small vintage aluminum tree, vintage shiny brites in those fabulous lime green and orange colors, bubble lights, and even a gaudy eggnog set. I even bought working vintage Christmas lights, but I am afraid to use them as they smell a little strange when I plug them in.   I have dancing Santas and glitter reindeer.  Christmas houses and candle rings.   I like to think of this as my 1950’s space age style Christmas area.  And yes, I even purchased a candy dish which I plan on filling with a lump of ribbon candy.

Right now I try to keep these personalities separate, but I look forward to the day when I can mesh the two.  It won’t make any sense to anyone but me, and those who grew up like I did.  This might also explain why some nights you will find me hammering out my primitive tin lanterns in the garage wearing a big bow in my hair and silver polish on my nails.  I heard you can be useful or ornamental.  I think I want to be both.  Like Rosie the Riveter.  My mom says mine is a life of contradictions.  I have the latest electronics (married a programmer) and earliest tinsmith machines.  I have handmade brooms and a Floormate.  I have bells and whistles and rustic charm.  I guess for me, it’s a not really that hard to reconcile, it’s just home and I love it. 

To all those primitive people with the dancing Santa hiding in your closet, bring him out and proudly display him next to your hand carved nativity… I promise it will be ok.