A preview of what's to come!

Here is a hand made box which is featured on the WSOAPP blog in the recipe section. I had pictured it stuffed with homemade Christmas sugar cookies, ( all of which are now gone, I assure you;O) ), but it will be offered in my WSOAPP store as a Christmas tag and stationary box. So many of my steady customers have been after me to sell a large quantity of tags as a bundle deal. So here's to you guys who have been writing me since October....I am bundling 20 of my best sellers in with this box. It will be offered at $50.00 plus travel fare to your home. The tags themselves are valued at $30.00. The box is a generous 9x9 inches and has been made by myself.



If you are interested in this item, hop into my WSOAPP shop to be the first to buy it when it is listed. Pictured here are just a few of the tags that will be offered. There will be two of each that are currently sold over in the shop and a few that will be surprises!

Sorry, this item has sold out!

contact me if you are interested in something similar; I will accept custom order requests up until December 21st.

The 2nd in my Old WorldFather Christmases series has finally taken shape and is ready to go out for sale. This year has been a hard year for me to work on my projects as my elderly father needs extra help and as my little one who is in second grade now is getting more active in clubs and in church. I have only created four St. Nicks this year. I have had some orders to consider for custom made, or made to customer request santas, and I will most likely get to those here soon.

I have been asked to join in with a handful of other traditional folk artists and send my work to the Early American Life Magazine for jurying to get on their traditional artisan list; and I'm excited to say, I am going to do it! So the challenge has been put out there to create my most interpretive piece of history and Americana yet, and get it to them by next spring. Hopefully, my work will be seen in next year's 2009 EAL, Christmas magazine on their tradtional artisans list.

Right now, the other two Father Christmases I made are in shops and both have already been sold. Some of my customers have written me and asked if I was using real fur on the coat trimmings as well as Cottswold sheep's wool for their beards; the answer is YES! I am using what I called "recycled fur" I have spent a great deal of time snooping through antique shops and resale shops searching for old fur coats and leather coats and belts. I painstakingly remove the stuff I don't need and process the fur or leather by trimming it into the right sized pieces that I need.
I feel that this way, an animal's pelt has been reused and not just thrown away. The figure picture here is wearing mink and his gloves were created from a very vintage sweater.

To view where this old world Father Christmas is currently being offered, check out my wsoapp shop by following the links over in the side column. He will only be offered there for a short time before he is placed in a shop.

My Olde World Santas

I've been working my tail off to
finish my old world Santa clauses. I think my favorite part of creating each piece is the "wigging" part when I create his beard and hair. I don't know, call it a throw back to when I was a small child and would spend hours combing out my Barbie's hair, elegantly coiffing and styling it; either way, I love it. I probably should have become a beautician.

When I create my Old World St. Nicholas figures, I start by hand sculpting their heads and faces out of paperclay. It is close in makeup to paper mache, and I find that it is much better for holding details in the facial expressions, such as fine wrinkles around the eyes and forehead. after the drying process, I then paint the head in a portrait with real milk paints to make it resemble it's antique counterparts. I then use pure Cottswold sheep's wool, approximately one year's worth of grown on the animal's coat. I comb out the cleaned, washed and processed fibers and then attach them to the Santa's head with doll wig glue.

I think my greatest inspirations are those old antique, German candy containers. To me, they almost represent the spirit of Christmas past.