Oak Hollow Primitives

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.