Archive for April, 2009

Now for some Halloween in April!

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

We’re going way back for this one – back to when it was still warm (we had frost here Thursday night! Unheard of!) back to when UVa and VaTech and the Redskins still had a chance, way back to last October! This was to be the last update on our old website, but time and orders got away from us and by the time I had a chance to get to it we were in creation mode for the new site, so this update just sat and waited.

Back in September of ’08 we were commissioned to make a special Headless Horseman. If you’ve browsed our Folk Art section then you’ve probably seen some of the other Headless Horseman designs we’ve done in the past. This particular piece was a new idea – what if the Headless Horseman had to forgo the Horse and find alternate transportation? With that counter factual we come to this:

The piece is titled “Headwind to Nantucket”, since that is the location where the client has a home that became the resting place of this work. As you can see, we had the Jack-O-Lantern head acting as ‘Lookout’ while the body rowed. The entire work was about 16-18″ long, and was well received by the customer. This figure in the boat was the precursor to several other commissions the following month (December), which I’ve detailed in other blog postings. Check out the ‘Christmas in April’ entries from earlier this month for more.

We’re in deadline/countdown flight of the bumblebee mode around here, working hard to be ready for our April show next weekend, the 25th and 26th. If you received our Newsletter this past week – and please sign up, it’s easy and will alert you to our events and new work- then you already know about the show. We’ll send another email out early next week to remind everyone about the event.

The other reason to sign up for our Newsletter is the discount coupon that was attached! To celebrate our new website in style (and to celebrate the fact that I have finally gotten the hang of updating it!) we’re offering a
10% off coupon on all web orders placed before the end of the month!
The only catch is that you need to sign up to get the coupon code, so sign up! It’s easy and you can opt-out at any time. Not that you’d want to….I promise it’s worth it. (now for the disclaimer – offer only good on web orders April 1st-30th, not valid on commissions or wholesale orders, to receive the discount mention offer code when ordering. To order call or email and we’ll do the rest!)

Our next update should be in a day or so. We’ll be updating more current business – including huge flock of Herons and a really fun Artichoke based on a kitchen tile!

So make sure you remember our upcoming gallery show, April 25th and 26th, and come out to support American Artists: Bryce Ritter, Around the Bend Willow Furniture, Debbie and Donnie Rogers and yours truly!

We’ll be looking for you!

Jac

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Feels Like Christmas in April…

Friday, April 10th, 2009

…and it’s not just the weather!

Once again I’m trying to play catch up. Here are more images of items we were commissioned to make as Christmas presents from last December. In my last post I showed you the pictures from our December open house. If you look carefully you’ll see that we were woefully under-represented at our own show. It certainly wasn’t intentional, just a simple problem of having too much to do and not enough days on the calendar.

Whenever Christmas rolls around we never know how many orders will come in, or what you, the customer, will request. This is both a blessing and a curse. We love challenges, and certainly love being busy, but at the same time we must balance our priorities to our retail and wholesale customers. We also don’t want anyone disappointed come Christmastime, so this past December our only recourse was to re-direct our energy and time into those orders, and cut back on our inventory for our December show. We had a good selection for the show, don’t misunderstand, but it wasn’t up to our usual standards for a retail show. That said, we are working overtime to make sure that when you come see us on April 25th and 26th it will be worth the trip.

And speaking of worth the trip – if you received our Newsletter (and shame on you if you haven’t signed up for it – just click the little envelope on the bottom of the page. Go ahead, I’ll wait….) then you know that we are pleased to announce that Debbie and Donnie Rogers will be joining us for the Spring show in April! We’re big fans (and collectors) of their work, and can’t wait to see what they’ll bring to the show. Maybe something(s) like this!

The images above are from Debbie and Donnie’s ‘Little People Series’ – figures hand carved by Donnie and painted by Debbie. No two are ever exactly alike, and they all have interesting personalities and presences. I expect we’ll see some at our show April 25th and 26th.

So, enough rambling, lets get to more pictures.

As you can see from the pictures above, our Christmas commisions ran the gamut from pets to penguins to Santa hunting and boating family members.  Jeanne’s Idlers in particular was a great challenge.  We had good pictures of the three subjects, and clear instructions on what the client wanted to see, but the techincal challenge of carving facial features on sculptures this small (the entire work was only about 24″ long) almost undid me.  You haven’t lived until you’re up at 3am, with the deadline looming, staring at faces the size of your thumb and trying desperately to discern if they do indeed look like the person you are trying to emulate.  I can honestly say that even five years ago I wouldn’t have been able to do it.  But with practice comes a semblance of perfection – I don’t flatter myself to think I’ll ever be able to carve a face perfectly.  In the end the sculpture arrived in time for Christmas, and the client was pleased, which was our largest worry.  Aside from actually making the deadline!

The other fun challenge pictured was the traditional Santa with his hunting skiff and gear.  This was a commission from one of our earliest and best decoy Dealers.  This particular gentleman has been buying my wife Patricia’s work since she was 16.  Being a good husband I will refrain from giving you a starting age so that you can extrapolate, but it is quite a while.  The request was for a ‘Hunting Santa’, and I think we did a good job conveying that!  This piece is about 18′ long, and the Canvasback ‘decoys’ in the boat are no bigger than about 3/4 of an inch.  I did not enjoy carving those.  ‘Nuff said.  But carving Santa and the boat was fun.  We even included a mini over/under stuck in the gunnel of the boat.  This commisison went down to the wire.  Since it was a local customer we were able to skip shipping times and that gave us an extra day or two to finish up.  We needed it.  If memory serves this was a Christmas Eve pickup.  Right down to the wire….

That’s it for this update of Christmas in April.  I tried to schedule this so that it would finish up on Good Friday – just for symmetry’s sake and I think I’ve managed it.  So the next update will be reaching even farther back  – back to October when my 200 1/2K was actually still a 401K – and will feature a Halloween Commission!  But I will have enough grace to wait until after Easter for that one!

Happy Easter!

Jac

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December in April

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

If you’re visiting the site from our April Newsletter – Welcome! Look around, click on some categories and galleries and enjoy the new, easier to navigate site. If you’ve just stumbled in from the cold of the internet you’re still welcome – just make sure you sign up for the Newsletter and our email alerts. That way you won’t miss any of our newer work and will get updates via email, saving several clicks on the mouse. And thanks for visiting. Come back anytime!

File this update in the ‘better late than never’ category.

Back in December of ’08 (you remember faithful reader, it was back when the economy was bad but we still had hope that it wouldn’t be too bad) we conspired with some friends – Around the Bend Willow Furniture and Bryce Ritter and Son Furniture – to do a show here in our gallery space on the farm.  The weather co-operated (for once!) and turnout was good for our little event.  We didn’t have time to take as many pictures as we would have liked, but the ones we did take are here for your viewing pleasure.  Our gallery showroom hasn’t looked as good since!

Unfortunately we were under represented at our own show due to the overwhelming crush of Christmas orders we were asked to create.  Some of those will be upcoming this month, as I push the Christmas in April angle for all its worth.  Like I mentioned in an earlier entry, since our site was down for updates for about 6 weeks or so we’ve got a whole hard drive full of new items, commissions and general unseen images.

But just so we aren’t constantly trapped in the wayback machine, here’s a set of images from our work for the Virginia Duathlon and Kale Running:

As you can see in the above set of images, our showroom looked much better when we had help decorating it!  Our work has a lot going for it, but it is just not comfortable to sit in.

All joking aside we were honored to be asked to provide the awards for the 2009 Virginia Duathlon – again!  The images above are the actual awards you received if you were good enough to win in your division.  Congratulations from us to all the racers.

That’s all for now.  I’ll have another update in a few days.  Also, if you’ve signed up for our email newsletter from Constant Contact look for that on Monday or Tuesday of this week.  If you’re reading this you’re ahead of the game, since it will be an alert that our new website is up and running, just like the competitors in the Duathlon!

Jac

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