…to point out that it technically wasn’t two posts in a row to end out the month of August.

Seems that I started a post, realized that the new Flickr plugin wasn’t working properly and bailed out on it, but only after having published it to see if it was in fact working correctly.  Once the plugin was working I went back to it.  Then  I just edited the previous post, which was earlier in time.  So from my point of view I did two new posts in as many days, but the website didn’t show that.

Oh well.  All that really matters is that everything still works, and we’re starting to seriously plow through the image archives and start uploading and adding images en mass to this section (the blog) and in turn add individual images to their respective categories in the main section of the website.

Here are the most recent uploads to our Flickr page, soon to be divided and conquered to their proper individual pages – enjoy

The next thing to look out for will be a new newsletter, as well as a show schedule page.

Due to the downright weird year we’ve been having (weird in the sense that there’s a large recession bearing down on all of us!) we scheduled more shows this fall than normal.  Unfortunate for us, but good for you, the public.  Since we did this foolhardy thing we plan to make the most of it and try and see as many customers and clients as possible between now and Christmas.  So keep an eye out for the schedule, and don’t be surprised if we show up at an event near you!

Jac

Wow.  Two posts in as many days.  I’m sure everyone out there is stunned.

But it is just really exciting when things actually start to mesh and workout.

I know I mentioned previously that I wouldn’t bore you with the details of our blog outage.  So I won’t give you details.  But part of the problem was the amount of images we generate and the willingness (or unwillingness, depending on your point of view) of our hosting company to allow us to continue.  So, in order to continue to offer customers and clients as many images of our work as possible we found a neat little work around.  Flickr.

Now we’d had a Flickr account for years, but never really used it.  Turns out the good folks at tantannoodles have a great little plug-in for WordPress that allows you to store and retrieve images off site on your Flickr account.  Presto!  We’re back in the image producing business.  Impressed?  I was.  If you are still as fuzzy as I was when it was explained to me let me give you an example:

This is a nine foot long custom Codfish we designed and created for the new Main Street location of Nantucket Looms.  If you’re on island drop by and see it in the window – provided it hasn’t found a new home by now.

Still not convinced?  O.K. we’ll try another one, but this is the last one:

This is the window display piece we did for our June gallery show at City Folk Gallery in Lancaster, PA.  It is a solid tabletop swan with a crooked neck position and ‘flying’ wings.

A few months back I would’ve hesitated to post these images on our website because of the server limitations.  So they would’ve been filed, only to come out when a client asked to see other fish or other swans we’ve done in preparation for ordering a custom piece.  But now I can throw caution to the wind and toss images around willy-nilly like Annie Liebowitz playing 52 pickup!

So as long as I have the time for updating this site (unless I can train someone in the studio here to do it!) we’ll be posting more images.

And I apologize for giving out boring details.  But you did get two posts in two days out of it didn’t you?

Jac

Well, after a not-so-brief outage we are back at the keyboard again.  I won’t bore any tireless readers out there with a detailed description of just what happened to the blog section of the site, but let’s just say the learning curve was steeper than I anticipated back when I announced that we’ve gotten the hang of the new blogging software. Thanks again to Jake of  KREKURA webdesign for all his help.  There is literally no way we could have pulled the blog section back up without his help. While we may have been dark we certainly weren’t idle.  In the two intervening months we exhibited at two shows: one at City Folk Gallery and a benefit show for Small Friends on Nantucket, on Nantucket Island.  The Nantucket show is part of the reason for the blog outage, as we were out of the studio for two weeks around the show weekend (I know, two weeks on Nantucket in July, isn’t life great?) and consequently out of the studio.  Time was short, and this blog section was expendable. If you want to see images from the Nantucket show click here : So, after we returned to the studio in late July we went immediately into panic mode – mainly due to the backlog of Gallery orders that came in late this year as a result of the current *ahem* economic uncertainty.  Most of our seasonal customers ordered later than usual, and that put us under more pressure.  The blog sat and waited again.  Now we are facing quite a few commissions from customers and the website can’t wait any longer.  In order to provide the level of design service our clients expect we need to update their project pages here.

If you have a custom order with us and your page isn’t updated (or even up yet!) have no fear.  It may be that we are just slow, but it could also mean that we are waiting for some additional information from you.  So check your email, voice-mail and snail-mail to see if we’ve contacted you asking for measurements, pictures or something less mundane.

Enough housekeeping.  I’m not good at it and don’t like doing it.  So let’s move on, shall we, to something I think that you’ll like better – pictures!

These are brand new images of some new work and some old work.  We’ve set up a photo area here in our showroom and are working on getting the bugs out of the setup.  So you, lucky reader, get to see them before we add them to the webpages they belong to.  Over time we will gradually be replacing the old images, often shot with a digital camera at a show or right before the work went into a carton for shipping, with new and more detailed images.

In the ‘old’ days of the web we shot images for our own records, never worrying about the backgrounds or color clarity, as simple records in case we needed to reproduce a piece.  The amount of new pieces we do in a month made getting professional pictures of everything completely unfeasible.  The images we took, coupled with our paper templates, worked great as a record in house.  Not so great for web publishing.  Especially now, with digital camera advances and storage as cheap as it is.  So look for a gradual improvement in the quality and quantity of the pictures.

That’s enough for now.  We’ll be sending out another newsletter in the next week or so.  Thanks for visiting!

Jac

In more ways than one!

First I’d like to apologize for our website being down over the weekend. It is part of a clerical issue we’re having with our current web hosting company, and revolves around the finer points of what the term ‘unlimited’ means. We’re back up and running now, but for a time there the site was turned off on their end. It wouldn’t have happened at all if they had simply emailed us to let us know it was possible, but for some reason they didn’t. We’ve had our site parked with them since the early to mid ’90′s with nary a problem, so I guess one issue in 15+ years is forgivable.

But that’s not why you, faithful customer and reader are here, is it? You want pictures! Well, after our marathon of four shows in three weeks (I’m including the show in Glenmoore PA at Up Home in that count, since we did contribute inventory to it!) we’ve got a large amount of *stuff* to get through before we can do a full update. But for now I’ll entice you with this:

This lovely crustacean was crafted especially for City Folk and our first Friday show there. In the first image it’s difficult to see the scale – is it small? Tabletop sized perhaps, just bigger than the real thing? Or is it Hollywood disaster-movie Will Smith sized? In the second image you can see Tricia’s hand on the wall. Yikes! That won’t fit into any crab trap I ever used. It’s not Fay Wray on the Empire State builidng huge, but it’s big enough. Or if you’re into the numbers, the Blue Crab topped out at 48″ wide and 35″ high. And 5″ deep, if you really must know. It is carved from white cedar, with the legs carved separately from the body – just in case I ever need to ship it somewhere (God forbid!). Each segment on the legs is carved individually, then pinned together with steel pins. This particular piece came out as close to our sketch as any piece we’ve ever done – probably due to the number of delicious specimens I’ve had the privilege to study first hand, in detail, at various newspaper covered picnic tables over the years.

There you have the quick update of the day. I’ll be back (didn’t someone say that in another Hollywood summer disaster movie?) with more images from our City Folk show in a few days. Thanks for the patience!

Jac

We are 50% done with our insane May-June schedule.

The first two legs of the four legged odyssey are over: a rain drenched family reunion on the 17th and a dry (but equaly miserable) Westport Handcrafted show.  The last two committments to go are a gallery show this coming weekend at Moonrise Bay Vineyard and Winery in NC and a First Friday Gallery show June 5th at City Folk in Lancaster, PA.

The family reunion we held here on the farm for Tricia’s family was great fun, but was also damp from torrential rainfall.  The crowd this year was smaller, as we expected, but whether it was due to the Biblical rainfall totals or the current economic slowdown I can’t say.  But even with the hardship from the rain it was an enjoyable day, and it was great to catch up with family members we haven’t seen – in some cases – since last year’s reunion.

The next event was the Handcrafted Show in Westport CT this past Memorial Day weekend.  That was not as enjoyable as we’d hoped.  The show looked great, and the customer sentiment was almost wholly positive, but sales were disappointing.  In a lot of ways its understandable, since the general area around the show has been hit hard by the double body blow of Wall St. layoffs and declining property values.  The customers just weren’t in a buying mood.  Luckily we only lost the time we invested in the show, but there were other artists who were not as fortunate.  In this current climate of uncertainty it is completely understandable for customers to cut back.  But just remember, a lot of us in the art/design world exist to create, and if there is no market for what we create then it only makes sense to stop, and the world becomes a less interesting place.  Sorry for the mini-sermon.  If you follow us and this site you know it’s not our usual.

So now on to some fun stuff!  This Saturday we’ll be at the Moonrise Bay Vineyard and Winery on Knotts Island, NC.  If you will be in Virginia Beach or northeastern North Carolina come by between 12 and 5pm for a great time.  They’ll be music, wine tasting and of course – Art!  Admission is $25 and well worth the trip.

Then the following Friday (June 5th, for those of you keeping score) we will be in Lancaster PA for a first Friday show titled ‘Jac Johnson -  Summer House Collection’ featuring all new nautical and summer work.  The show will start at 5pm and end at 9, and admission is free.

And now, Pictures!

We were commissioned in late winter to create a custom carved Mermaid Newel Post for a waterfront home on lake Winnebago.  The customer was very specific in what she wanted to see in the piece – and kindly provided plenty of source material for the project.  As an added bonus the client was a designer, so the sometimes difficult task of communicating a design through words was easier on this project.  But since this was for a home under construction, there were hard contractor’s deadlines that we had to respect, along with code issues that we needed to comply with.

The project went well, and all parties survived several revisions with no problems.  As you can see from the slide show, we carved the figure from a single 8 x 8 inch 48″ long block of white cedar.  We refined the facial features and softened the folk art look to get a more pleasing appearance, and did so over several iterations of revisions.

Patricia handled the painting chores, and mixed several different techniques (including layering of paint and dry brushing) to acheive the customer’s desired look.  Here is the final product, including- as her proud new owners named her – ‘Winnie’s’ new home.

Finally, one more thing for this update before I call it quits.  For those of you out there that have been loyal customers of ours in southern Connecticut I want to let you know that we have committed to return to the Wilton Historical Society’s November show this year, in spite of the turnover at the highest level of managment of the show.  We had a good working relationship with Marilyn Gould, and we look forward to working with her at future shows.  I had the pleasure of speaking to the incoming Chairman of the Wilton show while we were in Westport this past weekend and I feel confident that he and the other members of the Historical Society are committed to continuing the show with the same high standards that made it one of the best traditional handcrafted shows in the country.

I’ll be back in this space sometime next week, unless I can clone myself or find a couple of dozen artists who want to work long hours for little or no money.  If so then it might be sooner.

Jac

This will be a quick update, since the title of the post should tell you all you need to know.

For starters, Tricia’s family will be visiting us this Sunday.  All of them.  That’s right, it’s family reunion time!  We’re expecting between 85 and 110 people – but it’s hard to tell ahead of time.  Weather and the economy may be factors this year, but we plan like it will be everyone.

So, if that wasn’t enough, we will be in Westport Ct. the following weekend for the Westport Handcrafted Show, details to follow.  Then, we’ll be back home for a gallery/wine show at Moonrise Bay Winery here in the NC/VA area, then we’ll be at City Folk for a first Friday show the first weekend if June.  Whew.  I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

But never fear!  I still have dozens of images and updates to roll out, just no time right now to do it.  So I quit procrastinating – I can always do that later – and finally put up our Artist Statement and Bio information.  Look for it on the sidebar above the ‘News Blog‘ page.  It’s a little more up-to-date than our last bio on the old site, and the artist statement was a real challenge.

When we are creating a piece or design we don’t really dwell on the more esoteric reasons or emotions that go into it.  It just flows naturally.  Coming up with a verbal explanation of what we do and why took more time than I’m willing to admit.  But the results are all that matter.  So read it and see what you think!

Next update will coincide with our May Newsletter – and will be chock full of updates about our April show and the insane schedule we’re attempting the next four weeks.

Jac

Here at last – images from our April Gallery show, April 25th and 26th.

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Of course it would not have been possible without the contributions of Around the Bend Willow furniture and Debbie and Donnie Rogers. We missed seeing Bryce Ritter Furniture at the show, a last minute health issue kept Bryce from being able to join us, but luckily we had plenty of his furniture in our own collection to be able to exhibit for him. The weather was great – it was the first real Spring weekend we’ve had so far this year – and the turnout was good. We’d still like to see more of you, faithful reader and customer, but we certainly can’t complain about the buyers that did stop by. Sales were great!

Debbie and Donnie Rogers in particular had a great show. So much so that when we were shooting images of the gallery we missed some of their work that sold early. It was great to see them again, and we added another of their pieces to our collection.

Around the Bend really brought their ‘A’ game to the show this time, and the pictures reflect that. The daybed they set up in the middle of the show has to be seen to be believed. And as usual, the pillows and lampshades really added an extra dimension to the set up. If you haven’t visited their website or seen them in person I highly suggest it. It is well worth the time.

The next update will be later this weekend. Since the weather has gotten better it’s time to do some much needed farm work. That is, if I can get our old Ford 2000 tractor started. It’s about 10 years older than I am but I think it runs better. But like me, it takes a while to get it going sometimes.

Thanks to all who came out to the show!

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:

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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

…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!

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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.

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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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