…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!
