|
October 2024 - There are no days so delightful as those of a fine October. Alexander Smith
Fall is here and I’m happy to see, smell and feel it — and you? I know many people dread she shorter days but I love candles, fires and being cozy on the couch with a good book too much to mind the change. October has found me consistently back in the studio — after having been gone for large parts of August and September, and happy to dive deep into my 2024 Christmas Collection. (Retail wisdom would have had me starting back in March, if not before, but I need to at least be approaching the season to really get into it.) I’m very excited about my first group of 2024 Whimsy Boxes. Earlier in the summer I hauled out my collection of vintage ornaments, trinkets, cards, ribbons and such and chose the items I wanted to feature. Some of my favorites are the bisque figurines dating to the mid-twentieth century and manufactured in Japan for stores like Woolworth’s and other classic “Five and Dimes” (Before my time, really, and yet somehow I have a memory of them . . . Is there a word for “nostalgia for something you never actually experienced”?) Anyway, I have a large collection of Japan figures and I’ve used them before in my Christmas collection, although tentatively. They may have been mass-produced but I think they’re very special (must be that collective-consciousness thing) and I have a stellar group this year with particularly well-paired cards. So I wanted to up the ante on each little figurine’s “stage”. Group 1 figures are ensconced in boxes made from wood and plaster cloth covered in vintage wallpapers, sheet music and decorative papers. A vintage Christmas card, also mid-20th century, sets the scene. The trims completing the picture — tinsel, greenery and florals, brocade ribbons, etc. are either vintage or reproductions made in Germany and eastern Europe. I’m offering email subscribers first dibs on Christmas 2024 Whimsy Boxes. On Sunday, November 3rd I’ll send and email with photos and ordering information for Group 1. During the following week I’ll offer this group on Instagram, after which they will be available for purchase locally. More Whimsy Boxes, and a few Ornaments (!) will be coming. I’ve started on a second group featuring wood (and one or two plastic) ornaments from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. These jolly scenes will be staged in repurposed Apple and heavy cardboard gift boxes (as I’ve done previously) and sport many of the same festive papers and trims used in Group 1. I’ll post these on Instagram as they’re completed, and offer them for sale locally at the Muse and the Magpie space in the Cotton Company and Bayleaf Market.
|
