Monday, November 19, 2007

A Catskill Christmas

As if I didn't have enough to do, I'm ready to announce a new seasonal blog that I've created called A Catskill Christmas. This is a crafts concept that I've been working on since June 2007 and it is finally coming together. My genea-blogger friends like Jasia and Apple are probably wondering if I start my mornings huffing lysol under the kitchen sink. My other friends call my condo "Santa's Workshop on Acid."

What is A Catskill Christmas? The concept: a private, not-for-sale, line of Christmas decorations. I am not sure if I want to pursue this as a side enterprise or eventually make the items public and for sale. In the meantime, I am returning to an endeavor that I pursued almost 15 years ago when one year I made all my own decorations for Christmas. When I moved from California, I either sold, gave away or donated all the ornaments I had made since I knew they were too fragile to weather a cross-country move to Chicago. Since we will be putting up a 9 foot live tree this year, I knew I needed a lot of ornaments and that I better start early.

The blog: a way of documenting the creative process and reinforcing the following stylistic concepts:
  • Items are individually hand-crafted.
  • Emphasis on plant, mineral and animal based items (dried flowers, moss, twigs, gold, bronze, copper, nuts, feathers).
  • Absolutely no use of plastic.
  • No modern day or religious iconograhy (no Disney, no Nativity, etc.) but more secular icons (St. Nicholas or angels) is Permitted.
  • Emphasis on sense of smell - use of cinnamon, nutmeg, beeswax.
  • Colors used will be greens, golds, coppers, browns, oranges predominantly.
  • Avoid use of purples, yellow, bright reds.
  • Create hang tags with info on item, name of website, etc.

Please take a minute and give a look if you can. As of this weekend I've created the following ornaments and I'll be posting pictures and instructions on A Catskill Christmas from now until Christmas:

  • Cabinet Photo Ornaments
  • Cinnamon Stick Bundles
  • Copper Pine Cones
  • Fruit, Spice and Herb Swags
  • Gilded Walnut Garlands
  • Glitter Glass Pine Cones
  • Mini-Rose Bud Balls
  • Moss Balls with Cedar Roses
  • Peacock Feather Fans
  • Pheasant Feather Fans

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