It’s amazing how much we accomplished in a few days and we’re feeling really excited to be bringing a bunch of new creations for our final days of market this year. 

We finished more earrings (including some gorgeous ones in western red cedar that are my new favorites), a variety of unique carved tree pendants in all different types of wood, and something new…

scrimshaw pendants on tagua nuts!

We found a source for sustainably harvested tagua nuts. They are a renewable resource, which makes us really happy. Jeff loves creating scrimshaws. (For those who have never heard of scrimshaw, it is creating artwork by etching a design in a hard surface- typically bone or ivory- and filling the design in with ink.) Scrimshaw is a lost art, not seen as commonly nowadays. Over the years Jeff has done scrimshaws on antique ivory (including some of his grandmother’s piano keys), bone, deer horn, abalone shell, and amber. Then he experimented with doing scrimshaw on wood. And now tagua nuts! 

We don’t have a problem with doing scrimshaws on antique ivory, but some customers would prefer a material other than ivory. Also, we are not able to ship it out of the country, to our customers overseas. The tagua nuts can be sent overseas and will make it so we can offer our scrimshaws more affordably than ones on ivory. We’re excited about them!

We have a few finished for our final three days. The mushroom one above and this one below:

This is a tree scrimshaw on a tagua nut, that Jeff just finished. He just free hands the designs. It doesn’t matter how many scrimshaws I watch him do, I’m still amazed every time I see it. 

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For those of you locals that have not been to Holiday Market yet this year and would like to make it (or for those who would like to come again), there’s still three days left!

We’ll be in booth 216 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Then Sunday will be a big exhale and a home day for our family. 

I will be writing my Gratitude Sunday post on Monday.

Until then..

Wishing you all a Happy Solstice today 

and Happy Holidays! 

May your celebrations be filled with warmth and lots of sharing of love.