As early as 1980, when Hank Claycamp began using the ash of Mount St Helen’s to create glass ornaments, Washington State has been a center for glass blowers. Knowing that the volcanic ash contained silica which is a main ingredient of glass, Hank started experimenting with the ash and used it as an integral ingredient in his hand blown ornaments.  He went on to establish a highly successful glassworks company.  His creativity was well rewarded and some of his glass ornaments have been displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  He has since sold the Centralia, Washington business which was later known as the Original Mount St Helen’s Glassworks, and now just creates enough glass art and paintings to pay for his extensive world travels with his wife, Linda.  Christmas Forest in Curtis, Washington still has a few of the Original Mount St Helen’s Glassworks ornaments available for sale. 

Just around the corner from where Hank Claycamp had his glass blowing business in the 1980′s, you can now watch the talented Kevin Regan create colorful glass ornaments.  Kevin started Central Glass Works in 2005 when he was only 26 years old after studying with several renowned glass blowers around the world.  Beginning at age 16, he has learned from the best glass blowers such as Scott Darlington of Seattle Glass and Kelsey Murphy of Pilgrim Glass.  He also worked at Waterford Crystal in Ireland.  Kevin’s family run business includes his wife Rebecka who is also a glass blower and they welcome visitors to their studio in Centralia, Washington. 

 The folks at Glass Eye Studio give credit to the Pacific Northwest weather as part of the reason why so many glass blowers set up shop in Washington state.  They say that the cool temperatures help balance out the extreme heat created by the glass blowing process.  They are constantly coming up with new designs and beautiful ornaments which you can purchase from The Pacific Northwest Shop. 

The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington is definitely a part of the hub of glass blowing artists, and has generated interest in glass ornaments and glass art in general.  They encourage young artists through their education programs and guest lectures as well as daily viewings of  glass blowers at work. You can even try your own hand at designing an ornament and the museum artisans will fire it for you.

It goes without saying that the Pilchuck Glass School has had a tremendous influence on the number of glass blowers working in Seattle and the surrounding areas.  Hundreds of new artists have been trained since the school was founded in 1971 by glass artist Dale Chihuly and patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberg and the Pichuck Glass School is the only international glass school in the world.  Students flock to the school at Stanwood, Washington annually from around the world for the summer educational programs and many of them choose to stay in Washington to set up shop and become a part of the Pacific Northwest glass blowing community. 

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Duane Kriebel, owner and operator of Spheramid Woodworks and Richmond Renovations and Restorations in Waco, Kentucky got the idea of making wooden snowflakes over 20 years ago from a magazine article.   He modified the process, and began the journey to what he says became almost an obsession to come up with new and striking designs within the parameters of the medium. Wood has always been his favorite thing to create with, but Duane relates that it can also be quite contrary in what it will allow one to accomplish. 

Having worked at a variety of wood related jobs over the last 30 years, from pallets to pipe organs, guitars and custom furniture, and homes, the ornament and woodworking artist used his skills and learned “seat of the pants” engineering to make his shop a productive snow flake environment.  He also credits a wonderful group of mentors over the years for his success. 

The flakes are a combination of additive wood work and subtractive wood work.  The beginning is removing choice areas of 6 individual “rails” and then gluing the 6 rails into a “Log”, of which the flakes are sliced off and finish sanded and sprayed.  Much like a sculptor, Duane doesn’t always know just what the final flake will look like, nor if it will even stay together through the process of machining and finishing. 

The 6 pointed star or hexagon is true to the crystalline structure of frozen water, and the 100’s of designs assure most folks never get 2 alike, just like real snow! The Spheramid Woodworks ornaments are real wood, made with real hands, and each flake is inspected and handled many times before it is passed along to the buyer.

Kriebel tells us that he always had a fascination with spheres and the work of Buckminster Fuller, and that the hexagons and triangles of a geodesic dome are inspiring. The company name Spheramid is a marriage of a Sphere, which is implosion proof and the most economical use of space in the universe and the pyramid, which represents a strong, long lasting base or rigidity.  These are the unique properties Duane says that he strives for in his life and in his work.

The species of wood used for the ornaments are local to the central Kentucky area and include poplar, sycamore, gingko, maple, white oak, pine, Kentucky coffee tree, and most any wood that Duane can find that is strong, glues well, and machines well. There is very little area to glue and 50% of it is what wood workers call “end grain” that is a difficult way to glue up things due to the porosity of the end grain acting like a handful of soda straws, wicking up the glue. All non-toxic, and no rain forest wood, makes the wooden ornaments fit well with the environment.

Duane says that it is always a great feeling to see the looks on the faces of those who receive a flake for the first time. Every year brings new ideas, new production methods, improvements and quite a bit of fodder for the woodstove. He used to shovel the scraps into the shop woodstove when things weren’t working out. Many, many hours of milling and sanding, spraying lacquer out doors in winter, playing with pearl finish and trying to make wood look more “icy” gets him very involved in the Christmas Spirit.

Perfect ornaments for decorating the Christmas tree, year round uses are also plentiful.  Buyers and family members always come up with new uses for the flakes, such as refrigerator magnets, earrings, attached to a ceiling fan pull chain, placed on a screen door to keep people from walking though the closed screen ( or even a glass door), coasters, window shade pulls. You name it, someone has mentioned it. Many folks like to paint them with the kids for the tree trimming adventure.

While the artist has not dedicated a web site to just snowflake ornaments, you can find him on Facebook under Spheramid Woodworks.  View more photos about the Spheramid Woodworks process and contact Duane directly to order snowflake ornaments at Spheramid@Gmail.com .

Article & images used with permission from Duane Kriebel-Spheramid Woodworks.

Ornament artist Shannon Jane Morgan began exploring color years ago, and as you can see from the beautiful images above, she has mastered her passion for vivid colors and glass blowing.   Walking into her studio and viewing her glass ornaments, paper weights, vases, goblets and bowls is like watching a rainbow explode into wonderful splashes of color.   With such a delightful display of Shannon’s feminine touch, her website is very appropriately named GirlGlass.com. 

Shannon says that the actual process of physically making blown glass is rather demanding, taking years to learn, but it’s the art of sharing something made by hand in a short moment that starts out as a “blob” and turns into something stunning a few steps later that keeps her working in this grueling medium.  A combination of passion, desire, drive, color, 2200 hundred degrees of molten glass and hand tools that have been literally unchanged for thousands of years are some of the ingredients of her art.  She makes glass according to tradition and she definitely has her own flair for color.  She follows the traditional steps almost as a meditation at times, repeating the steps every day and ending up with a unique ornament each time she takes the steps that glass blowers have taken since the early Egyptians. 

At Girl Glass studios, Shannon gathers glass out of a furnace, rolling the medium in a pattern of colored chips (frit), melting those into the surface of glass, and reheats the glass every 30 seconds or so to maintain viscosity.  She then shapes the ornament on a marver table, reheats it again and introduces her own air into the blow pipe which expands the glass.  After shaping the ornament again, she reheats it and returns to the gaffer’s bench to complete the piece using a small blow hose.  Once this part of the process is complete, she bonks the little ornament off of the blow pipe and returns to the furnace one more time to gather a very small bit of glass that will be quickly added to the top of the ornament to close the small air hole left behind and providing a way to hang the ornament in a tree or window or on an ornament stand for year round display.  The final step is to place the ornament in a lehr with a temperature of 920 degrees.  All of the ornaments are collected in this heated insulated box, and when the day is done the box is turned off to cool slowly.  The next morning – just like Christmas – Shannon opens the door, excited to see the works from the day before.  She says that she taught herself long ago to just take a moment first thing upon opening the lehr to simply enjoy her art without any judgement.  She tells us that in those moments of appreciation and perhaps awe, she connects with her passion for color and beauty, and that gives her what it takes to start the equipment back up and repeat the process all over again.

Shannon Jane Morgan is primarily self-taught, although she did a take a single class in glass blowing.  After taking that class, she was approached to help out at a local glass blowing studio.  She started out by exchanging studio time for her work of cleaning, grinding and general maintenance, and her practice has certainly paid off.  Shannon also was fortunate to have a wonderful mentor Andre Gayet and her really supportive mom, Gail. 

Be sure to order early at Girl Glass, because the exquisite ornaments sell out from time to time.  You may also want to view more glass ornaments on the Ornaments.com directory.  Article and images used with permission from GirlGlass.

Carl Rintz is the owner of 20th Century Glass Pottery Collectibles and has been kind enough to share a little with Ornaments.com about several premier ornament artisans that are using art glass in their designs.      

You will find more featured artists and art glass hanging ornaments for sale at Carl’s 20th Century Glass Pottery Collectibles and you won’t want to miss the Christmas figurines and collectibles.  The menu on this website is very organized, and you will be able to easily find art glass Santa figurines, angels ornaments, dog ornaments, cat ornaments, nativity scenes, tiles, paperweights, and a host of other art glass items.     

20th Century Glass Pottery Collectibles started as a small online store by a husband and wife team in 1998.  They put together a collection of ornaments and other art glass items by different individual artists and shipped the products from their home.  Their featured ornaments became so popular that they soon outgrew their first location and moved to a house with a very large basement which became their warehouse and shipping department.  They outgrew that as well and rented warehouse space where they managed their business until even the warehouse was not large enough.  At that point, the husband and wife decided to retire and they sold the business to their nephew who continues to operate it. Carl says that he loves all of the ornaments, but his favorite is the Krivsky Friendship Balls.  Below are some of his other choice designers.     

Atlantis Design – Specializes in Handcrafted Fused Glass Art.  These ornaments have been featured in the Seahurst Art Gallery, the Burien Arts Gallery, and the Burien Spring Art Stoll and Fall Art Walk.    

Charlotte Behrens - Kiln fired and lamp worked glass art. All of her ornaments and other works are hand-crafted originals and are noted for the quality of their material, color and composition.    

JK Designs - Handcrafted glass balls painted on the inside!! Artist, Joe Kohlbeck, figured out how to paint the balls from the inside where the color would never wear off. Thin layers of pigments and chemicals are applied inside the clear glass ornament through the neck with specially adapted brushes. Multiple firings stabilize them or else they take weeks to dry. Further details are a production secret. He paints each ornament himself. Production time is 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours each. There are no two exactly alike.    

Krivsky Glass Ornaments – Czech Republic Glass

Here you will find friendship balls, witch balls, glass hearts and glass eggs.  Mr. Krivsky studied glass making in Glass institute in Novy Bor. His first apprenticeship was in the famous Moser Glass factory in Carlsbad. Later on he worked in the Jihlava Glassworks. He studied glass making in Southern Bohemia. Following that he worked in Bavarian Valentin Eisch. Upon return to Czech Republic he realized his lifelong dream and opened his own Glass shop. His work is exported to many countries in Europe and in the USA.    

Swinsky Hanging Ornaments - Starting with a mold and liquid porcelain slip, Pat handcrafts each porcelain hanging ornament using 50 plus colors of porcelain. After firing and polishing, each piece is ready for decorating. With a lathe to hold the piece, she uses a tool resembling a hypodermic syringe to apply the glaze design and fire it again. If the design has gold accents, they are added after the second firing and the piece must be fired a third time.  All designs are applied freehand, no patterns are used. Each piece is one of a kind and signed. Each piece is individually gift boxed with a hang tag describing her work. She has been working in this medium for 35 years and does all the work herself.    

Article and images used with permission from artglass-pottery.com

The name Cajun is derived from les Acadiens, and usually refers to the French descendants of Canadian exiles who migrated south to the Gulf of Mexico area in the 19th century.  The Cajun culture is delightful, and makes up an important part of Louisiana’s customs and traditions.  The ornaments that you will find at CajunOrnaments.com are a colorful reflection of Cajun life.

In 2002, Jackie & a friend made the shellfish ornaments to raise extra money for Jackie’s son’s 8th grade school trip.  The Cajun Christmas ornaments were so popular that the fishermen/ornaments artists decided to continue making them as a business.  The ornaments are sold online and at Louisiana stores that offer traditional Cajun arts and food.   You will find the ornaments locally in Lafayette at Vermillionville, Prejean’s Restaurant, and Louisiana Hot Stuff.  If you happen to be in Henderson, Louisiana, you’ll see the ornaments at the Cajun Palette Art Gallery.  Another outlet is Crawfish Town USA in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.  Don’t you just love the names? They pretty much guarantee a fun shopping experience. 

The artisans at Cajun Ornaments handcraft the ornaments from crawfish, garfish scales, redfish scales, and crabs, all of which they usually catch themselves, so all of the raw materials are part of Louisiana’s coastal life.    The materials are cleaned and then hand painted and tooled to match the original ornament design.  The owners of CajunOrnaments.com seem to have the design and production down to a joyful science. 

The website CajunOrnaments.com is fun and full to the brim with information about Louisiana and the surrounding area.  While you are shopping for ornaments made of crustacean shells,  you can also check on the latest news about the Gulf oil spill, get the current weather report for the Gulf area, and view several fishing trip videos.  They even tell you where to find the best Cajun seafood and the places you don’t want to miss if you visit Louisiana. If you want to learn to make your own Cajun garlic shrimp, they have a great recipe for you which includes a demonstration video.

By the way, if you look closely at the ornaments, you will see the unique shape of the garfish scales which were used as arrowheads for hundreds of years.  Garfish fossils have been collected in the Gulf area which give evidence that these still-living fish have remained unchanged for millions of years.  How wonderful to be able to enjoy a beautiful ornament resulting from man’s creativity and nature’s tenacious beauty.

Article and images used with permission from CajunOrnaments.com

We stumbled upon Robert Charley in the Four Corners area of the United States in May.  We traveled down a little dirt road at the point where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet on the Navaho Indian Reservation.  It was a beautiful clear day which we were told was a rare thing in that area as they get a lot of dust storms.  At the end of the narrow road, there were a few vendors set up with traditional Navaho art work and we spent a nice afternoon chatting with Navaho ornament artisan Robert Charley who has literally carved his own niche in the world of Native American ornaments with his arrow ornament designs. 

Mr. Charley learned to make arrows from his grandfather who traded with other tribes to get the obsidian that he needed for the tips of the arrows.  A process of flaking is used where the obsidian is hit at an acute angle and chipped away.  The obsidian becomes even sharper than a metal blade.  The native tribes in that area also used jasper, chalcedony, basalt and other hard minerals for the arrow tips which were struck with antlers, bones, wood or other rocks so that they were fractured into the shape and size needed for the arrow.  Once the tip was shaped, it was carefully chipped or ground, and today Robert Charley actually dulls the obsidian for the ornament arrows because of the safety issue. 

The Native American ornaments also have a spiritual significance to the Dine or Navaho culture.  It is said that the hand painted arrows hung over the doorway of your home offer protection for your family and all who enter.  Each ornament decoration has a different meaning with a lot of symbolism attached especially to color.  An arrow with a black feather can mean male as well as night or darkness.  Blue stands for female, sky or water.  An ornament hand painted in green signifies earth or rain.  Red represents sunset, and yellow is the symbol of day and sunshine.  Dots painted on an ornament symbolize day and night.  The four colors used to make the ornaments are also a symbol of protection from all four directions.  

 East – Black or Red     South – Turquoise     West – Yellow     North – White

Robert Charley says that he can sell all of the arrow ornaments that he can make and he doesn’t have a web site.  However, he did say that he welcomes calls to 970-739-2503 from individuals as well as stores that might have wholesale needs.   You may also contact him by email at RobertCharley@ymail.com .

Article and images used with permission from Robert Charley 

Our search for unusual ornaments lead us to the National Folk Festival in mile high Butte, Montana last week. We were pleased to see so many local artists with one-of-a-kind ornaments made from a variety of materials ranging from art glass to buffalo horns.  It was a delightful assortment of designer ornaments, and the artisans were so willing to share their techniques and ideas with the folks who crowded around their booths. 

Many of the artists spend the cold winter months coming up with fresh ornament designs and producing ornaments in preparation for the various fairs and festivals in the summer months.  The National Folk Festival is a real favorite for the ornament artists partly because the Butte community is so supportive and attendance at the festival was around 200,000 people over a three day period.

Our first stop was at the Folk Art of Norway booth where we had a nice chat with ornament artist Patti Jo Meshnik.  Patti Jo uses the traditional Norwegian art of Rosemaling to hand paint her colorful glass ornaments.  Rosemaling began in the 1600′s when Norwegians began painting their walls and furniture  with summer flowers to brighten their homes during the cold winter.   Another favorite from Norway are ornaments depicting birds and the Kornband.  A Kornband or sheaf of wheat is saved from the harvest to be set out for a Christmas Feast.   A native of Montana, Meshnik says that her Norwegian heritage influenced her style of painting and that it took several years to learn the art of Rosemaling.  Every ornament at Folk Art of Norway is signed and recorded in a log and some of her art has the logged number secretly embedded in the painting. 

There were also wonderful wearable ornaments created by Kevin and Valerie Pourier using buffalo horns.  Oglala Lakota, the Pouriers were the recipients of the 2006 Archibald Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship and the 2005 Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Visiting Artists Fellowship as well as many other awards for their buffalo artforms.   Recognized world wide by collectors, their wearable ornaments are displayed in several museums, including the Smithsonian National Museum and the Royal Museum of Scotland.   Using traditional techniques of the buffalo people, the artists work together to shape and carve their jewelry and wearable ornaments into the predetermined design.  The intricate process is lengthy and comes only with years of practice.  The artform is completed when they inlay the buffalo horn with semi-precious minerals.  You will want to read more about these charming artists at KevinPourier.com.

Our third visit was with Leonda of Browning, Montana who uses colored glass to create vibrant ornaments.  She says that her favorite ornament is the red buffalo which has real buffalo fir for the tail.  She cuts the colored glass into the shape that she wants, and then she uses copper to enclose that shape for a finished look.  She often uses copper for the tails and manes of the animal ornaments.  Leonda has a great assortment of ornaments mostly depicting Montana life and animals.  The pretty blue horse above is so nice that we brought it home to display in our office.  An experienced artist who has worked with art  glass for many years, she will create custom ornaments for you if you call her at 406-338-3158.

Thanks to the citizens of Butte, Montana for supporting the arts. 

Article and images used with permission from the artists

 in Guanajuato, Mexico.

The colorful handcrafted and handpainted ceramic ornaments can be purchased online at La Casa Mexicana for $18 each.  The ornament supply is limited, so hurry if you want to add several Christmas ornaments or spring ornaments to your ornament collection.  The Gonzalez studio produces ornaments for many occasions and the red and green or red and blue heart ornaments are just perfect for a Valentines Day gift.

As the son of sculptor Rodolfo Gonzalez,  ornament artist Gorky Gonzalez  studied sculpture and casting objects in bronze and lost wax with his father. Later he worked in the village San Miguel de Allende at the School of Arts and the Allende Institute, where he built an artistic foundry attended by both student and professional sculptors.

Gonzalez also founded a small workshop of terra cotta manufacturing in the village of Marfil where he reproduced Jean Byron’s designs. His main interest, however, has always been rescuing the traditional majolica. Majolica refers to a type of pottery that is glazed with tin oxide to produce a soft white color.  Intricate designs are painted on the background with other metallic oxides.  These handpainted designs often change colors when the pottery is fired, making each ornament unique.   The name Majolica actually comes from the Spanish island of Majorca, where this style of pottery was exported to Italy beginning in the 15th century.

Currently, Gorky Gonzalez works with his son in his studio in Mexico where they continue to produce unique majolica ceramic ornaments.  You will want to see more of his ornaments as well as many of his other designs and creations at La Casa Mexicana.  You can also learn more about majolica and other Mexican handcrafted art on Wikepedia.

Article and images used with permission from LaCasaMexicana.com

The handpainted Victorian style ornaments designed and crafted by Debi Coules are irresistible!  They are so feminine and pretty that I want them all.  They are the perfect addition to a guest bathroom and of course they look fabulous on a traditional Christmas tree.  There are so many ideas for a subtle Victorian touch, and you are probably thinking of even more.  Debi’s ornaments would add a nice softness to an evergreen tree and even a pastel colored artificial Christmas tree with pink and white lights sounds very appealing with a few of her handpainted ornaments creatively placed. 

  Designing and creating is Debi Coules’ passion and she studied art at Syracuse University to enhance her natural talents and graduated with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts.  In case you haven’t guessed it by looking at these pretty pink ornaments, Debi is a true romantic at heart.  She says that she tries to evoke a feeling of romance in everything that she creates and she often uses nature as an inspiration.  Give in to your true romantic spirit and gift your sweetheart or yourself with a divine pink Christmas ornament.

Article and images used with permission from DebiCoules.com

All of the Art Collectible Ornaments found at OrnamentsMV.com are designed, sculpted and painted by artist Mark Venaglia in his Burbank, CA studio. Mark says that he is his own slave labor, often utilizing paintbrushes with two hairs and hand applying glitter imported from the far corners of the globe. No molds exist for any ornament or tree topper. Every Holiday Art Collectible is unique, and is created as an original work of art, then signed and dated. The more traditional ornaments are hand painted on mercury glass harvested from Discovery Thrift Stores. Vengalia utilizes casein fresco paint, local business Nova Color’s acrylic mica paint, and Trompe L’oeil techniques to alter the sphere in any way that he can.

As depicted on the website, OrnamentsMV.com, each ornament comes with an individual Certificate of Authenticity. The sculpted pieces combine Florentine plaster (it more effectively holds the carved details) and domestic stucco with several types of papier machie. Reclaimed phone books and cotton T shirts are shredded to make the papier mache.

Though Americans certainly value artists, original works of art only find their way into about 2% of our total population’s homes. For the majority, Christmas trees provide the only experience for owning original works for art. Mark says that the love and care that people demonstrate with his Art Collectibles Ornaments often surpasses how some collectors treat the paintings that they’ve acquired from him.

Mark Venaglia tells us that it is Christopher Radko who elevated ornaments to a collectible level. Expanding beyond Radko’s tradition, Mark designs and creates complete trees, which dramatically represent the life of the person or family commissioning the ornaments. Even the most exclusive tree designers cover their clients’ trees with ornaments available to everyone else. No molds exist for any ornament or tree topper that Mark Venaglia creates. Typically, eight weeks are required for this exclusive artist service.

As an Art Historian, Venaglia also enjoys including additional depths of meaning in each ornament. Working at The Getty, and hosting art tours in every major museum in LA, art history comes alive on each Art Collectible. The matilaja poppy ornaments he creates are also very popular. Along with the orange California poppy, both of these native botanicals appear on ornaments as painted garlands or sculpted flowers with petals unfurling.

The custom ornaments typically start at $185 per work of art. Tree toppers are acquired for $500-$2,000. Amazingly, hundreds of these Art Collectibles have been shipped all over the world, and not one breakage has ever occurred.

Be prepared for a breathtaking experience when you visit Mark Venaglia’s Art Collectible Ornaments! Don’t forget to mention Ornaments.com when you order, because Mark has very generously offered free shipping on your commissioned ornament when you tell him you read this article.

Please email Mark Venaglia to receive free shipping on your custom ornaments.

Article & images used with permission from Mark Venaglia.