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September Newsletter
It’s That time again… my Autumn Newsletter is going out today ❤
A Sweet Remembrance September 2017 Newsletter
Greetings All!
I have lots of exciting news to share in this newsletter! So I’m just going to jump right in…
- In just 2 weeks I’ll be having my annual online celebration of Izannah Walker’s birthday. This is an extra-special year because it marks the 200th anniversary of the day she was born, September 25th, 1817. I’ll be posting off and on all day on the 25th at www.izannahwalker.com. There will be some new dolls available for sale that day, which will be posted at noon eastern time. Come visit the blog, join in the virtual party and celebrate with us!
- Izannah Walker Birthday Greetings Project. As a fun way to celebrate Izannah Walker’s birthday I would like to invite you all to email me a short birthday message along with a photograph of your Izannah Walker doll, whether it is an antique original, a reproduction doll that I have made for you, or a doll that you have made yourself in tribute to Izannah’s dolls! Please send your photo and birthday greeting to paula@asweetremembrance.com no later than September 18th. I will post all of the photos and their accompanying messages on http://www.izannahwalker.com as part of my annual Izannah Walker birthday celebration. Everyone who sends in a birthday greeting will be entered in a drawing to win a special birthday surprise package!!!
- You may already know that I wrote a twelve page article about Izannah Walker for the September issue of Antique Doll Collector. The issue has sold out. The magazine has no more copies, and will not be printing any more. If you are looking for a copy, try Barnes & Nobel. Many of their stores still had some this past week, although in very limited quantities.
- Another thing that you might be aware of is that I am the co-chairman for my doll club’s annual doll show, which is coming up on October 29th in Southbury, CT. This is the 30th year for the show, so in honor of both the club’s 30th show and Izannah Walker’s 200th birthday, I am curating a special educational exhibit of Izannah Walker dolls at the show. Admission to the exhibit is included with your paid entrance ($7) to the show. It is going to be a wonderful show and a fantastic exhibit, with a very large group of antique Izannah Walker dolls belonging to Jenny Lind Doll Club members and friends! To find out more about the show visit the show blog https://jennylinddollshow.wordpress.com/ and the show facebook page www.facebook.com/jennylinddollshow/ you can get discount admission coupons there too. If you are interested in selling at the show, I do still have a little space left!!! Email me ASAP at jennylinddollshow@gmail.com for a contract!!!
- In case you missed them, my new Third Thursdays are going strong! Because of Izannah Walker’s birthday celebration there is no “3rd Thursday” in September. There isn’t going to be one in October either, because any dolls I get finished in October will be going to the doll show with me. I want to have some there at the exhibit for people to hold and examine up close. Obviously all of the antique Izannah Walker dolls will be roped off, but I would like to make the exhibit a bit interactive, so I will have some of my reproduction dolls on hand for those who would like to give them a gentle hug and get a good sense of their size and weight. For more information on 3rd Thursday’s click on this link: https://izannahwalker.com/2017/07/15/third-thursdays-start-this-month-mark-your-calendar-then-come-back-on-thursday-to-see-this-months-new-dolls-for-sale/ .
- I have a new article in the upcoming Christmas issue of Early American Life magazine. It is a project article on how to make cotton batting candy containers. Also included in the Christmas issue is the Holiday Directory of Traditional American Craftsmen. I’m very honored to have been included in the Holiday Directory again this year. To see a bit more about my candy container article click here: https://spuncottonornaments.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/look-for-me-in-the-christmas-2017-issue-of-early-american-life/ .
- The class support sites for both my Izannah Walker Reproduction Doll Making Class and my Spun Cotton Ornament Class have moved to private facebook pages. No one has been using the Ning sites, so I have switched over to facebook. Both Ning sites are still available at this time, so please go save whatever information you would like to keep from the Ning sites. I will NOT be moving all of the previously posted information over to facebook. We are starting out fresh! The spun cotton ornament how-to videos are posted on the facebook site. If you are already a member of either class and would like to come join us on facebook, please email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com and tell me the email address that you use for your facebook account. I will then check to make sure you are a class member, and send you an invitation to the class page. At this time I have NOT moved the Alabama Baby Class over to facebook, it is still only on Ning.
- Sometimes when I post new dolls for sale, they sell very quickly. I do realize that ideally people would like to take their time looking at my latest doll offerings, and then if any of my dolls tugged at their heart, decide if they would like to welcome that special reproduction Izannah Walker doll into their home. I’m sorry that you do not always have the opportunity to do that. Because I am a doll maker, selling my dolls is different than selling antique dolls. If you are selling antique dolls you already have the doll in your possession, so it is possible for you to announce exactly what you are selling ahead of time in the case of doll auctions, or before shows. Which gives people time to make up their minds about a doll in advance. As a doll maker, I spend around 100 hours creating each doll I sell. This is 100 working hours, not elapsed time. I have to spend quite a bit of time waiting for paint to dry and washing and drying antique fabric… Generally my dolls are not finished until right before I post them. Even when I do shows, I have a tendency to be working on dolls right up until the very last second. In my world there is never enough time! So please forgive me for not being able to give you advance photos and lists of the dolls that I will have for sale on Izannah Walker’s birthday, at shows, or on Third Thursdays. Surprises and spontaneity can be good things! I’m always overly optimistic about how many dolls I want to make, so there is the perpetual question of exactly which dolls I will be able to get finished in time. 🙂
Fondly,
Paula
post script: If you like to receive my newsletters in your inbox, email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com and let me know you’d like to be on my mailing list. You can be removed from the list whenever you choose, simply by asking…
Due To A Death In The Family A Sweet Remembrance Is Closed At This Time
I will return emails (paula@asweetremembrance.com) and telephone messages (860-355-5709) next week. Thank you for your understanding.
Paula
Handmade in New England
An Easter Treat for You ~ 10% off SALE
Today at my house we are celebrating Easter. Tomorrow the festivities will continue as we party in honor of my middle son’s birthday! I’d like to share a bit of our celebrations with you by offering you 10% off on every single item I sell at Paula Walton’s A Sweet Remembrance!!!
This includes all classes, all dolls – even new custom orders -, all bears, all reproduction clothing, all antiques – carousel horses & cooking items -, all spun cotton ornaments, literally everything! There is free shipping within the United States on all purchases, except carousel horses & you may place any item on lay-away, with terms to fit your budget 🙂
The coupon code for the sale is ” peeps”. Enter the code when you check out today or tomorrow using the secure shopping cart at A Sweet Remembrance and 10% will automatically be subtracted from your total. Email or call me to buy the antique cooking item shown at Paula Walton’s 18th Century Home Journal, to order a custom made Izannah Walker reproduction doll, or to set up lay-away payments. Paula@asweetremembrance.com 860-355-5709. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have about the sale or any of my work.
Wishing you a Happy Easter and an amusing April Fools Day!
Make History in 2013
It’s here! The first day of a brand new year. With a pristine calendar, ready to be filled with a bounty of creative possibilities. I love this time of year, when I’m rested and recharged from spending time with family and friends over the holidays and it feels like I have a bit more time to dream, plan, and work on new projects.
I’d like to share my surge of creative spirit, so that you can make 2013 the year that you learn to make history! All three of my classes by mail, Reproduction Izannah Walker Doll Making, Reproduction Alabama Babies, and Spun Cotton Ornaments are 13% off during the month of January. The classes may be purchased by visiting my website, Paula Walton’s A Sweet Remembrance.
This is a particularly good time to buy my Spun Cotton Ornament Class because I have how – to videos posted on the class member only site, through 1/10/13, as a Christmas treat for all of my students.
If you have any questions, prior to ordering, please feel free to ask – paula@asweetremembrance.com – or 860-355-5709 .
Spun Cotton Ornament Classes for Christmas
I am currently in the midst of putting together several spun cotton ornament class by mail kits. Some of them are already spoken for, but I am making a few extras. They should be finished within the next few days, in plenty of time for Christmas delivery. To purchase my class by mail, please visit my website www.asweetremembrance.com.
This is an excellent time to buy the spun cotton class, as I have just paid to add video instructions to the class member only Ning site for the next 30 days as my Christmas present to all of my spun cotton students 🙂 Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Any New Orders Will Not Ship Until After 12/15
As some of you may have heard, I am busy preparing to have my home photographed in early December for an article by a national magazine. Getting ready for the photo shoot and working on my current batch of orders means that any new orders placed from November 4th on will not be mailed out until after December 15th. If you want to order a Christmas present, please feel free to email me at paula@asweetremembrance.com prior to ordering, I will be happy to let you know if I can get it to you on time.
Thank you very much for all of your support and understanding!
“Moonstruck” Featured in 2012 Somerset HOLIDAYS & Celebrations
See “Moonstruck” in the Halloween section of the new 2012 issue of Somerset HOLIDAYS & Celebrations.
Want to read more? Here are some additional details that you won’t see in the magazine.
Moonstruck
This doll is an elaborate fantasy combination of a spun cotton ornament and a paper doll with crepe paper clothing, such as those produced by the Dennison Company in the early 1900’s. Her body is spun cotton over a wire armature, with a chromolithographed paper scrap face. Standing upon a mica dusted spun cotton moon, she is wearing a party frock comprised of layers of crepe paper and tulle, trimmed with velvet ribbon and luna moths made of embossed Dresden paper. Over her shoulders she wears a crepe paper and tissue paper cape. Her hat is fashioned from wool felt, accented with velvet ribbon and a crepe paper blossom. Other details include Dresden paper bangle bracelets and shoes made of black flocking and glitter. In her hand is a crystal ball, for telling your future, and in her bag are stars to sprinkle in your eyes and amongst the heavens until you too are moonstruck…
For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, chromolithography came into being in early 19th century Germany at the hands of Alois Senefelder , who amazed the world and forever changed the printing industry. Others quickly followed Senefelder in the field of color printing, including Parisian Godefroy Engelmann in the 1830’s. Soon thereafter, small color scraps – bits leftover from larger printing jobs, which were too precious to be thrown out and too valuable give away, began to be sold in Germany. The die cut, glossy printed-paper images were bought by bakers who used them for wrapping special breads. For example Easter breads were wrapped in paper decorated with a scrap showing a spring scene. From the 1830’s onwards, collectors eagerly sought these tiny chromolithographs.
Color scraps, or chromos, found an enthusiastic market in nineteenth century America, where they were pasted into blank friendship books, which it was customary to pass around amongst friends and family members. Soon special books were being made for scrap collectors, which were called scrap albums or scrapbooks!
My name is Paula Walton. I’ve been a doll maker for 26 years. More than a decade ago I developed a fascination with the art of spun cotton ornaments. Because there is very little information available about the way spun cotton was crafted, I taught myself the technique by studying antique ornaments. Since then I have been gleefully creating spun cotton figures and enthusiastically teaching others to do so too. My ornaments can be seen at my website http://www.asweetremembrance.com and here on my blog. I also have a special online discussion site for all my spun cotton students. I may be reached by emailing paula@asweetremembrance.com.
Current eBay Auctions
I know that some of you like the comfort and security of purchasing items from eBay. So every now and then I do put some of my classes there for sale.
Follow this link to view my current auctions – a few are “buy it now”.
Spun Cotton Ornament Journal 