Each year, as I unpack our Christmas goodies, I always love to see what we have. For some reason, there are always fun surprises. I figured out this Christmas that we have four vintage nativity scenes. I never thought of it that way.
I have one hand-carved Jacaranda wood nativity from Brazil from when I was a small girl. Another is a plaster molded handmade one - a gift to my parents. Then there is the painted terra cotta one from the 80s, and this one I am sharing with you today!
Way before my GalleriaLinda Contemporary Handmade Beaded Jewelry venture, I was always trying some sort of crafty thing, along with my mom. We tried everything from knitting to painting to glass swirling and more.
Do any of you remember the crafty bread dough craze of the 1970s? There was a time that I was making more bread dough things than I could use. It was fun and I couldn't stop.
One Christmas, I made gifts of bread dough - I made woven bread baskets and gave to the ladies in my life. Oddly, they loved them and used them for biscuits and rolls for years!
Another Christmas, I was determined to make an ambitious bread dough nativity scene for my new mother-in-law. I first made these figures solid and tried to bake them and quickly found that they were not cooking in the middle. So, mid-process, I took them out of the oven and hollowed them out. Then, to my horror, they started to squish down into little pudgy characters as they were baking!
Here is the result! Cute, pudgy, figures of the nativity scene. My new mother-in-law was so gracious with this gift. She displayed it every Christmas - at least the Christmas' we were there!
When she passed away, I became the keeper of the bread dough nativity scene. By then they had a few tiny bug bore holes but that does not keep me from displaying it. I laugh every time I unpack it!
It is a true vintage crafty experience I won't forget.
No comments:
Post a Comment