Touring Michigan - Manistee's Victorian Sleighbell Parade and Old Christmas Weekend.

If you are enamored by the Victorian era, this is a must-do event!

We began our adventure with tea at the Buckley, a privately owned fantastic Victorian home. Afternoon tea was served in the third floor ballroom, complete with dainty sandwiches, flaky scones and delicious dainty sweets.

A tour of the home followed and it was stunningly beautiful - the ornate woodwork, the leaded glass, the plasterwork ceilings and original lighting fixtures. It made me very nostalgic for my former 1908 home!

Following tea, we toured the Manistee County Historical Museum, located right downtown in Manistee and the building remains as it existed in 1905.

For Christmas, a huge number of Victorian era trees and decorations are displayed in settings depicting a variety of traditions.

One of my favorite displays/presentations was the Magic Lantern show of the "Night Before Christmas". Magic lantern shows are always fascinating, but this one was made even better by having the narration supplied by an Edison player with a wax cylinder.

The Magic Lantern is the forerunner of the modern slide projector. It has a long and complicated history and, like lots of fascinating inventions, many people were involved in its development. No one can say for sure who invented the Magic Lantern. The Magic Lantern has been used to educate and entertain audiences for hundreds of years.

Another highlight is the working display of vintage toy trains - it's just amazing!

After the museum, we walked the downtown area, enjoying the sights and sounds, including a trombone band:

and hot roasted chestnuts: DELICIOUS!!!

Everyone joins in the fun:

Then it was parade time!

No motor vehicles, everything is horse-drawn or foot powered:

The most amazing sight is the 30+ foot tree, on a sledge, being drawn by a team of four draft horses right down the middle of the street!

They had to work hard this year, with no snow to help it slide.

Upon reaching the end of the parade, the tree is lit and the sky fills with fireworks.

Even with no snow, the town was filled with happy, enthusiastic people, truly full of the spirit of the season - we'll be back!

North of 45 Opening - 2015

We were able to attend the opening of this years North of 45 and  I loved the placement of "Our History: On the Table - right near the front, sure to be seen!

I spent quite a bit of time talking to attendees, and was pleasantly surprised at the reception the piece received - it's certainly not a mainstream example of art, but people really seemed to enjoy seeing history shared in an alternative manner.

I had encouraged fellow Mackinac Island artist Jamie Andress to enter - he did and had TWO pieces accepted!

And he sold one - congratulations Jamie!

North of 45 - 2015

The North of the 45th is an annual juried exhibition of artists living in the geographical area north of the 45th parallel in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. This line is known as the halfway point between the equator and the north pole, and crossing this line from the south is often associated with being "up north." This exhibition showcases the breadth and depth of artists living in this upper Midwest region from both rural and urban areas. Each year a different juror is asked to select pieces for the exhibition from an open call for entries.


Currently Curator of Exhibitions at the Racine Art Museum, where she oversees the production and implementation of 10-15 exhibitions per year, juror Lena Vigna has a particular interest in the contemporary fields of adornment, sculpture, fiber, and installation. Lena has curated numerous solo and group exhibitions and written several essays that explore issues relevant to contemporary art and society.


A Juror's Choice award will be selected by the juror, with a prize of $500. An Audience Choice award in the amount of $250 will be given at the close of the exhibition, based onvotes by visitors to the exhibition.


Featuring work by: Will Agar, Kjellgren Alkire, Jamie Andress, Ezra Asohan, Brendan Baylor, Julie Benda, Kimberly Benson, Gregg Bruff, Tomas Co, Eileen Cohen, Samantha Corbett, Debbie Covart, Melissa Davidson, Dominic M. Davis, Andy Delany and Lauren Flynn, Gretchen Dorian, Kelly Dorman, Pete Driessen, Michael Eble, Jonathon Engelien, Kiera Faber, Nina Fiorucci, Jessie Fleury, Cynthia Foley, Michael Friend, Stacy Giroux, Greg Green, Mike Hainstock, Lindsy Halleckson, Lindsey Heiden, Matt Hirvonen, John Hubbard, Steven Hughes, Carol Irving, Dustin Johnson, Brian Kakas, Keith Kaziak, Reneé Kirchenwitz, Jim Krausman, Barret Lee, Scott Leipski, Christine Lenzen, Michael Letts, Alex Maier, John McCoy, John McKaig, Renee Michaud, Susan Mikutowski, Jessica Mongeon, Eric Mueller, Craig Neeson, Paul Nelson, Tilton + Oeler, Russell Prather, Kyle Rambatt, Amy Rice, Eileen Rieman-Schaut, Paul Rose, Patrick St. Germain, Alanna Stapleton, Holly Streekstra, M. Parker Stuart, Tracy Wascom, Lyz Wendland.

My piece is "Our History: On the Table; it's a history of the people of Mackinac Island, from the distant past to the present.

For a full explanation of the piece and many more photos, click HERE.

We'll be at the opening tomorrow evening and can't wait to see the entire show!

Moving With the Times - Battledore and Shuttlecock, Part 2

As promised, here's our experiences in creating a pair of battledores and shuttlecocks, following the instructions provided in The Boy's Own Toy-maker, published in 1854. I provided the full text in my previous post, available here.

The first step was to create the hooped top. 

The instructions called for lance-wood, a tough, heavy, elastic, straight-grained wood obtained from several different trees of the custard-apple family (Annonaceae). True lancewood, Oxandra lanceolata, of the West Indies and Guianas, furnishes most of the lancewood of commerce in the form of boat spars. Lancewood was formerly used by carriage builders for shafts. The smaller wood is used for whip handles, for the tops of fishing rods  and for various minor purposes where ever an even grained, elastic wood was desired.

We used pine, in the provided dimensions, and started by marking off the "nicks" to be cut, which allow the curve.

We discovered that it is necessary to leave an un-nicked section in the center, to prevent breakage.

First we soaked the pine strip in the tub, for about a half hour, to start the softening process:

Which then allowed us to bend it enough to fit in my largest stock pot. We allowed it to boil for 8-10 minutes.

Prior to starting, we had cut a form in our desired shape and size, again from pine. Working quickly, we removed the strip from the boiling water, lightly nailed to the form in the center and gently bent it to shape, clamping it in place.

This is what it looked like after it had dried overnight:

Next the handle was glued in place - no picture, sorry!

Then it was time to cover the hooped area in parchment - true parchment, not parchment paper.The term parchment refers to any animal skin, particularly goat, sheep, or cow, that has been scraped or dried under tension. Sourcing the parchment was the most difficult part of this whole project; I found it on eBay for $10 for a 7" x 10" sheet - the pair of battledores required for sheets.

Covering the hoops is much like covering the lid of a bandbox:

Except the the parchment should be dampened first.

I used a modern, artist product - Golden's Gel Medium to glue the parchment, but hide-glue would have been a more period adhesive.

I did one side at a time, allowing them to dry in between applying each side. Once dry, the parchment shrinks, providing a drum like tension. I then finished the edges with blue velvet ribbon and bound the handle top with black cord.

On to the shuttlecocks - a champagne cork is an excellent starting point, requiring only a bit of reshaping.

We did not have any grey goose feathers - we found a source, but they had a minimum purchase of one pound of feathers! Far more than we needed, so we substituted packaged feathers available from most craft stores. Try to pick feathers as close in size to each other as possibly for better aerodynamics.

The last step is to weight the shuttle-cock - we used a common tack, the instructions call for a short brass-headed nail. This step is very important, the shuttlecock will not fly properly without it.

One thing the period reference does not mention, is the sound produced by the shuttlecock hitting the battledore - the 2117 hits mentioned in the previous post would have driven me crazy!

Overall, these are really not at all difficult to create - the provided directions actually work, unlike some of the projects in Godey's and I anticipate them being a great deal of fun at events this summer, as well as a really good way to interact with the public.