Tag: Folly Cove Designers

Boston Globe Review | Of Garments and #GloucesterMA…Folly Cove Show at Cape Ann Museum

Posted on by Catherine

Great review. Read Murray Whyte’s rave here. He found a favorite. You will, too. Must see exhibit at Cape Ann Museum.

Folly Cove, art review, murray Whyte,Boston Globe,Cape Ann Museum, #GloucesterMA, Gloucester artists, Designed and Hand-Blocked by the Folly Cove Designers, November 2022,


“There are magical things here. The array of printed swatches of fabric might be the least beguiling element of a rich process — which is saying a lot, because they’re captivating. The group’s instrument of choice was the linocut block, each of them carved meticulously by hand.”

-Murray Whyte.

Whyte, Murray. (2022, Nov. 9). Of garments and Gloucester: celebrating the Folly Cove designers. Boston Globe.
Over decades, the women’s collective built a national following for their hand-printed fabrics and wares. In a new exhibition, the Cape Ann Museum looks at the process and precision that guided their handiwork.

LIVE from Mary Rhinelander and Julia Garrison action packed printmaking demo at Cape Ann Museum!

Posted on by Catherine

Today visitors to Cape Ann Museum were in for a special treat. They came excited to learn about linocut prints from artists Mary Rhinelander and Julia Garrison. Some watched. Many gave it a go. Best of all they left with an impression they pulled from the ingenious homage block Mary carved in tribute to the Folly Cove designers!

 

 

 

Read more about the wonderful event 

Don’t miss artists Mary Rhinelander and Julia Garrison give special block printing demonstration at Cape Ann Museum

Posted on by Catherine

rhinelander - snow day

Blockprinting Demonstration in the Gallery

Artists Mary Rhinelander and Julia Garrison demonstrate the techniques of the Folly Cove Designers

The Cape Ann Museum is pleased present a blockprinting demonstration with artists Mary Rhinelander and Julia Garrison on Saturday, January 12 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. These artists have long been inspired by the Folly Cove Designers. Drop by the Museum to see the Folly Cove Designers exhibition and to watch printing in action. This program is free for Museum members, Cape Ann residents or with Museum admission. For more information visit capeannmuseum.org or call 978-283-0455 x10.

Mary Rhinelander is a professional artist with an MFA in printmaking.  She has had many solo and group shows and her work is in both public and private collections. She has painted murals, designed logos and book covers, illustrated for a variety of publications, and taught students of all ages.  In 2004 she founded a fine art card business, Mermade Press. With a deep affinity for the Folly Cove Designers and Virginia Lee Burton in particular, it has been Mary’s great pleasure to bring block printing workshops into Cape Ann’s public schools with the support of CAM and the Gloucester Education Foundation. Mary will be joined by Julia Garrison, an artist with ties to Lanesville, who until recently owned and operated the Sarah Elizabeth Shop in Rockport’s Whistlestop Mall.

The Folly Cove Designers were a group of 45 designer-craftsmen who worked together between 1938 and 1969 producing carefully wrought designs cut into linoleum blocks and printed (primarily) on fabric. Their common interest was in producing solid designs and in good craftsmanship. The Folly Cove Designers was composed almost entirely of women, most being residents of Cape Ann and a majority having no artistic training prior to becoming involved in the group. They worked under the leadership of Virginia Lee Burton Demetrios, who devised a design course which she offered to her friends and neighbors in the Folly Cove neighborhood. Participants were urged by Demetrios to look to their surroundings for inspiration, to draw “what they knew” and to sketch their subjects over and over again until they made them their own. This program is offered in conjunction with the special exhibition The Little House: Her Story which takes a closer look at Virginia Lee Burton Demetrios and her award winning story, The Little House.

Mary will also be teaching a blockprinting class on Wednesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. starting on January 23.

This custom 4-week course for adults offers the opportunity to create artwork surrounded by the inspirational work of the Folly Cove Designers. Sketch, carve linoleum blocks and print an original work to take home. Materials provided. $125 CAM members/$145 nonmembers. Space is limited, registration required.

Image credit: Snow Day. Courtesy of Mary Rhinelander.

About the Cape Ann Museum

The Cape Ann Museum has been in existence since the 1870s, working to preserve and celebrate the history and culture of the area and to keep it relevant to today’s audiences. Spanning 44,000 square feet, the Museum is one of the major cultural institutions on Boston’s North Shore welcoming more than 25,000 local, national and international visitors each year to its exhibitions and programs. In addition to fine art, the Museum’s collections include decorative art, textiles, artifacts from the maritime and granite industries, two historic homes and a sculpture park in the heart of downtown Gloucester. Visit capeannmuseum.org for details.

The Museum is located at 27 Pleasant Street in Gloucester. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission is $12.00 adults, $10.00 Cape Ann residents, seniors and students. Youth (under 18) and Museum members are free. For more information please call: (978)283-0455 x10. Additional information can be found online at www.capeannmuseum.org.

mary rhinelander and julia garrison blockprinting demo at cape ann museum for virginia lee burton her story and folly cove designers exhibition jan 2019

THE UNLIKELY STORY OF THE FOLLY COVE GUILD

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns
Led by beloved children’s author Virginia Lee Burton, this group of mostly untrained women created immortal designs.

Atlas Obscura

By Cara Giaimo

Folly Cove Designers Eino Natti “Polyphemus” 1950 Cape Ann Museum

One by one, the prints unfold before you. One shows sheep leaping in the grass, another, children on a tree-hung swing, the moon shifting above them. All are charming, sophisticated, and unbelievably detailed. They take the essence of everyday objects and activities, and unspool them into mesmerizing patterns. No matter how much you may want them, though, you can’t get these prints on Etsy. In fact, you can’t get them anywhere.

They live mere miles from where they were produced, at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester—the last bastion of the nearly forgotten Folly Cove Designers. Helmed by a children’s book illustrator and comprised of her previously untrained friends and neighbors, the Folly Cove Designers were hardworking, tight-knit, and sincere—so sincere, they eventually voted themselves into obscurity.

To children worldwide, Virginia Lee Burton is the beloved hand behind half a dozen classics, including Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Katy and the Big Snow, and The Little House, intricately illustrated tales of close-knit communities. But to her neighbors at Folly Cove, on the north shore of Massachusetts, she was Jinnee Demetrios. Jinnee and her husband, the sculptor George Demetrios, moved to the area in 1932 with their one-year-old son Aristides, who was soon followed by Mike. The couple quickly became community pillars, making art all day, and spending evenings gathering their friends and neighbors for raucous sheep roasts.

“Folly Cove gets its name because it would be folly to bring a ship in and turn it around,” says Christine Lundberg, producer of the film Virginia Lee Burton: A Sense of Place, as well as the upcoming Beautiful and Useful: The Art of the Folly Cove Designers. This ethos carried over into the rough-and-ready town life. “You couldn’t get pretty little things,” says Lundberg. “If you wanted them, you had to make them.” An artist through and through, Jinnee surrounded herself with homemade treasures, including, as the story goes, a particularly nice set of block-printed curtains. One of her neighbors, Aino Clarke, admired the curtains so much she wanted to make her own. Jinnee and Aino struck a deal: Jinnee would give Aino top-to-bottom design lessons if Aino, a member of the local orchestra, would teach Jinnee’s sons the violin. (A less legendary, but perhaps more truthful, version of this tale holds that Aino suggested Jinnee give design lessons to her neighbors in exchange for money to buy the necessary paper to illustrate her first book.)

Regardless of exactly how the two came together, Jinnee’s flint struck on Aino’s iron sparked an artistic movement. Within its rock-hard exterior, Folly Cove harbored a vein of artistic impulse that dated all the way back to the 1800s, when painters had flocked there to take advantage of the seashore’s distinct sunlight. (“If you spend time lying on the granite around here, you get creative powers,” one resident told Lundberg). As Jinnee and Aino dove into the lessons, other members of the community began joining them.

Folly Cove Designers Virginia Lee Demetrios “George’s Garden” 1964  Printed in her favorite color. Cape Ann Museum

Thus began the Folly Cove Designers (FCD), a ragtag group of locals united by their desire to fill their lives and their minds with a particular form of well-thought-out beauty. Many members were, like Aino Clarke, the children of Finnish immigrants, and sought to combat the economic and emotional hardships of the Great Depression. Others were so-called “Yankees,” who had moved permanently to Folly Cove after vacationing there as children, and who wanted something new to do. Eino Natti, one of the group’s few male members, was an Army veteran and former quarryman—experiences he drew on for prints such as Polyphemus, of a granite-carting train, and PT, which shows near-identical soldiers in mid-squat. Elizabeth Holloran, the local children’s librarian, printed young people skiing and sugaring. “A majority of them were never artists,” says Cara White, director of the Cape Ann Museum’s Folly Cove gallery. “They were editors, architects, housewives, accountants.”

The Folly Cove Designers “diploma,” presented to each member by Jinnee upon their entrance to the guild. Cape Ann Museum.

READ MORE HERE

💗🤗The Snowy Day US Postal stamps (and hello Virginia Lee Burton)

Posted on by Catherine

I LOVE that the 2017 US Postal Service celebrates Ezra Jack Keats classic picture book, The Snowy Day (1962), on a forever stamp. What a great addition to a long line of children’s picture books, characters, authors and illustrators that have been commemorated on U.S. postage stamps.  Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee takes suggestions…Ok, everyone, please let them know VIRGINIA LEE BURTON is a must. Burton received a Caldecott Medal as did Keats. Katy and the Big Snow would make a great winter stamp. It’s easy to envision a plethora of sheets celebrating Burton: vehicles,  scenes, beloved characters, her design and typesetting. Burton should be a Google doodle, too. Let’s let the Google doodlers know~ proposals@google.com #VirginiaLeeBurton

Ezra Jack Keats The Snowy Day US POSTAL STAMP 2017 Gloucester MA Virginia Lee Burton one day.jpg

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Exquisite Virginia Lee Burton art exhibition @GalleryA4 Takenaka Corporation Foundation in Tokyo Japan | loans from Cape Ann Museum and Sawyer Free Library

Posted on by Catherine

Watch this beautiful video tour to see a world class exhibition design in Tokyo for Virginia Lee Burton worthy of her legacy. The creative and smart installation looks stunning! The temporary summer show will be up through August. Gallery A4 is a public foundation established by Takenaka Corporation. Photos from Gallery A4 web site. 

There’s also an exhibition featuring the Art of Eric Carle up through July at the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan. 

Gallery A4 Tokyo exhibit Virginia Lee Burton

a ‘must-see’ video of the installation

A4 japan exhibition vlb

Virginia Lee Burton in Gloucester

video caption: Virginia Lee Burton, children’s book author/illustrator, Folly Cove textile designer and founder, resided and worked in Gloucester, MA, where she created some of America’s most popular children’s books. She received the Caldecott medal in 1943 for The Little House. Other books include Katy and the Big Snow and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. Excerpts from her Caldecott speech. Music: The Little House, 1926, by Carrie Jacobs-Bond. 

katy ghwalk
Find the link to PDF print out of Burton’s wonderful Caldecott speech

Virginia Lee Burton display at Cape Ann Museum 2011.

Virginia Lee Burton display at CAM 2011

Join American Craft Week Oct 6-15 | Gloucester made the USA Top 10 list and you should be in the guide!

Posted on by Catherine

Here’s a super easy and great opportunity to share what you do or help your friend’s work get noticed.  Crafters, artisans, makers, retailers, creatives: make sure to sign up before July 1, 2017 when it’s just $25.

Please share. Also, please encourage any under 30 Gloucester to showcase their work. Perhaps they’ll be designated next year’s ‘rising stars’. Participants & Events :: American Craft Week :: HOW TO JOIN  and check out their resource page- “PR power packet page”

Here’s why Gloucester won

gloucester is top 10 town in USA for craft lovers winner 2017

It’s tough to match Gloucester for the range and depth of fall art fairs and events –including American Craft Week– and Gloucester’s heritage of artists and artisans of yesterday and today (more on the pioneers below.) Pauline Bresnahan participates and drummed up the vote: “Gloucester has always encouraged creativity, individuality and artistic expression. Honored to be able to participate and encourage others to take part in this celebration for everyone who has fallen in love with their art and craft that shows their creativity.”

October is BEAUTIFUL!

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I’ve gathered special events and festivals that run annually each October/Fall in Gloucester and on Cape Ann.  Make sure to look into the monthly art gallery exhibitions, live music, performances, and readings going on in the many art and culture venues as well as non-traditional spaces, businesses, organizations, accommodations, and restaurants. Mind you this is only the fall (October!) listings:

Just in October

Founded in 2016-  Cape Ann Plein Air Note that Paint Essex annual Plein Air  (founded in 2012) moved from a summer slot to the fall to coincide with Cape Ann Plein Air in 2016

Founded in 2016- Look for Magnolia Sip and Stroll nights –  “Enjoy complimentary food, beverages and live music while visiting the wonderful shops on historic Lexington Avenue in Magnolia, MA”

Founded in 2015- Brace Cove 2nd Annual Art Market (one day only!) 1pm till dark.

Founded in – Oktoberfest at Cape Ann Brewing Company

Founded in 2010 /in Gloucester 2014 – Annual American Craft Week held in October Gloucester recognized as one of America’s top 10 towns for craft lovers | 2017 Annual American Craft Week October 6-15  Last year Pauline’s Gifts and Cape Ann Artisans participated. I think we can increase that list a bit! 

Founded in 2015 – Pumpkin Carving at Cape Ann Art Haven

Founded in 2012- Fall Fest at Mile Marker 1 by Bridge Cape Ann

Founded in 2009- the Annual DoctoberFest Documentary Film Festival curated by Cape Ann Cinema & Stage (estab.2008)

Founded in 2006- Cape Ann Farmers Market outdoor market Thursdays into October, also features artisans and makers.

Founded in 1984- Annisquam Arts & Crafts show Oct 8 & Oct 9, 10-5

Founded in 1984-  Annual Art Auction, Gloucester Lyceum & Sawyer Free Public Library

Founded in 1983-  Cape Ann Artisans Studio Tour (the oldest continuous in the country) featured as part of Artweek Boston 2016

Founded in 1979- Gloucester Stage is world class professional American theater in our country’s oldest seaport. Look for fall Premiers

Founded in 1972- Annual Essex Clamfest October

VENERABLE ARTS  TRADITION

Start with a visit to Cape Ann Museum a world class American art museum with a not to miss fine art and archive collections founded in 1873. Just Go! Outsider art and fine craft maker high lights include Folly Cove designers repository,  1893 Columbian Exposition Chicago World’s Fair harbor diorama, Fiesta oars, and the Community of Neighborhoods quilt cycle.

In each and every decade, printed ephemera and guides capture Gloucester’s long proud cultural history. Guides matter. Here are a couple of pioneer examples with a craft emphasis from the 1960s and 1892. American Craft Week is the digital equivalent of a who’s who in the American craft scene.

1960s

“We are told in the print that the American public is hungry for art…untouched by the machine. Cape Ann craft workers can satisfy that hunger…given a chance.” Henry Bollman, 1961

Bollman a ceramicist volunteered to chair the crafts section VIII of the 10th annual Gloucester Arts Festival: Ruth Balch, leather sandals; Henry Bollman, ceramics; Harriet Curtis, weaving and trays; Doris Frankbonner, ceramics and jewelry; Folly Cove Designers, Block Printing; Heather Godfrey, furniture decoration; Max Kuhne, silver leaf; Morris Lubin, Metal work; Reina Martin, silver and gold; Robert Natti, Pottery; Ruth Powers, Rugs

1961 Gloucester MA artisans

1960 list craft exhibition: John Black (silk screen); Henry Bollman (Ceramics); Greg Burke (Mosaics); Doris Coleman (Rockport Beach Glass jewelry); Edward Coleman (Rockport Beach glass jewelry); Carol Creed (mosaics); Alfred Czerepak (wood sculpture); Otis Dana (old pine furniture); Preston Donn (stained glass); Anne Daukas (woodwork); Folly cove designers (printed fabrics); Hazel Gaudreau (pottery); Heather Godfrey (hand painted trays and furniture); Thelma Karr (fabric designing); Evelyn Krames (enameling); Sol Krames (enameling); Max Kuehne (silver leaf); Gene Lesch (pewter and soft metals); Moris Lubin (art metal work); Ada Maker (ceramic coffee table); Barbara Marshall (cabinetmaker); Reino Martin (gold and silversmith); Sandra Matheson (cermaics)

1960 craft exhibition

Detail from one of the maps indicating the “General location of artists residing in same place permanently or each summer.” This one shows Gloucester Bay View, Lanesville, Folly Cove area mainly painters and sculptors among them: Paul Manship, Walker Hancock, Leon Kroll, George Demetrios, Virginia Lee Burton, Folly Cove Designers

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The Gloucester Arts Festival scheduled ancillary programming like Cape Ann Festival of the Arts guided hikes and arts and writing exhibitions and contests for Gloucester’s youth.

1892

The Art and Loan Exhibition for The Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of Gloucester held August 24-29   featured “a representation collection of the antique and artistic from the many homes on Cape Ann…In connection with the exhibit a souvenir silver scarf pin was sold representing a fishing schooner under full rig with the dates 1642-1892 in raised work, and found ready purchasers…A piece of room paper from the walls of the old Ellery House, the first wall paper used in Gloucester, is exhibited…an interesting bit of fancy work is a frame inscribed in letters worked in silk Hannah Masters her Sampler May 8 1768…Another piece of family work which shows evidence of much labor and painstaking is a Clark family tree worked in silk on canvas in 1832 by Mary B. Clark, mother of Mayor Andrews…” The loan and art committee were reimbursed  $1195.81; the souvenir pins inventory was $211.40. Thankfully the city published a “true and detailed account of the 250th anniversary observance and illustrated these Lane and Beach works. The 1817 view of Gloucester by Capt Beach was loaned by Asa G. Andrews, too. JB Foster was the one and only artist on the extensive exhibition checklist (321 detailed items) that listed his work for sale $100 “At the Wharf Gloucester Harbor”. James Pringle wrote the seminal digitized “History of the town and city of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts” 1892.

1892 art and loan on exhibit for Gloucester MA 250th

American Craft Week

Photos from today’s 9th Annual Women’s Luncheon at Cape Ann Museum

Posted on by Catherine

The Cape Ann Museum was closed today and early yesterday to prepare for their incredible luncheon. This year it was throughout the museum with formal seating upstairs and downstairs and a rock star video feed. It was elegant, inspiring and fun! For more information see the earlier GMG post. 

Mariposa founder Livia Cowan with Mariposa designers, Shelly Bradbury and Michael Updike, were the featured speakers. Timothy S. Hopkins catered; it was scrumptious. Tiny special red peppers looked like ornaments in our salads and were a discovery for many. The new tote bag featuring the Lee Natti chicadee print was flying out the museum shop. Kathleen Adams (harpsichord) and Dawn Pratson (flute) filled our hearts with LIVE music directly from the Jeremy Adams exquisite special exhibition. The Paul Manship tortoise was festooned for the holidays which seemed extra fitting as last year’s luncheon raised more than $25,000 towards this acquisition.

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THE CAPE ANN MUSEUM IS BRIMMING WITH FABULOUS HOLIDAY GIFTS!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Thank you to Leslie Heffron who mentioned in last week’s podcast that she had done nearly all her holiday shopping at the Cape Ann Museum. The Museum’s gift shop is simply a treasure trove of unique and special gifts for loved ones of all ages on your Christmas list.

Cape Ann Museum -9 ©Kim Smith 2015

The inspirational and beautiful Folly Cove Designers Catalogue is in its third printing! First published in 1996 in conjunction with an exhibition held at the Cape Ann Museum, the book incorporates updated information.

Cape Ann Museum -7 ©Kim Smith 2015From the witty and wonderful art of Virginia Lee Burton comes the Cape Ann Museum’s exclusive new carry-all tote bag “Gossips.” Made of a very sturdy 100 percent cotton, with magnetic closure and zippered inside pocket. 

Cape Ann Museum -2©Kim Smith 2015Terrific Trivets!

Cape Ann Museum ©Kim Smith 2015The Museum is closed tomorrow, Wednesday, for the 7th Annual Women’s Luncheon, and will reopen Thursday at the usual 10am time. Open Tuesday through Sunday, the Cape Ann Museum also has a terrific schedule of events lined up for Saturday, December 12th, for the Middle Street Walk. Click here for programming. The Museum is free and open to the public all day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_C-oP4Dyn2/

See More Here Continue reading “THE CAPE ANN MUSEUM IS BRIMMING WITH FABULOUS HOLIDAY GIFTS!” →

HOLIDAY SHOP LOCAL SUPER SCOOP: FOLLY COVE DESIGNS FOR SALE AT ALEXANDRA’S BREAD!

Posted on by Kimsmithdesigns

Alexandra's Bread Louise kenyon ©Kim Smith 2015Don’t miss this rare opportunity to purchase exquisite handmade vintage linens. Pictured above is a Louise Kenyon table mat from 1943, in absolute mint condition. Alexandra has a fabulous array of table runners, place mats, and holiday cards by Folly Cove trained artists Sara Elizabeth and Isabel Natti, printed on cotton on the original acorn press. The prices are incredibly reasonable, starting at only five dollars for the cards and twenty dollars for the linens. I am positive any one of these whimsical designs would make a treasured gift (or you may just have to purchase one for yourself as I am so tempted to do!). Alexandra has many more designs than what you see pictured here so stop in and have a look see!

Alexandra's Bread -2 ©Kim Smith 2015

Alexandra's Bread Isabel Natti Lobster ©Kim Smith 2015

Alexandra’s Bread is located at 265 Main Street, Gloucester. They are open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30am to 5pm.

To learn more about Virginia Lee Burton and the Folly Cove Designers, visit the Cape Ann Museum’s beautiful collection of art and artifacts from the group’s heyday, on display in the Folly Cove room.

SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE Continue reading “HOLIDAY SHOP LOCAL SUPER SCOOP: FOLLY COVE DESIGNS FOR SALE AT ALEXANDRA’S BREAD!” →

The Best Christmas Decoration EVER! (Not to Overstate it)

Posted on by S.D. Kelly

This year I was lucky enough to acquire one of the limited-run wall hangings created in printer Julia Garrison’s studio & shop, The Sarah Elizabeth Shop, in Rockport. The piece hangs near our dinner table and I stare at it during every meal, surprised every time by the beauty and the level of detail in the design.

The wall hanging was printed from a block carved in 1950 by local artist Delores Rapp, who was trained by Virginia Lee Burton, the founding member of the Folly Cove Designers, so it is only fitting that over six decades later, prints are being made from the block using the same Acorn Press that was used by the Folly Cove Design Collective, which Julia uses in printing both archival and her own original designs.

Julia prints this piece in a few different colors. Mine is printed in red ink on a natural linen background.
Julia prints this piece in a few different colors. Mine is printed in red ink on a natural linen background.

This year, the current owner of the vintage block (Delores Rapp passed away a few years ago) came to Julia and they worked out an arrangement that allows Julia to print a limited run of wall hangings from the block. All the wall hangings are hand-printed and sewn locally, using archival ink on linen, which lasts forever, so your descendents will still be enjoying this pieces many Christmas moons from now.

You can purchase the hanging (and see other options for ink/background colors) directly from Julia online HERE. Or better yet, go see her in her studio/shop this weekend at 5 Whistlestop Mall in Rockport to see the wall hangings — and her other wares — in person.

This piece is bound to be an heirloom in our own family — I am already attached to it more than pretty much any other holiday item I have — and will no doubt be equally as meaningful in the homes of every one else who gets their hands on one. It is beautiful both for the amazing design (when you consider that every detail was hand carved!) and for its connection to our local and current artistic heritage.

I’m sorry my photos don’t do it justice. Check it out at Julia’s online shop or in person to get the full effect of these limited-run pieces.

Just some of the detail of the design.
Just some of the detail of the design.

 

Valentine Cards by Isabel Natti

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Kathy Chapman writes-

Valentine Cards printed from Isabel Natti’s linoleums are now featured at The Sarah Elizabeth Shop (open on weekends, by chance or appointment)….

They plan on carrying on the tradition of blockprinted fabric inspired by the work of the Folly Cove Designers. Artist Julia Garrison (of Lanesville) is working the historic Acorn Press.

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5 Whistlestop Mall, Rockport

Website – http://www.sarah-elizabeth-shop.com/

For more info email Julia: garrisonjulia2@gmail.com

Photo: http://www.kathychapman.com

Isabel Natti Herring Plant Print

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Isabel Natti’s Herring Factory Print is incredible on many different levels.  One is that it is visually gorgeous, but what the casual observer may not understand is how much detail and how accurate the entire scene is to how we actually did things back in the day.  Isabel worked for Wally Maggot, a guy who rented a pier that no longer exists on our property. They did the same type of whiting, squid and herring packing that my Grandfather Captain Joe, and Father and Uncle’s company did.

Isabel Natti Herring Plant Print, originally uploaded by captjoe06.

If you look at the photo up in the top right corner she tells the entire story starting with the two pair trawlers catching the herring.
Next in the middle, the boats are offloading at the dock where the herring get weighed and go up a conveyor into the pen room.  From the pen room they would travel down on conveyors down the packing lines where they would get packed into 45 pound cases.  Then they would get covered, weighed and then placed on big freezer racks.  Next along you can see the person making up the boxes on the same box stapling machine that we used where you would press down with your foot on the pedal and it would swing the arm to staple the corners of the cardboard boxes.  Lastly they get loaded on the truck to head off to the freezer.
I can’t believe she captured the entire scene in one frame. It is all there- the story of many many people’s day on Gloucester Harbor.  I can see it all and it will live on through her work even though the piers have long fallen into the ocean.
Part II of our interview will be posted at 9:00AM
You can check out the Sara Elizabeth Shop By Clicking This text for more pictures of the designs and the rich history of The Acorn Press and Folly Cove Designers

Lobster Placemats Made With The Acorn Press

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

These lobster placemats can be purchased at The Sara Elizabeth Shop where Isabel Natti hand presses them with the Acorn Press.  Part II of our interview with Isabel Natti will be up at 9:00AM

Lobster Placemats Made With The Acorn Press, originally uploaded by captjoe06.

Sara Elizabeth Shop at Whistlestop Mall Rockport

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

All of these prints were made using the Acorn Press.   For more of the history of The Acorn Press, and The Folly Cove Designers click this highlighted text.   Interview with Isabel Natti due at 9:00AM

SAra Elizabeth Shop at Whistlestop Mall Rockport, originally uploaded by captjoe06.

Acorn Press At Sara Elizabeth Shop

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

Here is the Acorn Press still used today at the Sara Elizabeth Shop at The Whistlestop Mall in Rockport.  Part one of my interview with Isabel Natti who maintains this tradition will run today at 9:00AM.

Acorn Press At Sara Elizabeth Shop, originally uploaded by captjoe06.