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Straight From the Horses' Mouths





Modern Display is the rep for many Christmas ornament vendors, and artificial trees as well. The old world ornament tree picture was taken in their showroom. They represent quality trees such as the Barcana, and old world ornament makers such as Christopher, and Radko www.christopherradko.com and Polonaise.www.moderndisplay.com
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Festival of Trees ''25 Years of Memories - Recipes'' available through Primary Children's Medical Center gift shop or c/o Festival of Trees Exec. Board 100 N Medical Dr., SLC, UT 84113. Has strongest memories of creating, displaying, selling, and delivering theme trees for this nationally known hosp. fund raiser. Over 100 decorators share their memories 163 pages.


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Stained Glass backdrops are best designed from a black and white ''Cartoon'' of the entire window. Victorian glass is covered in ''The Stained Glass of William Morris and His Circle'', by A. Charles Sewter, Yale University Press, ltd London, 1974. May only be available through inter library loan 748.592 S517 st If you have the down payment on a new car sometimes you can buy a copy through Out of Print at Barnes&Noble's search engine.

Colored Stained Glass. Very good color photos on P. Neil Ralley's site. He's been cataloging stained glass windows for years. His Verona NJ headquarters is perfect for catching all the Tiffany and William Morris glass on the east coast. Many of his photos turn up on the art poster sites. You can buy note cards of most of the windows pictured on his site. www.stainedglassphotography.com

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Good detail pix of medievil windows in ''Gothic Stained Glass 1200-1300'', by Louis Grodecki & Catherine Brisac, trans by Boehm, Cornell Univ Press 1985. These are French Gothic windows mostly blue background, red framing, strong lines, and the eyes are very wide. Photographer was able to get high detail b/w on a number of panels. Not quite as good as having the original cartoon, but considering the age of the windows and the wars that have gone through the area...Watch out for the medievil expression though. You had to be alert to survive. The eyes look like someone has hit the subject in the back of the head. Draw in an eyelid to soften the effect. Your best bet is the library or out of print at Barnes&Noble
(9-21-05 bn.com spotted one used copy today, almost two hundred bucks, this isn't your average text book)
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Walter Cronkite and the Tabernacle Choir ''Silent Night'' retelling of the Christmas Armistice of WWI. Exceptional use of trees, choir, and simple dimmer effect as background set for story. Available video or disc Oct 2003 from Deseret Book. Sometimes their search engine has trouble identifying their own product numbers from an outside computer. So if it gives you the ?hunh? do you mean Deseret book? page - click on that home page link. Then use the product id number listed below or ''Silent Night''. Be sure you use the quote marks or their search engine may give every book with silent in the title, or night in the title. www.deseretbook.com product id is #100062494
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A White House Christmas , Well, there's good news for the on demand cable subscribers. HGTV has 2000-2004 series available during December. Sometimes the HGTV store sells the current year broadcast. Otherwise you have to catch the specific broadcast during December.

Scripps Howard Broadcasting of Knoxville states the copyright protection on HGTV programs is limited to one home use copy. They also have a few production photos on the hgtv.com site.
The nation's best plan months ahead to set up decorations. 2002 featured the White House Pets. The Blue Room tree had 2 bird ornaments submitted from every state. Hgtv may rerun this during the holiday season. 2003 is storybook characters. The pictures I've posted are under a fair use for scholarly work. Do not try to copy. I've deliberately left them grainy, so it won't do any good to copy them.
Type ''white house christmas'' in the hgtv search engine. 2003 is on the 2003 tv guide links. 2002 is on the bird links. BE SURE TO USE THE QUOTE MARKS or you may get every site mentionning ''white'', ''house'', and ''christmas'' www.hgtv.com

Your local news station will run a couple minutes of the White House decorations as part of their regular December coverage.
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Use porcelain. Period. Porcelain case molds keep changing hands. The original makers retire or merge. I modify what is currently on the market to get the effects I want. Having your own Porcelain Molds saves alot of $ and hassel when you make more than a dozen. But you must have access to the slip, tools, and a good kiln. The Alberta's carousel horses 800 series may still be at Weavers. Heinz 4'' cherub #HC-4586 is at Alberta's, as are the Jamar hummingbirds #A055A. Duncan still has their hummers. Alberta #123 reindeer 4'' needs a rubber dinging hammer to get the antlers out intact. But is perfect size/weight in thin porcelain. Their tall thin Roman Madonna #373 is perfect silhouette for a tree topper. Provincial's Santa ornaments are at Creative Paradise currently. The #P996 Old World Santa oval ornaments are exceptional sculpts. The reverse sides have the back of the figures in fine detail. Sometimes www.ebay.com has classic ceramic molds. Use their search engine in their craft and hobby acutions. Be sure all the parts are there. Sometimes the arms are missing. The best thing is to go to your local ceramic shop and ask what's available. This is also the best route to make only one heirloom ornament or just one tree topper. Local shops have labs and classes for making a specific ornament from their backstock.
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Quilter's Newsletter Magazine is unbeatable for Textile art, fabric. Blue stripes and orange calico do work together. Informed articles by the masters of the field. The ads include web sites. Easier to find novelty silks and hard to find prints. Best color theory articles I've seen have come from this magazine. Their web site is www.quiltersnewsletter.com
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Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, is the nation's best source for displaying garlands of local natural material. Their Christmas displays are well known. There are many books available on hand twining wreath or garland. Most do not deal with using fresh fruit, (can get drippy) or classical table decoration. ''Colonial Williamsburg Decorates for Christmas'', by Libby Oliver has been my best source. Try Williamsburg bookstore or Barnes and Noble's out of print search engine.
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Hardware stores have been my best source for wiring, power strips, bulk decorating items. etc. The motion body and light for the Policeman came from Lowe's $40 motion angel. Lowes also has the tree bag that will handle up to 8' tree, so you don't have to go fishing in the lawn bag section. They also carry tree skirts. Their web site has a Christmas section you can search products by. PVC pipe and joints are easy to cut to length for backdrop frames. Wire is by the bolt. You can get what you need. Warehouse stores like Costco do have bulk discounts, but you can not buy the ammount you need. No problem if you need 800 lights, but if you need 900 you have to buy 1600. Stock up on lights anyway.
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Theme trees should be unique. Getting parts to custom make the finished ornament can be a problem. Zim's Craft Warehouse is massive. They specialize in tools and parts for custom jobs. When I need actual Grumbacher sable brushes for that delicate lip line, they're at Zims. When I need covered florist wire. It's at Zims. When I need chocolate molds, they're at Zims. 2'' oval mirrors, stencils, clear pony beads, air brush supply, non yellowing glaze, seal skin fake fur, 50/50 solder/flux, yep - Zims. The Zimmerman dynasty has craft parts shipped in daily from all over the world. They are the original producers of the Dip and Drape line from the 60's, Tole painted nutcracker series, and the Elves Themselves series. They do have a retail area, and are currently setting up a web site.www.zimscrafts.com"
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