'Tis no longer the season
Jan. 12th, 2020 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrSo I talked earlier about my ambivalent relationship with Christmas, how I like to start it late, and stretch it out well past the rest of the surrounding culture. We're usually getting done around Epiphany, January 6, taking down the tree, cards, decorations. I forgot one aspect that holds on for another week.
My Nativity Set.
Not mine as in "here at home," mine as in "I made this thing." The statues that make up the nativity scene at St. Thomas More/Newman Center here in Eugene are all handmade, hand-sculpted. By me.
It started with a fallen angel. (Doesn't it always?) The Center had a fairly conventional plaster set, made somewhere in Europe, that they'd used for years. A little worn, chipped on the edges. Donkey missing an ear. But they kept using them, until the year that someone tried to hang the angel from monofilament fishing line. Of an insufficient weight.
Both wings broke off. Father Jose brought her to me asking if I could make a replacement, and I said, "Sure." Sculpted the replacement from stoneware and porcelain, inlaid Gloria in Excelsis in cobalt on her banner, rigged a rod and socket in her back to support her invisibly from behind. Jose was very happy with the results. So happy, in fact, that he talked to some donors, and approached me to commission replacements for the entire set.
It took about four years, all told. Angel the first year; creche figures, ox and ass the second. Shepherds and sheep (and a little sheep dog that I threw in for free) the third. Kings, camel and groom took most of the fourth year. Another parishioner, a furniture maker, constructed a new stable and manger, and they've held pride of place ever since, going up on Christmas Eve and staying until the end of the Christmas season, on the feast of the Baptism of Christ. Which was today, so I captured one last look before they went away for the year.
My Nativity Set.
Not mine as in "here at home," mine as in "I made this thing." The statues that make up the nativity scene at St. Thomas More/Newman Center here in Eugene are all handmade, hand-sculpted. By me.
It started with a fallen angel. (Doesn't it always?) The Center had a fairly conventional plaster set, made somewhere in Europe, that they'd used for years. A little worn, chipped on the edges. Donkey missing an ear. But they kept using them, until the year that someone tried to hang the angel from monofilament fishing line. Of an insufficient weight.
Both wings broke off. Father Jose brought her to me asking if I could make a replacement, and I said, "Sure." Sculpted the replacement from stoneware and porcelain, inlaid Gloria in Excelsis in cobalt on her banner, rigged a rod and socket in her back to support her invisibly from behind. Jose was very happy with the results. So happy, in fact, that he talked to some donors, and approached me to commission replacements for the entire set.
It took about four years, all told. Angel the first year; creche figures, ox and ass the second. Shepherds and sheep (and a little sheep dog that I threw in for free) the third. Kings, camel and groom took most of the fourth year. Another parishioner, a furniture maker, constructed a new stable and manger, and they've held pride of place ever since, going up on Christmas Eve and staying until the end of the Christmas season, on the feast of the Baptism of Christ. Which was today, so I captured one last look before they went away for the year.