Photos by Angela Shoemaker
Wooden Wisps
Woodworker Dick Scheu calls his four-inch wooden snowflake ornaments — he designs a new one each year — "Kentucky Snow" (www.kentuckysnow.com). They’re made of cut-and-glued hardwoods such as Kentucky black walnut, Vermont black cherry and Indiana white maple and sell for $20-$30. You can find them at Edenside Gallery, 1422 Bardstown Road (459-2787); the sales gallery in the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, 715 W. Main St. (589-0102); and A Taste of Kentucky in the Mall St. Matthews (895-2733) and 11800 Shelbyville Road (244-2816).
Frosty the Jingle Bell
The sounds of bells are winter’s soundtrack. Family-owned Tonini Church Supply Co., located at 966 Breckenridge Lane (897-7100, www.tonini.net), is a good place to find them, since it has specialized in religious gifts and church goods (including hand bells) since 1884. The store also carries assorted Jingle Buddies, little two-inch-tall bells disguised as various winter symbols such as snowmen. They’re priced at $2.50 and come in a wide variety of colors.
Slumber Sleigh
Since 1815 America has been in love with the sleigh bed, with its curved headboard and footboard mimicking the shape of the horse-drawn variety. Amish Hills, at 1001-C Breckenridge Lane (893-8100, www.amishhills.com), orders furniture from Amish and Mennonite craftsmen in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania who can hand-make a sleigh bed in your choice of wood in about eight to 12 weeks. The "Elegant River Bend" sleigh bed comes in full, queen and king sizes for $1,288-$2,098. (The cherry queen shown is $1,863 with a 48-inch-high headboard and 39-inch-high footboard. It’s also available with the headboard only or with a lower footboard.)
Go Figure
"Figure skating is a bl/files/storyimages/of performance art and athletics. I’ve always loved it," says artist Ann Carter. So it makes sense that skating is one of her favorite subjects, created in prints, paintings, sculpture and fiber art. She reproduced her silk painting My Skates as 26-by-24-inch giclee canvas prints that sell for $200, with the original painting priced at $1,500. Contact Carter at 937-3403 (www.anncartersart.com). The price range for her work is $35-$3,500.
Time Traveler
If you’re searching for a piece of authenticity for the holidays, look no further than the Louisville Antique Mall at 900 Goss Ave. (635-2852, www.louisvilleantiquemall.com). This early 1900s wood sleigh with metal runners is 38 inches high, 79 inches long and 39 inches wide and sells for $5,000. This is the ultimate winter vehicle — Santa would be proud.
Flexible Flyers
Self-taught folk artist Steve Cull paints Americana in warm colors and whimsical ways, following in the artistic footsteps of 18th- and 19th-century sign painters and limners. He has made the style his own, so much so that one of his oil-on-board paintings is in the permanent collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York City. The Racers, he says, reflects "boyhood memories of sledding in Cherokee Park, walking from Germantown and anticipating the first exhilarating ride down the hill." The 48-inch-square painting sells for $6,500. Cull is represented by Chapman Friedman Gallery, 624 W. Main St. (584-7954, www.chapmanfriedmangallery.com), where his work sells for $5,000-$12,000.
