Readers,
This New Year’s Day morning, like millions of other people, I hung a new calendar. This one is so special I just had to tell you about it.
This wonderful calendar is the joint effort of my sisters Cynthia and Donna. Donna is the owner of the Etsy store Timmees, and Cynthia is the photographer. Timmee is this whimsically designed tea kettle that has a determined air that reminds me of The Little Engine That Could.
All the pictures in the Timmees calendar are of objects Donna has uncovered in her thrift-store sleuthing and put up for sale in her online store.
Like a Gold Rush miner, she has to pan tons of gravel to find valuable nuggets like this vintage hand mixer–
–or these cherry-red Bakelite earrings.
When Donna uncovers these treasures, they’re often dirty, and their identity and value have gone unrecognized for maybe decades.
After she’s brought these precious objects home, there’s still the work of cleaning them and researching their backgrounds to write the copy for the Etsy store.
Then there’s the product photography.
How ever do you bring out the character of each of these objects to convey their charm and beauty to customers around the world? That’s Cynthia’s job assignment.
Every medium–glass, ceramics, beaded purses, metal or Bakelite jewelry–poses different challenges in lighting and composition more than I could ever imagine.
Cynthia has to represent each object both honestly–nicks, scratches, and all–while also striving to express more qualities. Like the heft of September’s vintage stapler.
Or how a yellow Bakelite necklace can suggest the glow of Halloween pumpkins.
When I unwrapped my copy of the Timmees 2018 calendar on Christmas Day I silently admired all the skill and workmanship that went into the making of it.
But what I said out loud, immediately was “I want my own calendar for 2019!”
How great would it be to page through a calendar with photos of beautiful garments I sewed in 2018? Pretty great, I thought.
So as I start the Ready to Wear Fast year-long sewing challenge I’ll be thinking about the calendar I could hold in my hands a year from now–if I stay the course.
Inspiration and motivation come in many forms, and one of them, it turns out, is a calendar.
Wishing you a happy and productive New Year!