I have WAY more Christmas tree ornaments now than I will ever need, given that I don't put up a large tree any more, and also inherited a number of ornaments from my mother. So I thought I would write about the stories behind a few of the more interesting ones, before passing them on to the offspring.
The ones I'm writing about today are from the offspring's birth state of Washington. When I moved there on November 1, 1984, glass ornaments, made from ash from the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, were very popular.
Here is the first one, from Evergreen Art and Design in Chehalis. (My photos don't do the ornaments justice.) It has about a ten-inch circumference and a three-plus-inch diameter.
I store it in the original wooden box it came in, which was made by D&D Box in Rochester, Washington.
I also still have this descriptive card inside.
It reads: "Mount St. Helens erupted May 18, 1980 giving mankind another example of the power of Mother Nature. Millions of tons of volcanic ash were thrown into the air, blanketing several states. This ash contained 64.2% silica, the basic ingredient of glass, plus numerous trace elements including alumina, iron, calcium, silver, and gold.
This ornament comes to you from Hank Claycamp's Evergreen Art and Design in Chehalis, Washington. Working just an ashfall away from the volcano, artisans fashion each handblown piece from a unique blend of man's ingenuity and nature's bounty. The glassworks also produces a variety of paperweights, vases, lamps, bells, bowls, honey jars, jewelry, and custom designs."
This ornament comes to you from Hank Claycamp's Evergreen Art and Design in Chehalis, Washington. Working just an ashfall away from the volcano, artisans fashion each handblown piece from a unique blend of man's ingenuity and nature's bounty. The glassworks also produces a variety of paperweights, vases, lamps, bells, bowls, honey jars, jewelry, and custom designs."
Unfortunately, although I found listings at auction sites for similar ornaments made as early as 1982 and as late as 1985, neither Evergreen Art and Design nor D&D Box seem to be in business today.
Here is the other ornament, from Glass Eye Studio in Seattle:
As the descriptive card notes, "handblown glass insures individual creation - no two pieces are exactly alike."
Apparently, the Glass Eye Studio has run out of Mt. St. Helens ash and no longer makes the ornaments, but a few can still be found online.
All the ornaments we had at home were made of glass, but I had never seen any ash glass items before. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteAleksandra, thanks for your comment, and sorry I did not see it in time to wish you a merry Christmas too! I have a number of glass ornaments that are "Old World" style, like the ornaments I grew up with that my all-German dad told me were like the ones his German grandparents had! I'll be writing about them in the future, as well as some spun glass ornaments.
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