MAWS

Montana Artists at Home
in a Winter Wonderland

by Yvonne Coopmans
with thanks to Linda Shelhamer

The process of inviting the Montana artists began that summer, when the Montana Governor’s Office was contacted by the White House to invite six artisans to make snowmen ornaments for the Christmas tree. The request, after being relayed through several organizations with connections to the fiber arts community, was sent back to the White House.

A letter with the specifications was sent then from the White House staff directly to each artist. They were to produce a soft sculpture snowman, between 12 and 14 inches tall and weighing no more than 10 ounces.

Two of our current MAWS members responded to the invitation,Joanne Hall, from Clancy, and Marge Ferrin from Billings. The other Montana artists invited to submit ornaments were Carol Mahn from Lincoln, Nancy Erikson of Missoula, Pam Schoonover from Fort Benton, and Kathleen Mollohan from Helena.

Frostina

Joanne Hall’s creation was a female figure which she named 'Frostina'. Joanne told me, "I wanted to be sure it was very obvious that Frostina was female, and that she could be seen in low light and at a distance, so I made her a bonnet and apron. I made the traditional snow person shape and made it feminine by having it look like a lacy snow flake." Frostina is about 9 inches tall, and is hollow so you can see through her. She is constructed from fine 16/1 white linen crocheted into three rectangles which were dipped in dilute glue and stretched over a styrefoam sphere.

I sprinkled tiny white sparkles on them, just a little though. I didn’t want her to look glitzy", Joanne said. "After allowing the glue to dry Joanne carved out the styrefoam and the three sections were stitched together. 'Frostina' is all white; for the bonnet I used very fine white lace around her face (although there is no face) and I used the same lace for the apron. I used some old beads on the bodice and crocheted a gold string for hanging," she continued.

"I was told that Frostina will remain in a White House collection of ornaments. Perhaps she will surface at a 100 year elebration sometime, or some other Christmas event. I didn’t think to put my name on her, but I included a paper with her name, my name and address. I did take photos of her before she left."

Kathleen Mollohan sent the following description of her ornament, also female. "The snow-woman is made from white fabric (I forgot snowmen were made from three balls (mine just has two). I constructed a cloak of burgundy silk, hand-beaded, and lined with red, green, and blue. The figure’s head-dress, on white spun-glass hair, is a pine cone ornamented with copper wire and beads. The arms are bead-decorated sticks. Both pine cone and sticks were picked up off the lawn of the state capitol building. It is 12 inches high."

"I wanted to use a lot more beads, but was afraid it would be too heavy. I weighed it on the day it was due to be mailed and I was way under 10 ounces, so I could have beaded to my heart’s content."

Marge Ferrin of Billings made a soft sculpture snowman which has a traditional look with a carrot nose, black top hat and boots, red jacket, scarf and plaid pants, and white mittens and leg warmers.

Marge Ferrin's snowman

The body is cotton cloth filled with polyester fill, but everything else is constructed from Montana grown wool, alpaca, and Angora. The snowman’s head was felted out of white wool, the features were stitched with hand-spun alpaca yarn. The hat and boots are felted from the same dark alpaca, and the jacket was felted from wool dyed a bright red, with black beads for buttons. The scarf, pants, and leg warmers were all woven with Marge’s handspun yarn. She cut the mittens from wool felt, then handstitched them, using her initials MF as part of the design element.

"I was just honored I had been chosen as an artisan from Montana for the Christmas tree in the Blue Room inside the White House," Marge said.

Marge made a twin ornament because the one sent to Washington becomes part of the ongoing collection of ornaments at the White House, and she wanted one to keep.

Each artisan was sent a letter of invitation to the open reception at the White House in December. In addition to a ticket to the event, they will receive a picture of the tree, a copy of the program and other mementos commemorating their contribution to the national collection of American folk art in the White House.