Pecan Shells and Resin Black Americana Folk Art Collection
What a collection to have. A company that started these figurines out of a plant in NC. Some of the figurines are left in a natural state, and others are painted. One true collection to own.
Dupree and his wife Barbara are the distributors for the Creative Works figurines. Their children, brothers, sisters and in-laws work with them. The Duprees, who live at Moncure near Raleigh, have the figurines on sale every weekend at the N. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh and also attend several major craft shows a year.
The demand for the figurines has soared in recent years with the proliferation of craft shows, flea markets and gift shops. The Harrises and Duprees have six sculptors who design copyrighted figurines for them. One works full-time at the plant but the others are part-timers who work on commission.The figurines are of virtually every kind of animal and human characters, but the runaway best sellers are Santa Clauses. ``In the last two or three years, a world of people have gotten into collecting Santas,' Dupree said. They try to have figurines for each holiday period - lots of rabbits around Easter, Uncle Sam on the Fourth of July, witches with pumpkins at Halloween.
But, said Dupree, ``We sell Santas all year round. The Harrises' Creative Works is one of several companies in North Carolina that use pecan shells and resin to produce folk figures.Bill Harris thinks the reason is that the furniture industry uses pecan dust in the production of veneer and plywood. He speculates that some imaginative person, playing around with the dust and resin combination, came up with the idea of a figurine and this led to today's growing cottage industry. The Harrises get their pecan shell material - the shells are ground into a flour-like substance - from a mill supply house in Toccoa, Ga.
The shell dust then is mixed with resin and poured into a rubber mold made from a sculpted piece done by one of the artists. Harris was working as a manager with a drug store chain when Janis, then with an employment placement firm, told him about a job opening with a High Point firm, Brileyco, that would use both his managerial training and an inherited artistic skill. Brileyco, since gone out of business, made figurines. Harris ran its mold shop for several years.
Dupree, a veteran of the craft business, several years ago decided to produce his own figurines. ``I started to pour a little but I wasn't too good at that,' he recalled. Harris had taken another job when Dupree, who he had met while working for Brileyco, asked him about making figurines for him. Harris agreed and its been a busy four years for both. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Cultures & Ethnicities\Other Cultural Collectibles". The seller is "sampson1966" and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, Sweden, Korea, South, Indonesia, South Africa, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bahamas, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Norway, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Croatia, Republic of, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bolivia, Egypt, French Guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Liechtenstein, Sri Lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macau, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion, Uruguay.- Handmade: No
- Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
- Culture: Western Americana