Norma DeCamp Santa Artist DVD Slideshow

I think the last time I updated you on Norma Decamp she was living in the Dominican Republic working in her son's mission.  She gave up her thriving Santa making business to labor hard physically in a very different climate and conditions than her North Carolina cottage.  A serious illness made her reconsider her choice and move back home. 

 I'm sure all her collectors are happy to see her well and back making Santas.  I understand her wanting to be right in the trenches working but I think donations from the proceeds of her Santas might be more helpful.  She was given a talent and the best use for that is to keep right on fashioning her Santas and Belsnickles.

Norma has 1000's of pictures of her Santas and she sent me around 300 of them so I could make a slide show so her collectors could see her past and recent work.  I felt kind of honored to be entrusted with this.

  I came up with a very simple DVD of about 300 of her Santa photos and I have it for sale here at $14.99 . Fifty percent of the profits go to Norma who sends them to her son's mission.  A second DVD is already in the planning stages.The DVD is about 30 minutes long and I think might be a nice little "background" to put on the television at Christmas when a movie might be too intrusive. 

 The Sacrifices We Make

        Norma DeCamp could have spent the rest of her life comfortably in her North Carolina Cottage.  If you haven't heard of her, she is a Santa  maker.  One of few popular enough to make a living entirely from her craft.  Norma, reaching a time when most would start thinking of retirement and a time to take a well deserved break, instead chose to spend her life serving others. 

Her son, David, has a mission on Samana Bay in the Dominican Republic, and Norma chose to join him. Since then it's been a life of work, physical work, emotional work with little time for Santas. For the past 6 months or so Norma has been battling pneumonia and other ailments. Finally she has turned the corner and begun feeling better. I have pictures of her latest work. It isn't for sale. Norma has a loyal customer base and only needs to contact them for her work to sell. I think these pieces are some of her finest work. Maybe it was the long absence that was her inspiration.

I really admire someone who would make the choice of service over comfort. As I sit comfortably in my own home with the holidays approaching, what would it take to move me to such a life? What does it take to move anyone to give up the life you know and venture off into the unknown? What can I do from the comfort of my home this holiday season?

Pink Holidays

About this time of year my local hobby store starts clearing the aisles to make way for Christmas ribbons and ornaments.   I used to groan, it's way too early for this sort of thing.  But now after selling holiday things year round for several years the decorations themselves have become almost season less, almost meaningless.  I'm sure a lot of you who make Santas or Easter Bunnies are working out of season.  At first it was disturbing, I didn't like painting chalkware Santas in September or unboxing bottle brush trees on a warm summer day.  These things always seemed as if they should be accompanied by Christmas music and cookies.                                                                                I live in a temperate climate, in northeastern Wisconsin.   At times I've loathed the bitterly cold days that keep you stranded indoors, the cold at times so extreme that spending any length of time outdoors borders on reckless.  I have lived in a tropical climate with year round balminess, then on to a rainy place, followed by a dry arid place.  Perhaps it's just because I was born and raised here that I like the rhythm of this northern climate best.  The definite seasons, winter being broken by days almost unbelievably beautiful as the grass begins to grow again and the trees leaf out.  We tend to associate holidays with these rhythms, a white Christmas, a pretty spring day for Easter, corn shocks and fields of pumpkins for Halloween.

As time passes I make peace with unpacking Halloween decorations in the middle of summer and Easter bunnies showing up right after Christmas.  I've found I still really associate the holiday with the changing of the seasons and not the objects, the dinners and traditions and not the  decorations.  I have found the meaning lies not in the things themselves but the meanings we give them when we invite them into our lives and give them a place in our homes.  These things we labor on out of season are just waiting for someone's family and home to give them meaning.    

Just an added note, I didn't create any of the things in these pictures,  I do show some of my chalkware Santas in another post.

What Santa Claus Does in Summer

The  latest work from Santa Claus maker Norma Decamp and her son David Decamp.  Accompanied by a bit of prose that Norma writes about each piece that she makes.

Benjamin has been carving birds all his life.    His father was once a pirate and Benjamin

grew up loving the sea.

Homer is Benjamin's grandson.

Ben carves birds down by the sea each day

and brings his work home at night to paint.

He sells them to the tourists that come by

and Homer is usually close by his side.

He lovingly carved Homer's sailboat and horse 

and Homer is so proud of them.

Benjamin stands 15 inches” and Homer almost 8”

They are sitting on a piece of driftwood from Samana Bay

It measures 15 inches”. The birds were all hand carved by David, and hand painted. The tallest is an Ibis and stands 3 ½” tall. They vary from Spoonbills to Peacocks.

Work is designed and created by Norma DeCamp and David Decamp of Samana Bay Mission, Dominican Republic

Mother and Son

Santa Claus, Samana Bay and a Cat Named Mango

     If you collect Santa Claus figures, chances are you've heard of Norma Decamp.   For 35 years she's been making Santas.  Her style is instantly recognizable, faces full of expression and character, beards of wool, robes made from bits and pieces of  rich antique fabrics.  And then there are the embellishments: little vintage dolls of German bisque, tiny handmade toys, bottlebrush trees, sleighs and wagons pulled by reindeer.
     In 2006 Norma discovered ebay and a whole new world of people discovered Norma.  Her work was sought after, bid up and just generally created a stir.  Norma sometimes sold molds of her Santa heads which were quickly snapped up so that others could try and recreate the magic that Norma has.
She could have remained content in her North Carolina cottage creating her art and creating a stir, but success is not always measured in dollars and praise.
     Just this year Norma joined her son David at the mission he started in the Dominican Republic. This is from Norma's latest letter. "My son is the one that started this mission, it was a dream he had years ago, in fact he was only 15 when he thought of it, he wanted to try to help people to not only know the guiding light in their lives better, but to teach them how to raise gardens, purify their water, just how to survive in the country and like it. The cities are getting so crowded and so full of crime, country living is fantastic if one is willing to learn. We grow 30 different fruit trees on this compound, and have three different gardens here, there are lots of wonderful palm trees supplying us with coconuts, and we grow pineapples, bananas, plantain, we have avocado trees and mangos, in fact we have a wonderful cat named Mango that thinks he is a dog and hangs out all the time with our 7 dogs."
     The sailboat, the Santa, and the fisherman are all Norma's latest work.  I wonder what effect living in a tropical climate will have on future work.  Geography and a "sense of place" tend to have such an effect on our lives.  And a sense of purpose will have such an effect on others through Norma's life.
  For more information on the mission visit http://www.samanabaymission.org/main/welcome

Norma Decamp Update

Some of you are waiting for a cd of Norma Decamp's work. If you're not familiar with her she's an artist primarily known for her Santa Claus figures. Her work can be found in collections around the world, from Tom Cruise to Oprah. She lives now at a mission in Samana Bay in the Dominican Republic. The mission was founded by her son David, also an artist. Although she meant to devote herself to the mission, Norma can't help but create and she's still making Santas and other figures like this. The cd will be made in the near future and I'll be offering it for sale. In the next few weeks I'll do some installments on Norma's life and work. She recently generously shared lots of photos and a lovely letter about life at the mission, which I will soon share with you.