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03/25/2015 12:00 AMTake two old-fashioned cup hooks, several semi-precious stones, copper wire, a chain, and a small piece of polished bone. Add artistic inspiration and what do you get? The striking necklace Donna Carlson has created for the Chester Historical Society's Creative Challenge. This is the fifth year the organization has run the event, which challenges local artists and craftsmen to use materials from the factories that were once a part of village life in Chester to make original works of art. The historical society will auction off all the original artwork at a reception on Saturday, April 11 at the Chester Meeting House. Proceeds benefit the historical society.
This year's challenge, Hooked Again!, uses hooks, handles, and hardware manufactured by M.S. Brooks & Sons, once a leading manufacturer in Chester. Brooks products were also used in the first creative challenge. Other challenges have employed two-inch square knitting gauges from the C.J. Bates Company, rusted pieces of iron in the shape of the letter "E" found when digging on a property in the center of Chester, and bone handles for crochet hooks once made by Bishop & Watrous Novelty Works. The piece of bone Donna has used in her necklace this year is actually one leftover from her Bishop & Watrous creation of several years ago.
Donna started making jewelry in 2008 after taking classes at the Guilford Art Center, and her pieces are regularly on sale in the shop at the Florence Griswold Museum for which she serves as assistant to the director. Sometimes, she staffs the desk at the gift shop ,and it is a secret source of delight for to hear people commenting favorably on her creations, but only if someone buys a piece does she reveal that she made it.
Donna is the best advertisement for her own jewelry, which she wears every day, despite the fact she owns antique pieces she could put on. At a recent visit, she had on a pendant created from a vari-colored blue stone, intricately wound copper and silver bracelets, earrings, and a ring, all of her own design and fabrication. Rings, she says, are the most difficult to make because of the precise sizing involved.
Donna first sketches a jewelry design in a notebook in her basement workshop, which looks as much like an antique store with the classic 19th- and early 20th-century furniture she collects as a jewelry-fabricating center. The workshop not only houses her skeins of silver and copper wire, mallets, soldering, and cleaning equipment, but also is the winter home of the plants, mostly cacti and succulents, that her husband, Richard, a horticulturist, grows at home. The couple has two grown daughters and two granddaughters.
There are also examples in Donna's workshop of another of her skills: stained glass, displayed in a multi-colored ladybug and a small glittering box. She wears gloves working with the glass in the initial stages, but in forming the final product, she needs the flexibility of her fingers. Now, she says, she has enough experience so that she seldom gets cut, but it was different in the beginning.
"When I first started I was covered in Band-Aids," she says.
Donna, who grew up in East Haven and lived in Ivoryton before moving to Chester some 15 years ago, first became involved with the Chester Historical Society in trying to learn more about the history of her own house. She says it once was owned by a member of the Silliman family, one of the early families to settle in Chester. Ultimately, her involvement led to Donna's becoming president of the Chester Historical Society, a post she held from 2005 to 2009.
Donna believes the historical society holds an important place in Chester because the town appreciates its own past.
"There's a lot of pride in the town, in its history. A lot of people grew up here and never left," she says.
In fact, the historical society has another upcoming program on Sunday, March 29, a cracker barrel reminiscence led by Peter Zanardi, which features a panel of longtime residents talking about the sports and games they recall growing up in Chester (see "The Sporting Life" on page 7).
Donna's own love of history is evident in her residence, full of collections of everything from vintage ladies' hats to a large cabinet housing a classic Edison record player, for which she also has a collection of old 78 rpm records, regularly played when her granddaughters visit. Their favorite is a tune called "The Bee's Knees." The record player has two interchangeable heads: one that only plays the Edison records, and another that only plays RCA Victor records.
When Donna and Richard moved to Chester, in an effort to limit the number of antique pieces in their home, Richard said she could not acquire any more antique sewing machines unless they dated from earlier than the earliest one she has. That one is a small, beautiful painted machine that Donna thinks was made in the 1870s. Instead of looking for sewing machines, however, she just started collecting other things: antique radios, vintage toasters, old kitchen equipment, and rotary telephones. And all the telephones, she adds, whatever their age, still work.
Donna loves the artistic part of the Chester Creative Challenge, but she says there are always some tense moments for her when her item is auctioned off.
"It's nerve0wracking. You are putting yourself out there as an artist and you hope that someone is going to bid," she says.
Still, Donna has always had a back-up plan if the bidding doesn't go anywhere. Her husband is ready in the wings to make an offer if no one else does.
"So far, he's never had to do it," she says.
Chester Creative Challenge Auction
Saturday, April 11 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Chester Meeting House. Tickets, $30, are for sale at the Chester Gallery and Ceramica or by calling Sosse Baker at 860-526-9822.