Twenty-Five Years of Pufferbellies

Somehow it hit me last week ... Pufferbellies is 25 years old!! I've spent a lot of the last week working on a new website, and that involved looking through so many old photos and newspaper and magazine articles. So hard to believe I've been carving and painting up a storm for 25 years already! 

Pufferbellies started out with my sister Bonnie Petersen and I talking back and forth from Nova Scotia to England (where Bonnie lived at the time.)  We had fun right from the beginning! We started out with just 3-4 different items and now I can't even tell you how many different items I've made over the years, but it has to be in the thousands! We started out sharing a booth with my friend, Cynthia Walker, at Christmas at the Forum, & went on from there to be in many shows and stores, mostly in Atlantic Canada but also in Ontario, BC & New England.

Bonnie and I posing with "Walter's World," a clock I made. The scenery goes around all four sides of the clock. When you open the door, on a shelf in the middle is a little carved man, Walter, sitting in a wooden armchair watching Gilligan's Island on Television.

All of this started out way more than 25 years ago really ... with our Dad teaching us how to carve as little kids. I still have some of the early pieces that I carved in Dad's workshop in the house on Kline Street. This year, my mother is working on downsizing and has given me a few things from Dad's workshop ... She came down to Bridgewater this past week with a set of his chisels for me, and his brace and bit, and a handmade crooked knife ... I feel like the carving tasks have been officially passed down to the next generation. 

Bonnie isn't involved in Pufferbellies anymore, except as moral support and occasionally lending a hand; she's gone on to other things. But I appreciate having Pufferbellies every day. I feel so lucky having a job that I love so much! I feel very grateful to my Dad for starting me off in this adventure, and to Bonnie for helping me start Pufferbellies, which has become such a wonderful part of my life. And to all of the huge number of customers who have made it possible to keep things going over 25 long-and-fun years, and to the wonderful stores who sell my work. Seems so appropriate to be launching a new website right now to celebrate 25 years of carving and painting and enjoying my life.