| 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.
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.
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