Play at Hutch.

~ Play at Hutch ~

There has definitely been a lot of changes at Hutch lately and one of the very best is the emphasis that we are putting on idea of "Play".  The magical quality that a child's eye and imagination possess has always been at the core of what we have tried to express with what me make and how we present those things.  I think that this shows better now that it ever has before and especially in the rooms of Hutch.  Below is a shadow that is cast on the window sill in our play porch from the childlike drawings of bunnies on our window glass.  I realize it is a small thing that might easily go unnoticed but I always find magic in these little moments of discovery. 

Krys, who is like Hutch's professional picker has been very busy combing our area thrift and vintage shops and finding some great treasures. The porch is full of vintage games that fill the older customers with nostalgic memories of "play" and still  effect children with the playtime feeling.  So much so that on one occasion a little girl was playing quietly while her mother browsed the entire shop for a good long time and when they had both finally left I discovered that every little bunny in every room had been magically moved into one of the dollhouses on the porch and they were having a fun old time. Very cute.

One of the very fun things we have done lately is put a hopscotch game on the floor in our side porch.  By using tape it isn't a permanent addition to the floor and hopefully will easily remove in the future when we think of some other fun thing.

And it's not just for decoration either.  It gets used frequently by young and old.  Sometimes I think the older ones, look at the floor and hop along in their minds remembering their own childhood experience.

To end this post I want to share something I discovered one day written on our little child's easel located on the play porch.  It made me smile.  The little girl that wrote it returned a week later to happily discover it was still there and hadn't been erased.

There will definitely be more playful posts to come.

Dollhouses

~ Dollhouses ~

Vintage dollhouses have appeared all around the shop lately.  They are very old and full of character (broken boards and chipped paint).  They certainly amp up the rustic quality of our studio space but they also add to the idea of "play" and childhood that we really try to capture in all the things we make and display.  This red beauty is the centerpiece in our middle room and the facade is hinged to expose the interior rooms.

In the same room, directly under the table, sits this single story house with attached garage.  I believe it used to have fencing in the yard.  I have a strong personal connection to the "dollhouse".  As a child I remember that my sister had a simple wooden dollhouse and for some reason I thought the roof was too plane. I took it upon myself to hand cut little shingles and apply them to the roof.  It's no surprise I ended up the way I am. Coincidentally in my artwork I address the idea of "house" and "home" and often work in a miniature scale.  These are things that just happen sometimes without much if any intention, but are none the less very interesting to discover. 

A couple of years ago I was visiting a blog called the The Junior Society where I would often find new and interesting things that got me jazzed. Then I saw it. A story about a young artist from Saskatchewan by the name of Heather Benning who transformed an old abandoned farmhouse on the plains of Manitoba into a life size dollhouse. She removed the exterior walls on the backside of the house and restored and staged the rooms just as she imagined they may have appeared in the 1950's and 60's when the house was being lived in. Some things just get to me and this was one of those things.  For Heather the impetus for this amazing project was a childhood memory of playing house in an old structure similar to the one she used in her artwork.  I'm always thankful for artists like Heather that manage to blow my mind with their ideas and ambition.

The last dollhouse in the studio is the first one you see when you enter.  A crusty white patina on the exterior sets off the rich red roof.  The facade completely removes exposing many small rooms.  I forgot to mention that this house and the first one are wired for low voltage lighting.  How cool is that?  I think I need to make a video called "put a light in it".

Did you have a dollhouse when you were little?  What was it like?

Picture of Heather Benning's Dollhouse via Ohdeedoh