COLE CAMP — Christmas comes to Shari Farrington’s home long before the holiday season arrives in the form of handmade German feather trees and chalk Belsnickles or Santas.
Farrington, who lives in Cole Camp, spends hours winding goose feathers, split at the quill, around a wire to create the semblance of a pine or fir tree limb.
The old German cottage craft was popular in the 1800s and it introduced the first artificial Christmas trees, which were easy for immigrants to take with them to America.
“There are two different theories as to the way they were made,” Farrington said. “One theory is that because of the deforestation laws over there you could not cut a live tree without a permit. So the Germans, being the inventive people they are, they made the first artificial Christmas tree.
“The second theory is because the Germans are famous for their … ornaments they wanted to display them all year round thus the artificial tree gave them the medium to do that.”
Farrington said the trees were easy to fold and could be transported in a trunk when traveling.
“It gave them a feeling of being in their home,” she noted. “Occassionally you will find an antique feather tree, not very often. I’ve seen two down here and this is a very German town. They usually sell for $100 a foot. They are quite expensive and they are very rare.”
Farrington became interested in making feather trees in the 1990s because she saw them featured in decorating magazines. She began making them with her friend Connie Berendzen.
“At that time our first one (four tiers) took us 10 hours to complete,” she said. “… So we priced it at $42, and I still leave it at that. The feathers back then were about $38 a pound, now they’re $100 a pound. But it takes a lot of feathers to make a pound.”
In the early 1990s, because of their unusual and beautiful craft, she and Berendzen were featured in several magazines and in the Democrat.
The friends became busy and they abandoned the craft 18 years ago, although Farrington still had supplies in her basement. When she retired four years ago, she decided to begin making feather trees again.
Farrington keeps a scrapbook with magazine and newspaper clippings about her trees. It’s also filled with letters from people who have bought them over the years.
“That’s what really makes it worthwhile,” she noted. “Because it’s very gratifying to get a letter back from somebody who says ‘I’m still using it after 20 years.’”
Falling in “love with the idea of it” is what Farrington said one has to do when they become involved in making the trees.
“If you study the story of the way they evolved, that’s what makes you like it,” she added. “I do demonstrate at all my craft shows, and I’m happy to share what I do and and my love for them.”
She attends two craft shows a year, one at the Cole Camp Christbaumfest Craft Show slated for Nov. 19, and the other at Kristkindl Markt scheduled for Dec. 10 and 11 in Hermann.
“I think I’m the only feather tree maker in the state of Missouri,” she noted. “It’s not that it’s a hard craft, it just seems like nobody else does it. I just do it out of my home, very low key. I don’t want it to become a job, it’s just a hobby for me. When it becomes a job it’s not fun anymore.”
Farrington has her feather trees at Nostalgia Vintage Apparel & Marketplace in downtown Sedalia and Sweet an’Tiques, in Cole Camp. They are exhibited at the Cole Camp Museum, at Hermann Farm and Museum and the Deutschheim State Historic Site, both in Hermann.
She added that she was excited because this year Hermann Farm and Museum bought eight of her trees to decorate houses on the property. Farrington said it took weeks to create one 5-foot tall tree for the museum.
“I think it had 12 layers on it,” she said.
Farrington also makes Belsnickles or chalkware Santas, which is a 10-step process.
“I usually do their faces first,” she said. “The eyes are very hard for me to do. Then if the face turns out all right I go in and do the rest of them.”
Belsnickles originated in the 1800s in Germany. Farrington said they are stern-faced Santas that not only gave out treats but also punished children for misbehaving.
She will have her feather trees and Belsnickles the Cole Camp Christbaumfest Craft Show, to be hosted Saturday, Nov. 19. For more information, email Farrington at sfarrington@centurylink.net.
