I recall only too well my first introduction to the Willow Tree collection. I was visiting Enesco, our top supplier for gifts and collectables. Every year I pay them a visit early in the New Year to see what they have for us that is new and exciting. As distributors for Border Fine Arts, Lilliput Lane, Breed Apart, Franz Porcelain and many other successful collectable ranges, it's important that I devote a solid couple of days perusing their amazing showrooms. Popping onto their stand at a trade fair is never enough.
So, it was January 200 and the Managing Director of Enesco, John Hammond asked me to come and see something new. He forewarned me, ?You won't have seen anything like these before. You probably won't understand them, let alone like them, but we believe they have a chance of being the collectable phenomenon of the new century. What an odd build up to a new product launch. Not a conventional sales pitch. But then John Hammond isn't a conventional man. More than anyone else in our industry, John has been responsible for revolutionising the collectables industry. It was he who realized and developed the use of polyresins in the manufacture of figurines. He understood that you can achieve incredible detail with resin that just isn't possible using traditional ceramic materials.
John took me into a side room annexed to the main Enesco showroom. There, on a low table in a poorly lit corner of the room was a collection of figurines and angels, each about five or six inches in height. At first glance, they all looked the same, pale beige in colour and pretty non-descript in appearance.
My first reaction was along the lines of, ?OK John. But why show these Willow Tree figurines to me now? They're not finished. They haven't been painted and they haven't even got any faces yet.? ?Ah,? he retorted, ?they most certainly are finished and they're not supposed to have faces. And I'll tell you something else,? he continued, laughing. ?You'll buy them and your customers will collect them ?. By the hundred? I found it hard to credit. Where was the appeal in these dull, anodyne figurines? Without facial features, they looked, at best, incomplete, at worst, positively spooky. Still, John is a good chap, and more importantly, a good judge, certainly a better one than me. So I did what I was told and placed an order, admittedly a small one. And so began, what for us has been arguably the biggest collectable phenomenon our industry has ever seen.
The first order arrived in February of that year. I remember the day well. I recall unpacking the delivery myself and gingerly putting these strange new Willow Tree figurines and angels out on display. The staff thought I'd gone crazy. ?We'll never sell these in a month of Sundays.? Deep down inside I shared their trepidation, but I put on a brave face. ?Let's be patient. You never know.? Within two days, I had placed our first repeat order and the rest is history.
For further information, please visit our website at http://www.theukgiftcompany.co.uk
The Willow Tree Figurine Collectable Range was launched in January 2000. Initially the collection comprised just one figurine, fifteen angels, and the Christmas Nativity collection. Since those early days, the range has expanded massively to include sentiments that many of us wish to express, but find that we can't do sufficiently with flowers, chocolates or greetings cards; emotions to our nearest and dearest friends and family, maybe to a kind neighbour, a teacher, a minister, or just someone who has done us a good turn.
What originally inspired the Willow Tree collection is still relevant today. It's a personal, intimate range of figurines, angels, memory boxes and photo frames each representing sentiments and qualities that enable us to feel near to others. Wounds are healed, relationships are renewed, promises confirmed. Willow Tree were originally, and still are, borne and developed by the American artist, Susan Lordi. Susan hand carves each and every piece, holding in mind an emotional thought or sentiment. In this way, she ?evolves? the figurine as she brings out the particular emotion she is aiming to convey. It's quite staggering how Susan is able to evoke the most complex of sentiments with the simplest of pure gestures and looks. Her art form expresses beautifully the feelings of closeness, courage, love, hope, even regret and even bereavement.
How did Susan Lordi come up with the name ?Willow Tree?. She chose it because, when she looked at a weeping willow, she saw expressed in its sweeping fronds and strong, unyielding branches, an elegance, a simple beckoning gesture that seemed to be beyond words. Her figurines seem to be almost tree-like in structure. They frequently can be seen to be bearing animals or natural objects. These have an almost allegorical role as symbols for mankind's qualities or virtues; remembrance is represented by rosemary, healing by a bird, and beauty by a flower.
Willow Tree figurines are sculpted to imply simplicity, elegance, serenity and peace. It's the little subtle elements, those that could be so easily missed, that are the most effective in transmitting emotion. It could be the way the head is tilted, the hands are placed, the body is turned. It's up to the ?beholder? to discern the emotion. No-one can do it for you. But anyone with an ounce of sensitivity cannot help but be affected by the powerful, yet personal and gentle emotions evoked by the Susan Lordi Willow Tree Figurine collection.
Susan Lordi's work tells us so much about how we relate to our friends, neighbours, family members and the world around us. Susan has an acute sense of humanity, both the human form and the soul. From a young age, she was an enthusiastic ballet dancer and was fond of nature too. All these influences are carried through to make her Willow Tree figurines the amazing worldwide success that they are today.
As well as working in the field of sculpture, Susan has a background in textiles, but figurine sculpture is now decidedly her first love.
For further information, please visit our website at http://www.theukgiftcompany.co.uk
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Stephen Church has sinced written about articles on various topics from Family Concerns, Family Business and Operating Systems. To explore our range of collectibles further, please visit our website at. Stephen Church's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.