THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 TAG: 9610160387
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 87 lines
Pineapples produced in rural Chuckatuck have put Nora Edwards' name in several national gift catalogs.
And bristly bearded Santas made from paint brushes have put her name - and her art - in the gift shop of the American Folk Art Museum in New York.
More of Edwards' pineapples, as well as woven Indian corn, will be appearing in gift shops in Colonial Williamsburg during the upcoming holiday season. And furniture items designed and created by Edwards - rocking chairs, ladderback chairs and children's furniture - are causing excitement in the home-decorating market.
Fifteen years ago, Edwards was a newlywed interested in crafts. Today, she's an entrepreneur working in her Chuckatuck home eight hours a day with two part-time assistants and enjoying profits and prestige from a national market that is always searching for something different.
``I start working at 7:30 in the morning, as soon as my children leave for school,'' Edwards said. ``And I work all day. I have to so I can fill the orders. I love what I do, and I do it right here in my family room or sunroom. I am a business.''
Her business is named Artistic Impressions.
The pineapples, traditional Colonial American signs of hospitality, are examples of Edwards' unique talent. She weaves the decorative pieces and fills them with all kinds of things. At the recent Newport News Park Fall Festival, she sold 80 pineapples, at about $20 each, in one day.
``The first one I made, I filled with butterscotch candies,'' she said recently. ``It gave the appearance and the color of a real pineapple. But, since then, I've filled them with pine cones, peppermints, shiny Christmas balls, Easter eggs. It's definitely my most popular piece.''
The pineapples and other Edwards creations appear in at least two national catalogs: Sturbridge Yankee Workshop of Portland, Me., and Camellia and Main of Fort Valley, Ga.
Just finishing her Christmas orders from retail gift shops from California to Virginia, Edwards recently mailed more than 100 paint brush Santas to the folk art museum in New York.
The hobby-turned-business started when Edwards was growing up as an only child. Her mother taught her to knit and crochet as soon as she was old enough to follow directions, she said, and she was making Barbie doll clothes by the age of 10.
Soon after she married, she read about a woman in Newport News teaching Punjabi weaving.
``It's a technique from the Punjabi province of India,'' she said. ``The teacher was a little old lady who probably had been doing it most of her life. I've never seen a similar class offered since. But I loved it.''
That year, all of the newly married couple's friends and family members got foot stools with tops made of Punjabi weaving. Gradually, basket weaving joined the Indian technique, almost like a natural byproduct.
``I like things to be functional,'' she said. ``I don't like to make things that just sit around and look pretty. Even in my own home, if I can't use it, I get tired of it real quick.''
The basket-type items are woven of natural reeds - flat or rounded depending on the project. The reeds are either dyed before construction or painted later.
For the Punjabi weaving, Edwards uses a fiber that is pre-dyed and extremely durable. The multitude of colors she uses allows her to weave intricate patterns into the projects.
Edwards got into the wholesale market when somebody told her about the Heritage Markets held twice a year in Valley Forge, Pa., especially for catalogs, gift and speciality shops.
She concentrates primarily on wholesale, although she still does a few of the larger craft shows, like the National Christmas Show that will be held soon at the National Guard Armory in Washington.
Sometimes, in the quiet of her family room and with the stereo playing classical music as she weaves, Edwards said she wonders why she doesn't get what others would classify as a ``real job.''
The answer: ``I love what I do. You've got to really enjoy this kind of thing. If you don't, you won't play with it. That's when you really get creative.''
MEMO: Nora Edwards can be reached at Artistic Impressions by calling
757-255-0623. The address is 1882 Mustang Trail, Suffolk, Va. 23432. ILLUSTRATION: Working out of her home in rural Chuckatuck, Nora
Edwards deigns and creates furniture, including rocking chairs,
ladderback chairs and children's furniture.
JOHN H. SHEALLY II PHOTOS
The Virginian-Pilot
Displaying one of her floral creations, Nora Edwards works eight
hours a day with two part-time assistants. by CNB