When searching for “used” nativities, you never know what you’ll find. Often the sellers doesn’t know what they are selling. But sometimes you find something unusual and wonderful. This is one Diane found on eBay, and we debated whether to buy it. But we have a fondness for wood carvings, and when someone can carve an 18″ nativity from a single piece of wood, well, that’s impressive.
Not only is this carved from a single piece of wood, nearly every inch is covered in one of six different patterns. The edge of the base, the top of the base, the inside background, the top and back, the edge along the top, and the side edge are all different patterns. The style is definitely African, although we will never know the origin or artist. But we will still celebrate his craft and talent.
It’s a fun moment for a collector to stumble on a nativity set unexpected. Salmon Days is an annual arts festival in Issaquah, Washington, and Diane and I attended every year that we could. We were walking through in 1999 and discovered by a booth by Washington artist Christine Coffman where she was selling carved wooden nativity pieces. We loved the whimsical nature of her carving and the character she puts into her figures.
Biography from Christine Coffman’s Etsy shop:
Christine Coffman was first taught to carve by her father in 1963. Self-taught from that time, her style has become distinct and reflective of her North European heritage. The figures originate in pencil sketches, then develop during the carving process.
Linden wood is used due to the perfect pairing of it’s properties to her needs. Linden wood is light and strong. The grain is straight and allows fine knife strokes to create a smooth surface. Butternut wood is used for it’s interesting grain patterns. Both woods are native to eastern United States.
Each carving is signed and dated then finished with tung oil to seal and protect the wood.
Some of her carvings are whimsical. Some are serious. In each carving she attempts, she hopes that people will see reflected in her work the satisfaction she derives from carving.
In the ten years that we displayed our nativity sets at the Bellevue Festival of the Nativity (in Bellevue, Washington), this set was always the People’s Choice award for favorite nativity. Although not beautiful, the novelty of using recycled soda cans as sculpture material is marvelously intriguing.
One fun part of displaying this nativity set was the opportunity to tell jokes about the set when I hosted at the Festival. Soda cans naturally open the door to jokes like:
Soda you like this nativity set?
Most people think this is the grapest set at the festival!
I think this set is Fanta-astic?
Orange you glad I don’t have any more of these jokes?
In Africa, soda cans are made from tin-coated steel with aluminum tops, so only the tops are desirable for traditional recycling. Since the rest of the can is unusable, a whole crafts industry has sprung up to profit from this metal. This wire art form originated in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe in the early 1990s.
The set was created by Gugu Crafters, an organization founded by four Zimbabwe refugees living in Cape Town, South Africa. They left Zimbabwe because of the political and economic turmoil there. Like so many Zimbabweans who have flooded into South Africa, they only desire to earn a basic living to support their families located either with them in South Africa or back home in Zimbabwe.
The large influx of refugees into South Africa caused an ugly backlash of xenophobia — and even murders — by gangs of locals in South Africa. The excuse of these locals is that the foreigners somehow take their jobs, homes, and state benefits. The members of Gugu Crafters were surprised to become victims of this xenophobia in 2008 when most of their tools and materials were stolen. It took two months for the group to get back on their feet again in their craft production.
I had the good fortune to travel to Prague in the Czech Republic several times for work. Prague is a wonderful place to visit – full of history, culture and nativities! Although Czechs are not a very religious on the whole, we were pleasantly surprised to find many nativity sets for sale. When wandering through shops in streets on the edge of the main tourist area in Prague, we found a shop that sold ceramics. They had cups and plates and some toys, so wandered through. It was down in the basement of the shop that we found this nativity. It would have been very easy to miss this if we hadn’t gone through the whole store. Of the many sets we found in the Czech Republic, this is our favorite.
Each piece of this ceramic set by Veronika a Bohous Bursovi is a bell. (Yes, a bell, with a clay clapper inside.) That in itself makes it unique, but add the playful characters and whimsical touches, and this is a treasure! If you look carefully, you’ll notice that Mary is holding a baby bottle, Joseph has a teddy bear, and the angel is carrying a toy horse. You don’t find many of those in nativity sets! In fact, the teddy bear and baby bottle have been used several times for the child’s scavenger hunt at the Bellevue Festival of the Nativity. (Note that in the photo, it looks as if Baby Jesus has a binky, but he doesn’t. Just in front of his face is a small bead holding the string for the clapper inside the bell.)
Our initial purchase only included the donkey and cow. On a later trip to Prague I tracked down the store again and picked up the sheep and dog.
This nativity was purchased from a gallery in Skagway, Alaska while my wife and I were on an Alaska cruise. We were struck by the beauty of the carving and the uniqueness of the material. This was a rare opportunity to expand our collection, and we couldn’t pass it by.
This nativity is carved of fossilized walrus bone from St. Lawrence Island, Alaska or from Eskimo villages. Bones are found at ancient hunting sites or in natural “wash-ups” of large skeletons and skulls and ranges in age from several hundred to many thousands of years old. The use of fossilized animal bones in traditional Alaskan Art is an expression of respect for the spirit of the creatures and wise use of all resources available to Native people living in remote, isolated, and harsh environments.
The carver, Chivly Chupak, was born in Cambodia and became an orphan after his parents and siblings perished from starvation. At age 13, Chupak fled with remaining family to Thailand where they were interred in a refugee camp. Chupak turned to carving to occupy his time and mind, using whatever material he could scavenge at the camp. He was intrigued with pictures he’d seen of Alaska. After two years in the camp, an American family in Seattle sponsored Chupak. He continued to study native Alaskan people and customs and continued to refine his carving skills. After travelling through Alaska, he moved full time to the remote village of Emmonak, Alaska near the Bering Sea where he carves and teaches the art to villagers.
The Garding Family Nativity Collection 