Slideshow: 'Eggs-treme' decorating
Cindy Lowery says she grew up in a home that was always elaborately decorated for every holiday by her late mother, Betty Lowery.
“Mom’s house always looked like a fantasyland every holiday. Everything had its place, and she even kept notes so she knew just where each piece went when it was unpacked,” Ms. Lowery said.
That celebration of the seasons is a tradition Ms. Lowery continues in her own home in East Brainerd. From Halloween through Easter, the Lowery home is a showcase of holiday decorations, many of which the craftswoman has made.
In addition to her own work, she has collected numerous examples of work by area craftspeople with whom she exhibits at shows such as Ketner’s Mill, Holiday Hodgepodge and the Gingerbread Shoppe.
Ms. Lowery, an account executive at Clear Channel Radio, is a craftswoman who sculpts intricate and whimsical miniature figures and ornaments from polymer clay. From mid-September through the first weekend of December last year she exhibited in eight weekend craft shows here and in Atlanta.
“The joke among my friends is that I use my oven more for making my craft projects than cooking,” Ms. Lowery said of her year-round avocation.
Currently, her collection of 400 bunnies, chicks and eggs is displayed throughout five rooms of her home. They range from vintage plush rabbits and chicks her mother saved from Ms. Lowery’s childhood to her own collection of Boyd’s Bears figurines. Most have been dated on the bottom and inscribed with the city or craft show from which they came.
Welcoming guests in her entry hall is a 4-foot tree entwined with twinkling miniature lights. Approximately 100 miniature eggs, rabbits and other clay ornaments made by Ms. Lowery dangle from its branches. Nestled beneath are plush rabbits she has saved from Easters past.
In the living room’s china cabinet, she displays her collection of 107 Holly Babes angels, many with rabbits and spring motifs. Ms. Lowery collected the miniature porcelain figures for 24 years before they were discontinued by Enesco.
A corner shelf holds 14 white Avon Easter collectibles produced during the 1980s. The ceramic pieces include a bud vase, candleholders, salt and pepper shakers and rabbits in various poses.
Running the length of the adjoining dining room’s sideboard is a variety of twopiece eggs. They vary from porcelain vanity boxes with three-dimensional floral patterns sculpted on their tops to two, large, vintage, purple-foil-covered Russell Stover candy boxes with the original ribbon and silk nosegays, retained from Ms. Lowery’s childhood.
In the kitchen, rabbits seem to be multiplying: 110 Easter collectibles are found in this room alone.
Bunnies tumble along the windowsills. Rabbit and chick ornaments dangle from the Easter tree centering the kitchen table.
A display of Ms. Lowery’s handiwork fills one kitchen windowsill with clay bunnies ranging in size from a quarter-inch to 3- and 4-inch heights. The lop-eared hares hold brightly colored eggs, as well as eggs in college team colors/logos, such as Ms. Lowery’s favorite, Duke.
There are rabbits with rolling, googly eyes; a hurricane lamp painted to resemble a rabbit’s head; even rabbit refrigerator magnets made with walnut-shell bodies and white pipe-cleaner ears.
Ms. Lowery said it takes her a full day to place everything, and she enjoys recalling the event marked by each piece as it is unpacked.
“I got this urge to collect from my mother,” Ms. Lowery said laughing. “But the older I get, the more picky I am. When I was younger, I picked things up just because they were ‘Eastery.’ Now it has to speak to me.”
Susan Palmer Pierce is a reporter and columnist in the Life department. She began her journalism career as a summer employee 1972 for the News Free Press, typing bridal announcements and photo captions. She became a full-time employee in 1980, working her way up to feature writer, then special sections editor, then Lifestyle editor in 1995 until the merge of the NFP and Times in 1999. She was honored with the 2007 Chattanooga Woman of ...
