Trippe-Hilderbrandt Gallery is excited to be hosting a very special trunk show during “First Weekend” in December featuring the fabulous Christmas wreaths, table centerpieces and special Christmas decorations designed by Glittermoon Vintage Christmas from Richmond, Virginia.
In 2011, the owner and Eastern Shore native, Cackie Trippe McCarty launched Glittermoon Vintage Christmas: unique designs made from ornaments and decorations of yesteryear. Having had a longtime love of old Christmas things, she admires the craftsmanship and creativity that went into making them. But, as a child of the 1950s, she especially loves the wonderful memories these pieces evoke. One day, she saw a magazine article about how to make an ornament wreath so she made one for herself using mostly broken ornaments that she loved too much to throw away. It turned out so well that she decided to start making them to sell as an adjunct to her other artwork.
Cackie searches high and low for the most unusual, beautiful, and truly special decorations. These wonderful pieces have been gently loved, often by several generations in the same family. She especially loves it when someone points to an ornament and says, “My grandmother (or mother or aunt) had one of these!”
Every piece Cackie makes is unique; there will never be another one like it. This is not only because of the materials themselves (as in what she has in her inventory) but she maintains that she would be bored to tears if she had to reproduce previous designs. She tries to begin each wreath (or centerpiece) with something very special as a focal point. Loving the mental stimulation of design, she lets color, scale, and texture drive the design. Generally, it takes parts of 3 days to make a wreath from start to finish.
Cackie’s wreaths and topiaries have a national following and have been shipped all over the continental USA. She is a proud member of the Beekman 1802 artisan collective (Beekman1802.com, based in upstate NY) and has been featured in R Home Magazine (November 2014) and the Los Angeles Times (December 2015). Mariah Carey owns one of her wreaths – a pink one, naturally. Her work has also been displayed at Zézé Flowers (2013) and More & More Antiques (2016), both in Manhattan, and at a handful of other shops on the East Coast. In 2015, one of her wreaths was auctioned at a charity benefit for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in NYC.
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