Mary received this statue from a best friend, Marie Hallet, for her wedding shower. I repaired it in 2007 after she had been married over 50 years with 6 children (to bump it over). She is now 94 and she told me she still has it with her in Aspen Ridge and looks at it every night before going to bed. She said “there isn’t a scratch on it. It has been well sustained since I mended it.”
My Sister-in-law received these precious statues before she was a Grade 1 school teacher. They tumbled off the shelves too many times. I repaired them in 2007. She still has them and she says they haven’t tumbled again since they were refurbished. She got rid of the heavy Encyclopedia’s off the shelf!
These statues were owned by Mary Smith. They only had a bit of old darkened glue on them. Imperfections seem to draw the eye towards them instead of the beauty of the statue.
My sister asked me to change the colors of this statue in 2010.
This 18 1/2 inch statue was brought to the church by Marie Hallet’s family in 2009 upon her death and I was asked to repaint her and maybe someone from CWL would want her. Upon completion I thought it would be nice to offer her to Marie’s niece, Theresa Nielsen, whom we often saw bringing Marie to church or to our CWL events when Marie could no longer drive or make it on her own. I still have Theresa’s grateful Thank You card.
The Cross from the Crown on Mary’s head was broken off this statue and it was a challenge to make the correct size cross and get it to stay on. Some were too large or bulky. Eventually I supported it with a wire to reinforce it better to make it stay.
Mary from the Nativity Scene arrived with broken pieces. They wrapped silk around the base so it wouldn’t show the missing areas. However baby Jesus had a broken finger as well. Your eyes were drawn to the imperfection, so I was asked to fix them. I loved working on the Nativity set.
Mary “Seat of Wisdom” is the Caption on the Bottom of the statue. This is the First Large Statue that I worked on in 2005. It originally sat in a Church that closed in Cabana, Saskatchewan. My Sister-In-Law Pauline and Dave Dishko had her in the crawl space of their home in North Battleford, Sask. They had gotten it passed down in the family from an Uncle Maurice Chailliee. I offered to refurbish it and on completion, they graciously allowed me to keep her because she had such a place of glory in an alcove in our home. When we moved, I had another alcove built especially for her.
Susan Johnson had a statue she wanted me to fix that was very broken.
Our Lady of Grace
Linda Stuart asked me to refurbish this statue for the Office at St. Mary’s Parish in Red Deer. It only had minor chips and I added extra gold where a design was indented on the red part of the robe.
