The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

Craftsman Farms will be closed for Independence Day weekend, July 4-5, 2009. We will see you when we reopen on the 8th. Have a great holiday  weekend!

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Saturday, July 25 at 6:00 p.m.

Landscape architect Brian Bosenberg will guide the next tour in the Fresh Eyes Tour Series.  Set for Saturday, July 25 at 6:00 p.m., this landscape tour, entitled “In Stickley’s Steps,” will investigate the evolution of the landscape at Craftsman Farms.  Led by Bosenberg, Principal & CEO of B.W. Bosenberg & Co. Landscape Architects, which practices landscape architecture with a special interest in historic landscapes, landscape preservation, restoration and landscape master planning. Tour participants will take a summer evening walk in Stickley’s footsteps as they discover the hidden landscape of Craftsman Farms.  Bosenberg will discuss how the landscape influenced Stickley’s layout of the site, the organization of the buildings and the development of the agricultural areas. Light refreshments will be served. With only 25 tickets available, interested participants are encouraged to register early. For tickets or more information, call 973.540.0311 or email info@stickleymuseum.org.

To download the registration form, click here.

In Stickley’s Steps: A Landscape Tour of Craftsman Farms

Saturday, July 25 at 6:00 p.m.

$10 Members

$12 Non-members

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Saturday, June 27 – Noon to 4 p.m.

Visitors of all ages are invited to bring a picnic lunch, tap their toes to live music, and explore a variety of activities dating back to the early 20th century. The young and the young at heart will enjoy participating in the cakewalk, a fun-filled game with great prizes from local businesses including Dunkin Donuts, Maggie Moo’s, and Panera Bread. In addition, visitors will make patriotic streamers and paper kazoos, play at the bubble station, try out traditional toys like tin-can stilts and whirli-gigs, and shop at the General Store for penny candy.

Featured performer include the Community Theatre Performing Arts Company, a teen choir with members ranging in age from 13 – 18, and the Chatham Brass Ensemble, which will play a rousing selection of ragtime and patriotic music, authentic to the era during which the Stickley family lived at Craftsman Farms. The Chatham Brass Band Ensemble frequently performs at local celebrations throughout New Jersey, regaling audiences with a variety of music, including classical, ragtime, marches, Broadway tunes and special repertoires for children. c

$5 Member Children
$7 Non-member Children
$7 Unaccompanied Adults
Adults accompanying children: FREE

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The Museum shop is now featuring a beautifully detailed wooden puzzle inspired by the Yoshiko Yamamoto block print of the Log House. The puzzle is exclusively produced for the Stickley Museum by Liberty Puzzles and features dozens of whimsy pieces. Don’t know what that is? Neither did we!

As it turns out, whimsy pieces, also known as figural pieces, are cut into the outline shape of a recognizable subject, such as a person or an animal. The intricacy and broad array of subject matter of these whimsies add a distinct element of charm to the overall puzzle experience.

No one knows exactly when whimsy pieces started to appear in jigsaw puzzles, although it was most likely sometime in the late 19th century. By the late 1920s figural pieces were common among numerous puzzle makers. With the advent and widespread distribution of die-cut, cardboard jigsaw puzzles, whimsy pieces became less and less common. With the exception of hand-cut jigsaw puzzles, today it is hard to find puzzles with whimsy pieces.

We’ve heard from our visitors that these whimsies make our new puzzle irresistible. Visitors have been spending time in the shop bent over the table where the puzzle is spread out—not just trying their hand at the puzzle, but shouting out, “Oh look at the piece shaped like a bird” or “The cut out of the little girl even shows her anklets.” or “Look how many flower cutouts I’ve found!”

What do you think? Have you tried the puzzle? How would you rate its quality? Is it as addictive as our visitors say?

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If you have a Facebook account, come connect with the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms on Facebook!

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Thanks to the Daily Record for including our call for volunteers!

Volunteers are needed by the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, 2352 Route 10 West, Morris Plains, to help conduct tours for visitors and assist customers in the museum’s gift shop. Training is provided. For more information, call 973-540-0311 or e-mail info@stickleymuseum.org.

Via Calling All Volunteers | dailyrecord.com | Daily Record.

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Please join us to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Craftsman Farms Foundation!

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Just a reminder that you can subscribe to The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms Blog and get email updates whenever we add a new post!

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On Saturday, June 6, The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms will welcome back author Brian Coleman. At his sold-out lecture last June, Mr. Coleman spirited the audience away to England with this his discussion of “Historic Arts & Crafts Homes of Great Britain.” In his upcoming lecture and book signing, entitled “The Intimate Garden,” Coleman will take the audience on a tour of beautiful gardens around the country from formal, boxwood lined parterres in Charleston to an historic, Japanese tea garden outside San Francisco — all intimate spaces reflecting their owners’ tastes as well as their locale.

Coleman has been writing on gardens and design for more than a decade. A practicing psychiatrist, he has made a second career from his interest in the decorative arts. He is the editor-at-large for Old House Interiors and contributes to other magazines, including Horticulture and Period Living in the UK. He is the author of nine books on the decorative arts. He credits his own Victorian garden as the impetus for his literary career and still continues to enjoy his admittedly high-maintenance Seattle garden.

Whether yours is a large lot or just a few pots, you are sure to come away with some new ideas and inspiration for your own garden. A reception and book signing will follow the lecture. Coleman is a very popular speaker, so advance ticket purchases are highly recommended. For tickets or more information, please email info@stickleymuseum.org or call 973.540.0311.

Lecture and Book Signing
Saturday, June 6 at 4:00 p.m.
Members: $10
Non-members: $12

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Lecture by Cleota Reed

We thought our readers would be very interested in this upcoming presentation with the Arts and Crafts Society of Central New York. The lecture by Cleota Reed will explore Irene Sargent’s unique partnership with Gustav Stickley and examine The Craftsman magazine’s critical Syracuse years. Irene Sargent, writer, critic, teacher, and quite possibly the instigator of The Craftsman, carved out a unique spot in the history of the Arts and Crafts movement in America. Distinguished from other key figures in the movement who were mostly makers involved with design reform, she was instead a historian of art, architecture, and the decorative arts. She was a very important find for Stickley, who needed an expert to articulate his ideas.

Wednesday evening May 20th at 7:00 PM
Onondaga Historical Association
321 Montgomery St., Syracuse, NY. 13202
Phone 315-428-1864 for directions

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