A note from Gary Vaillancourt:

Judi and I are honored that Rep Callahan has chose to honor Vaillancourt Folk Art with this legislation. Jennifer has always done what she can to assist local business and she has been a great advocate for Vaillancourt and our American Employees. While to some it may come across as a meaningless award, the reality is that this designation would go a long way in assisting our company to survive and grow in this marketplace. It is nice to know that a state Representative cares enough about her constituents to pursue such legislation.

Reluctant honor looms for folk art shop

Friday, March 5, 2010 — By Donna Boynton TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

A grouping of holiday chalkware at Vaillancourt Folk Art. (T&G Staff File Photo/MARK C. IDE)

SUTTON —  In the billion-dollar industry that is Christmas, Vaillancourt Folk Art is a rarity.

And in Massachusetts, it is one of a kind.

To honor the success of the local small business and for its contributions to cultural tourism in the state, Rep. Jennifer M. Callahan, D-Sutton, has sponsored a bill that would make Vaillancourt Folk Art the official Christmas ornament and collectibles maker of Massachusetts.

“To be honest with you, it’s kind of embarrassing,” said Gary Vaillancourt, who with his wife, Judi, started Vaillancourt Folk Art in 1984. “I feel kind of awkward with all this economic turmoil to have something like this before the state Legislature.”

However, Ms. Callahan said she is proud to recognize the entrepreneurial spirit of a family that has built a small company of international renown that happens to make its home in Massachusetts, in her district.

“Vaillancourt Folk Art is a family business that has been capable of mass producing collectibles being done by a handful of educated, trained artists,” said Ms. Callahan. “And this particular business is done with the notion that these pieces of handmade art will be passed down as a family tradition.”

Vaillancourt Folk Art is one of the few remaining small Christmas ornament and collectible manufacturers in the country, and the only one in Massachusetts, a state once heralded for its manufacturing.

In 1989, there were more than 100 collectible artisans across the country.

In the early 1990s, individual artists started to license their pieces to the larger Christmas ornament companies, such as Dept. 56, and the number of smaller companies started to decline.

Today, there are only two others similar to Vaillancourt, Buyers Choice in Pennsylvania and Lynn Haney Collection in Texas.

“If you look at us, we are a niche; we are a Christmas niche,” Mr. Vaillancourt said. “And there are a few of us remaining.

“If you look at the huge industry, it’s a struggle to compete with the Chinese marketplace. We can’t do it with price, but we do it with quality,” he said.

“We are certainly one of the higher-end marketplaces, and that separates us from the Chinese,.” he said.

Ms. Callahan said the bill being reviewed will have to advance through the legislative process for a vote.

“In this economy it is important to keep this tradition alive, and keep a small business humming,” said Ms. Callahan.

“It is the uniqueness of Vaillancourt Folk Art that speaks to why it should be the official Christmas ornament and collectibles maker.

“This is a good economic action, and is helpful to the commonwealth in advancing cultural tourism,” she said.

By Bonnie Russell TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Sutton–And the lights all will go on in Massachusetts — at least in the Blackstone Valley as the annual Chain of Lights of celebration ushers in the holidays.

Activities will take place Dec. 6 in Sutton and Dec. 7 in Grafton and Millbury.

SUTTON

On Dec. 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., three trolley routes will take visitors to various stops to enjoy holiday activities and celebrations.

Route 1 starts at St. John’s Church, Route 122A, and visits First Congregational Church and Keown’s Orchards.

Route 2 starts at Whittier Farms, Douglas Road, and goes to First Congregational Church.

Route 3 begins at Sutton Senior Center, Hough Road and goes to St. Anne’s Church.

Shuttle service connecting routes 1 and 2 with route 3 will be provided from the First Congregational Church.

First Congregational Church Choir will perform throughout the day, carolers will perform during lunch, and tours of the sanctuary will be offered, along with Winter Wonderland, Christmas crafts, and vote for the best wreath. Roast beef dinner at the church has seatings at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Cost is $8 adults, $5 children 4 and older, and free to children younger than 4.Other highlights include: Artist Linda Sinacola, selling her original watercolor, oil paintings and prints of Sutton scenes;Sutton Historical Society, offering demonstrations all day on the skill of blacksmithing at The Blacksmith Shop; St. Mark’s Church’s holiday fair; Sutton Public Library, storyteller at 10:30 a.m. and crafts from 11 a.m. to noon; Bellawood Farm will feature a goat milking demonstration; and the Sutton Middle School will have a Relaxation Station with nail painting, hairdos, massages and lunch available at the Cheesecake Cafe. Santa will be on the common for caroling and tree-lighting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 6.

Additional locations include Keown Orchards, Heritage Plaza, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Eaton Farm Confectioners, National Gallery, Rebecca Lecouteur Interiors, St. Anne’s Parish, Vaillancourt Folk Art, Sleighbell Christmas Tree Farm and Gift Barn, and Sutton Senior Center.

For trolley routes, a complete list of events and updated information, visit www.suttonma.org/Pages/SuttonMA_Cable/lights.

Judi Vaillancourt and son, Luke, hold some of the products created by Vaillancourt folk Art.

Artist and designer Judi Vaillancourt of Vaillancourt Folk Art introduced the company’s new line of home décor and giftware at the studio’s silver anniversary event last week. Joined by co-designer Luke Vaillancourt, Judi unveiled “Vaillancourt Et Cetera” that incorporates her work into canvas prints, Christmas dinnerware and gift items such as Knickerbocker wooden tribute boxes.

Luke M. Vaillancourt, director of digital marketing for the operation, says he has brought another, very different aesthetic to the company.

“I realized that my friends in their 30s would not be as inclined to buy something for their homes from us,” he said. “Their taste has been influenced by different concepts and retailers — IKEA or Crate & Barrel, for instance. I wanted to help develop a line that incorporated Judi’s artwork and appeal to “the next generation.” What we’ve come up with is this home décor and giftware line that we are calling Vaillancourt Et Cetera.”

SUTTON — Vaillancourt Folk Art’s marketing materials were recently featured by Xerox Corp. at a trade show in Germany for the printing equipment industry.

Vaillancourt produces hand-painted chalkware figurines and has been working with Xerox to test its digital printers, the privately held business reported. Xerox’s production color product marketing group featured Vaillancourt materials, such as catalogs, at the trade show.

By Patricia Harris and David Lyon, Globe Correspondents

SUTTON – If Santa Claus ever decides to move his workshop to New England, he could feel right at home in the blocky granite building in this former mill village.

Vaillancourt Folk Art, the family-run business that occupies a prime spot in the 19th-century structure, features more than 300 ornaments with the figure of Santa (and one of his old-fashioned predecessors, Father Christmas) in its inventory.

It all began innocently, says Luke Vaillancourt, 24, as he stands in the 10,000-square-foot workshop and showroom, which opened in October 2006. All around, trees are decked with ornaments and soft jazz plays on the sound system. “My father bought my mother three old chocolate molds as a gift,” he says.

Working first with beeswax and later with a plaster-like material, Judi Vaillancourt, 55, used the molds to cast chalkware figures that she then painted. “She brought a few to a craft fair, and they sold out,” says Luke. “She and my father realized they were on to something.”

Now the Vaillancourts own about 3,800 antique chocolate and ice cream molds and have scouts out searching for more. “It’s one of the largest collections in the country,” says Luke. You might find an Easter bunny, Halloween pumpkin, or Valentine’s Day heart, but Santa reigns.

On weekdays, visitors can watch through a window as artisans mix the plaster and pour it into the molds. In less than an hour, they crack open the molds, remove the hardened figures, and smooth and sand them before setting them aside to cure for about a week. Vaillancourt’s artists work at benches fitted with strong lights. One even works on the weekends so that all visitors can see the craftsmanship that goes into each piece.

“We each do about 40 or 50 pieces a week,” says Bill Anderson, who is starting his 11th year at Vaillancourt. The artists work from Judi’s original designs, painstakingly detailed on an index card for each figure. To keep things interesting she adds new pieces each year, including 20 Santas for 2007 alone. “The paint is oil,” says Anderson, “so we do it in stages. Then next week we start all over again.” The figures that leave the painter’s benches are bright and shiny. To create instant heirlooms, crackling and antiquing finishes are applied before each completed piece is signed and numbered. Costs are typically $25 to $160.

One corner of the showroom is devoted to a museum that traces the company’s history, with displays of some of Judi’s early beeswax creations and vignettes of “retired” molds and the chalkware ornaments made from them. “When my mother designs a piece, she considers the history of the mold and the country it came from,” says Luke. The company also has a line of glass ornaments – mouth-blown and hand-painted in Poland – based on the collection’s most popular figures.

Between the workshop, the museum, and the showroom, a visit to Vaillancourt can take quite a while. For husbands who have tagged along, a couple of couches are tucked among the Christmas trees and free Wi-Fi is available. But it’s hard not to get caught up in Judi Vaillancourt’s exuberant embrace of the holiday. (She and husband Gary have been known to decorate their home with up to eight trees, some reaching 12 feet tall.)

“I’m starting to have multiple trees now,” admits painter Bethany Comeau as she works on signing a batch of figures of Santa riding in a snazzy red-and-white-striped roadster. “It’s Judi’s influence, I guess.”

Patricia Harris and David Lyon, Cambridge-based freelance writers, can be reached at harris.lyon@verizon.net.