This Freeport artist creates unique, hand-molded Santas. Here's how to get one
FREEPORT — Barbara Buck admits she was a skinny kid growing up, so playing the role of Santa Claus at her church was going to be a challenge. She had always had a fascination with the jolly old elf, always drawing pictures and sending letters about Santa to her older sister.
“I always doodle pictures of Santa," Buck said. "It was a constant fascination that I had all year. To me, Christmas was every day.”
Nearly 40 years ago, the self-educated artist and sculpture said she decided to make a Santa.
Each head is hand-molded with four types of clay. In the beginning, the clothes were hand-sewn. She has had chances to have them mass-produced in China, but she prefers to give each Santa she creates a personal touch. It takes time.
There are no two Santas alike.
“I don’t just want to sell these Santas," she said. "I want people to appreciate them.”
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Many Santas stand at least 36-inches tall, but there are smaller ones. She made her first Santa for herself but sold it to a neighbor. Buck made another one for herself and ended up selling that one to her neighbor's daughter.
Buck said she started making and selling the Santas then and has not stopped. The Santas allowed her to quit her full-time job at a local insurance company. She began to attend merchandise marts in Chicago and Atlanta to sell her Santas. She holds a Santa Fest each year out of her home on Walnut Street in Freeport. Her Santas have been sold as far as the United Kingdom and Japan.
The beard on each Santa is made from Tibetan lamb’s wool. She uses real fur and stuffs each body herself. Each Santa has a T-shirt on beneath the outfit. Hands are sculpted from the same clay as the head. If she can’t find the right boots, she makes them.
She uses vintage fabric and fur and spends days going to thrift shops and yard sales looking for the right items to adorn each Santa.
Buck’s Santas are not the typical red velvet Santa. They are Eskimos, trappers, cowboys, Victorians, and sports-themed Santas. She has something for every taste.
“I started with one Santa for myself, and now all these years later, I have created thousands, and the Christmas spirit of the jolly elf is what keeps me going,” Buck said. “I can spend all day talking about my Santa art, and in between sculpting, stuffing, sewing, and staining the wood bases, I am thinking about the next one.”
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While Buck sews clothes for each Santa, she has enlisted the help of Midge Engelkens of Orangeville to help sew. Buck said she and Engelkens “are in each other’s heads.”
“I like to see what Barb comes up with when she shares her vision with me," Engelkens said. "I like to see what I can do with the fabric and fur she provides me, and she knows just how to embellish each Santa to give it that unique look."
Buck said she lives in a “Santa dream world.”
“I found my niche in life,” she said. “I love creating, and I love seeing the expression on the faces of the people when they take one of my Santas into their home.”
Buck will have her studio open 4-7 p.m. each Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in December. The studio is located at 1240 S. Walnut St. in Freeport. For more information, call 815-541-8890.
Jane Lethlean is a freelance correspondent.
This article originally appeared on Journal Standard: Freeport, Illinois, artist Barbara Buck creates Santa sculptures
