A bit of Hawaii comes to Everett in the form of Christmas clothespins
Published 12:01 am Monday, December 14, 2009
Precious memories hang on Christmas trees.
Baby’s first Christmas.
A first-grader’s homemade ornament.
The last of a great-grandma’s frosted-glass spheres.
At Lois Robertson’s home in Everett, the tree is splashed with Hawaiian memories she began collecting 30 years ago.
“I lived in Hawaii,” Robertson said. “All my ornaments are made by a friend who is in her 90s.”
The ornaments are so much fun to look at. Intricate and whimsical.
At the core of the ornaments is an old-fashioned wooden clothespin. Each pin is covered with fabric and doodads to make a person or animal, for instance, then they are hung with fishing line.
See ladies in mumus, nurses, angels with flower halos, hula dancers and a pig on a surfboard hanging hooves.
Robertson was born in New Jersey and raised by parents who worked in the medical field. She became a nurse and moved to the Philippines with her husband when he was in the Navy. His job was mostly fun, she said, working to entertain the troops.
They loved the tropics and decided not to move back to the mainland. They settled in Hawaii in 1959 and opened a wholesale skin-diving equipment business.
They lived in Kailua on Oahu for 30 years.
Robertson met her artist friend MaryJo Kent at a bridge game. Kent told a newspaper in Honolulu that she began making tree decorations to use up scraps of fabric she’d kept, calling herself a pack rat.
One of her designs hung on a Christmas tree several years ago at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., as the top prize from a magazine contest. She crafts while she watches TV, and is inspired by Hawaiian women who used to greet cruise ships with lei-laden arms.
Through the decades, Robertson bought more than 200 of Kent’s ornaments. It’s lovely to have Hawaiian memories, but she makes more every year.
Each summer, Robertson, 72, house-sits in Hawaii while Oahu friends shift to their Montana home. She keeps clothes and an old car in Hawaii, so she only totes one suitcase for the annual trip.
Friends in Everett miss her. When she’s in town, Robertson keeps very busy, playing bridge and other card games with the Everett Area Newcomers Club. The Everett social group includes those interested in getting acquainted with the area and making new friends. They have monthly luncheons with speakers, coffee get-togethers and a book group and enjoy outings and games.
The first ornament Robertson bought from Kent was King Kamehameha. Besides caricatures, Kent also makes larger scenes such as a beach shack, filled with teensy tiny cans and boxes on shelves and walls.
Kent sells the ornaments for about $10 each.
“They are so intricate,” Robertson said. “The detail is so good. The faces are so nice.”
Robertson’s tree also has a Kent-made bridge table, with wee cards, a score sheet and snacks. Kent fashioned several folks at their jobs and created several pieces using a nursery-rhyme theme.
One tourist holds shaved ice in a cone. Another tourist holds an itsy-bitsy camera and map.
Her granddaughter would like to own the Christmas tree collection someday, Robertson said.
The ornaments will continue to be treasured.
“I have my favorites and save a place on the tree for those special ones,” Robertson said. “The dolls each have a wonderful memory.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.
