My Precious Trip to Carthage

Those of you who are familiar with The Hamilton Collection are aware that one of our most valued product lines is Precious Moments. Precious Moments is a wonderful tradition that started with the art of Sam Butcher. Mr. Butcher’s art has been interpreted into figurines for 31 years. The figurines are all painted in soft pastels, and the eyes of each figurine are tear shaped, giving them very innocent and sweet faces.

I have been learning about Precious Moments over the last 3 years, and I have grown to love the meaning and beauty of each of the figurines that is created. But I am about to get to do something that every Precious Moments collector wants to do. I am going to be visiting the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, Missouri in June for the 20th Anniversary celebration. June 18 is the 20th anniversary of the Chapel’s dedication, and Sam Butcher will be there painting in the chapel. I can’t tell you how excited I am. When you spend so much of your time talking about and admiring a person and his artistry, it is an absolute pleasure to finally get to meet that person. It's like meeting your favorite musician. I will even be able to get a figurine signed by Mr. Butcher. I already have one that has been signed by Gene Friedman, so this will be a great addition to my collection.

The children of Precious Moments are wonderful representatives of The Hamilton Collection. Our customers relate to them as their grandchildren, children, and friends. Some of our most popular figurines have been purchased for grandchildren to give to their grandmothers (or the other way around). The children are engaged in all sorts of activities and special occasions that we all relate to as the events that shape our lives – birthdays, graduations, baking cookies with grandma, little league, trips to Disney World, you name it. Collectors have figurines that remind them of all of the milestones of their lives – all of the “Precious Moments.”

Obviously I have become very attached to the Precious Moments children. And my trip to the Chapel caps off my experience. I will be sure to let you know how it goes. In the meantime, if you want to attend the event, check out the Precious Moments website.

Talk to you again soon!

Frog Wild

Hi, fellow collectors! At The Hamilton Collection we take great pride in our collections being inspired by the collectors that we serve. Hence our motto, “Collectibles Inspired by You.” Those inspirations can come from many places, but mostly we like to hear directly from our collectors. We serve a lot of collectors who are motorcycle enthusiasts, and we recently designed a very unique product - Frog Wild.

Sometimes we aren’t sure how collectors will react to an idea, and this product introduction was one of those times. We thought it was a super design – you could actually see this frog coming right out of the pond, putting on his leather vest, bandana and sunglasses, and hitting the open road. (Of course, he’ll have to stop occasionally to cool off in a nearby puddle or something.) As you can see, imagination is an important part of our design process. You can find a frog sitting on a lily pad anywhere, but a frog on a motorcycle! You have to go to The Hamilton Collection for that!

So, Frog Wild is the product we’re talking about this week. I hear there is even some discussion about where this little guy will be headed on his motorcycling adventure. That will be fun to watch. We’ll bring you his adventures here on this blog on a regular basis. You can also visit him at Flickr: Frog Wild.

Until next time…move one of your collectibles from the back of the curio cabinet to the front. You’ll feel like a new person.

My Collections...To Name a Few

Hello again! I want to talk about collections. At The Hamilton Collection (www.hamiltoncollection.com) we organize all of our collectibles into “collections” so that our customers can have a beautiful display without having to visit lots of different stores or websites.

I personally have collections of lots of things. The one my husband understands the least is my collection of pitchers. I have about 25 glass pitchers that I have collected over the years. In our last house, I had a great place to display them on the top of my cabinets in my kitchen. Our current house doesn’t have a great display area for them, so they are in the cabinets just waiting to be used when we have guests. I also collect cats, and I like to have lots of different looking ones. So, each time we design a cat collectible at The Hamilton Collection, the designer asks me if it will make my curio cabinet. If I say yes, they know they have a winner. Cat people are very similar. We just enjoy the beauty of cats and their movement. I smile every time I see a cat. I collect state quarters, presidential dollars, brass leaves, anything glass, seashells…and the list goes on and on. My collections make me happy, and each time I add something to one of them, it makes it new again.

That’s why Hamilton’s collections are so unique. We design things that go together but make the collection different and new each time you receive a collectible from us.