THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411110257
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEWEL BOND, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
SETON VON SUSKIL creates memories on luminous spheres. Her studio brims with intricately handpainted porcelain and frosted and clear glass ornaments. And, like snowflakes, no two are exactly alike.
She calls her work ``Whimsical Renderings.'' People who receive them call them treasured keepsakes. A lively imagination sparks endless ideas that become one-of-a-kind ornaments.
Von Suskil says the ideas just keep popping all over, and the little ornaments start getting a life of their own. She will paint anything on an ornament: your home, the church where you were married or your pet.
``If it will fit, I'll paint it,'' said Von Suskil, 44. ``One lady had all these cats, and obviously they would not all fit, and she couldn't choose just one. So I said, 'I know, I'll do paws and put all the little kitties' names on them.' Well, she just loved it.''
Last year Von Suskil was asked by Delbarton, a private school in New Jersey, to paint the ``Old Maine'' building on ornaments for homecoming weekend.
``I felt they also needed something 'fun,' so I sketched a design of two hands holding pennants, and on the pennants, Class of '64, '65, etc.,'' Von Suskil said. ``These sold as fast as the 'Old Maine' ornaments.''
One of her ``Old Maine'' ornaments was bought by a Delbarton student's father, who is associated with the Jaguars, the new NFL team in Jacksonville, Fla. He was so impressed that he asked Von Suskil if she would paint the Jaguars' logo on footballs.
``I had never painted on a football before, but I told him I would do it,'' Von Suskil said. That very day she bought a football to practice on. Because, she says, you can't fudge on a logo.
A few weeks later a hundred footballs arrived, along with pennants, hats and shirts. She is now team painter, and she paints ornaments for all the Jaguars' families and relatives. She kept the practice football as a souvenir.
Art of some form has been a part of this energetic artist's life since early childhood, as it has for her father and two brothers.
One brother took drafting and architectural design. ``I don't do the architural drawing; I'm more free-form,'' said Von Suskil.
Her father, trying to paint her angel design on an ornament, once asked her how she could put a straight line on a curved surface. ``I had to admit that I don't know, it just happens,'' she said. ``It's been a lot of trial and error.''
While selling real estate in her New Jersey hometown, Von Suskil found her creative instincts were satisfied by decorative painting of walls and internal decorative ideas that would enhance the sale of a house. Her mother and sister are not artists, but her sister gave her the idea of painting on ornaments. And Von Suskil began giving them as closing gifts to her customers.
After moving to the Outer Banks a year and half ago, Von Suskil began painting more. ``I didn't just have ideas for real estate,'' she said. ``I had all kinds of ideas.'' She says she just went knocking on doors carrying a big green basket full of painted ornaments.
As she was just getting off the ground, so was the local Crafter's Gallery. The vast turnover of vacationers each week gave her lots of exposure, and her sales paid for the rental space.
``I called on real estate owners, because I knew how lucrative the ornaments had been for me, and I just shared the knowledge.'' Soon, she says, the orders started coming in. Now, what was once used as a client-closing gift has become a full-time business.
When Von Suskil climbs the stairs to her home studio by 9 o'clock each morning, ornaments are waiting in varying stages to be completed. If she is painting on a humid day, a spotlight may be in use to speed drying time.
Elaborate scenes can easily take up to four days to complete since they are painted in stages, allowing ample drying time between each stage.
``Sometimes the glare from the porcelain balls gets to me,'' says Von Suskil. ``Then I'll just switch to making sketches on the clear ornaments.
``The porcelain or frosted balls are best for the more intricate designs, but I love the clear ones for the angels and holly.''
Von Suskil tries to be out of the studio by 4 p.m. But with Christmas coming, she may be working 12-hour shifts. Von Suskil's daughter, Bayley, a junior at Manteo High School; and son, Patrick, a seventh-grader at First Flight Middle School, may be recruited to make deliveries.
And after the Christmas rush? ``I'll be working on a catalog that will feature all my basic designs for ornaments, and also a new line of memory tables,'' Von Suskil said.
The very basic designs of shorebirds, lighthouses, dolphins and Christmas motifs range in price from $6 to $8. More intricate sketches, such as miniature portraits, sell for $10 to $20.
Some of her specialty ornaments are sold exclusively at the Elizabethan Gardens and the Chicamacomico Life Saving Station gift shops. Basic designs can be seen at Crafter's Gallery.
``I've heard the term `trash tree' used for the traditional tree with colorful ornaments,'' Von Suskil said. ``But I'm not fond of that term. I handpaint ornaments for your `treasure tree.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Seton Von Suskil of Kitty Hawk displays a handpainted Christmas tree
ornament she sells at Seton's Specialties.
by CNB