Dear Blog Readers,
We have become the kind of blogger we never wanted to be — the kind who has a "read our blog" button on our website but the newest post is months old. We blame Facebook for this — it's so much easier to write something there and we seem to have more followers there than we did here on the blog. Still, we can't quite bring ourselves to give it up altogether yet — so instead, we're posting this little note to explain our lack of current entries. Please do check out our facebook page, we think it's fun, if not quite as long form.
sincerely, the Joie de Blogger.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Toy Heaven

Back when I ran a craft gallery, I used to enjoy visiting artists in their studios. It was always fun to see where they made their work and look at their environment . . . not to mention getting out of the gallery and out on the road. I haven't done it much lately -a lot of companies I buy from don't actually "make" their merchandise on the premises - but I visited one today, Schylling Toys in Rowley, Mass. They don't make toys up in Rowley, but they stock and ship from there, and Joie has sold many of their products over the last twenty years. I was doing an interview with Dave Schylling about the late, and much lamented, TikiTime Drummer. (for - in my dreams - my first New Yorker article.) I thought it would take half an hour or so, but I was there for two hours, getting the grand tour of their beautiful building, talking, and most exciting - seeing their four star amazing collection of antique toys. So many wonderful museum worthy tin toys, furry wind-up toys, with LOTS and LOTS of things I had never seen before. Just give me some wine and a sandwich and lock me in for the night - I would have a ball.
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