Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Every time we're in Santa Fe, we visit Folk Arts of Poland. I've especially admired their wood sculptures. One year, I commented how I very much liked one of their Noah's Arks. The person behind the counter told me the man sitting by the window carving some wood was the artist. I don't speak Polish and the artist doesn't speak much English so we just smiled at each other. I left empty handed.

In subsequent visits we kept considering getting a Noah's Ark but kept putting it off.

Last year, we were admiring the various Arks on display and I somehow mentioned that we collect turtles. The artist, Tadeusz Kacalak, again was there and we were told that he does commissions. We had an interesting and fun time coming up with a commission. He doesn't speak English and the man who runs the store doesn't speak a lot of Polish. With the help of a Polish/English dictionary we came up with a plan.

We, of course, wanted turtles. Mr. Kacalak said he could put some in the waves beneath the Ark. And we needed to a have a Kitty (what would the world be without kitties being saved?). And, since Kitty likes bunnies, we wanted a rabbit. We decided we'd rather have more species in the limited space in the front of the ark so we didn't need to have everything on deck paired up. Even Mrs. Noah should be below deck. He'd put in Noah and whatever animals he could fit in.

We ordered it in August and he said it would be ready in March. Unfortunately, he had an operation that put him out of commission for a time so it took longer than expected. That didn't matter. I had been admiring them for years so a little delay just added to the excitement of getting it.

It was worth the wait!

The snakes were a delightful surprise!

Here's his signature (and snakes peeking over the side of the boat).

Isn't it great?