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Who: Cackie Trippe McCarty, Glittermoon Vintage Christmas
What she makes: Wreaths, centerpieces and small tabletop decor created with vintage holiday ornaments
Fun fact: “When I am working on making my Christmas things, I seem to leave a trail of tiny bits of tinsel everywhere I go. You’ll find them everywhere in the house … and maybe a bit of glitter on my face.”
Cackie Trippe McCarty
How she began: McCarty has always been immersed in creative endeavors. An art history major whose career spanned photography, camera sales and estate sales, she found herself looking for a "third act" about a dozen years ago. She began making greeting cards from her photographs to sell on Etsy and at shows. After reading an article about crafting wreaths from vintage ornaments, she tried her hand at it with great satisfaction. “I love the materials, I love the whimsy of the ornaments and the creativity of the people who made them,” she says. She got her big break exhibiting at Country Living’s artisan show in Atlanta in 2011, where she caught the attention of the stars of the lifestyle reality TV show “The Fabulous Beekman Boys.” They shared her work on Twitter, and demand for her creations exploded.
Inspiration: McCarty’s own holiday memories motivate her to craft new ones for others in her pieces. “I had wonderful, almost Dickensian Christmases growing up,” McCarty says. “Those old ornaments are material markers of those times in that when people look at them, their good memories come flooding back.”
What makes her work special: McCarty says her work is thematic. “I tend to include a piece that’s a focal point,” she says. That object will help decide the mood of the wreath or centerpiece — playful, elegant — and the inclusion of each ornament from there is intentional. She attributes her gifts of composition, color and scale that are evident in her work to her art background. McCarty also says that these are meant to be heirloom pieces, passed from one generation to the next, and they tend to attract buyers who appreciate this nostalgia. No two pieces are alike.
Where you can find it: You can buy McCarty’s pieces on her website, glittermoonvintagexmas.com, if you act fast upon release of new designs; each batch sells out in minutes. Sheppard Street Antiques carries some of her pieces around the holidays, and she also exhibits in the Northside Artists’ Holiday Artwalk.
