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knowloveserve
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I have been hunting for years for some company that produces art on each of my children's namesakes. This isn't always easy when you have kids with saint names that aren't Joseph or Elizabeth.
There is Monastery Icons and while I LOVE and prefer Byzantine art... that style isn't my favorite.
And I do like the unique style of the ceramic saints done by The Monks of Valermo but I can't drop $30 each when I have 8 people to buy for. I've been meaning to buy them one at a time for name day feasts...
Then I found This shop on etsy! They carry all my children's patrons (at least their middle name...) and are willing to convo about other saints! And their prices are reasonable!  
Thought I'd share... 
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Ellie
The Bleeding Pelican
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JodieLyn
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Oh those are LOVELY. I might have to ask them about my oldest's confirmation saint. Impossible to get anything for her.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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MaryM
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Great topic, Ellie!
knowloveserve wrote:
| And I do like the unique style of the ceramic saints done by The Monks of Valermo but I can't drop $30 each when I have 8 people to buy for. I've been meaning to buy them one at a time for name day feasts... |
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I was not familiar with the Monks of Valermo until just recently. A good friend of mine does collect them for her family's namesakes. They are beautiful!
knowloveserve wrote:
| Then I found This shop on etsy! They carry all my children's patrons (at least their middle name...) and are willing to convo about other saints! And their prices are reasonable! |
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We have ordered from Portraits of Saints. Suzanne has mentioned them before - as they know the artist. Her hubby is a "model" for one of the faces (or is it two?). I think they are quite lovely and very affordable.
knowloveserve wrote:
| There is Monastery Icons and while I LOVE and prefer Byzantine art... that style isn't my favorite. |
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There are concerns about supporting Monastery Icons as they are not a Catholic or even Orthodox (Christian) company even though the appearance is of a Christian icon. Some cautions have been offered here:
Orthodox Christian Information Center: A Word about Monastery Icons
Aquinas and More Catholic Goods - Beware of Monastery Icons
The saint peg dolls are really fun. That market has really grown since first coming out years ago. You can get a variety of styles and prices at various Etsy sites. We have taken to painting our own. Have a big saint exchange coming up with our homeschool group in fact tomorrow. What I like about them is that it is fun to do the obscure ones. Some that we have recently painted that I haven't seen anywhere - Ven. Fulton Sheen, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Dennis.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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knowloveserve
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MaryM wrote:
Great topic, Ellie!
knowloveserve wrote:
| And I do like the unique style of the ceramic saints done by The Monks of Valermo but I can't drop $30 each when I have 8 people to buy for. I've been meaning to buy them one at a time for name day feasts... |
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I was not familiar with the Monks of Valermo until just recently. A good friend of mine does collect them for her family's namesakes. They are beautiful!
knowloveserve wrote:
| Then I found This shop on etsy! They carry all my children's patrons (at least their middle name...) and are willing to convo about other saints! And their prices are reasonable! |
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We have ordered from Portraits of Saints. Suzanne has mentioned them before - as they know the artist. Her hubby is a "model" for one of the faces (or is it two?). I think they are quite lovely and very affordable.
knowloveserve wrote:
| There is Monastery Icons and while I LOVE and prefer Byzantine art... that style isn't my favorite. |
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There are concerns about supporting Monastery Icons as they are not a Catholic or even Orthodox (Christian) company even though the appearance is of a Christian icon. Some cautions have been offered here:
Orthodox Christian Information Center: A Word about Monastery Icons
Aquinas and More Catholic Goods - Beware of Monastery Icons
The saint peg dolls are really fun. That market has really grown since first coming out years ago. You can get a variety of styles and prices at various Etsy sites. We have taken to painting our own. Have a big saint exchange coming up with our homeschool group in fact tomorrow. What I like about them is that it is fun to do the obscure ones. Some that we have recently painted that I haven't seen anywhere - Ven. Fulton Sheen, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, St. Josephine Bakhita, St. Dennis.
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I have heard some controversial things about Monastery Icons, glad you posted a disclaimer. I figured since I didn't like the art anyway, I never bothered researching the company.
We love doing peg dolls too! I made an entire alphabet of them for the local school's auction... they were a big hit. I keep the faces to just two dots for eyes and a simple smile... which makes the rest of the details come into focus better (and hides the fact tht I can't paint accurate facial features  ). I have a huge box of blank pegs waiting to come to life. The ones on etsy are nice but really expensive unless you just want them to sit on a shelf. But around my home, St. Dymphna can be seen driving a Fisher Price dump truck and St. Dominic Savio fraternizes with Lego mini-figs.
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Ellie
The Bleeding Pelican
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Christine
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knowloveserve wrote:
Then I found This shop on etsy! They carry all my children's patrons (at least their middle name...) and are willing to convo about other saints! And their prices are reasonable! |
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The official website for Portraits of Saints can be found here. The artist, Tracy, is a fellow parishioner. She is very talented and is constantly adding new portraits to the website. If there is a saint that you can't find, she would probably be willing to paint that saint for you.
On a side note, Teresa E. probably knows Tracy too.
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Christine
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JennGM
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Love these, Ellie!
Mary, you are going post pictures, right? I have dreams of doing my own painted saints after my recovery.
Saints and Their Symbols: Recognizing Saints in Art and in Popular Images by Fernando Lanzi is a great resource to get symbols to paint on your saints.
One of my concerns was to get toxic free paints and sealant.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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knowloveserve
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Here is a picture of the alphabet saints I've done… from Agnes on the top left to Zita on the bottom right. I love the look of simple, uniform faces… it's really what makes this doable for non-artists. And if you notice, the other details are fairly simple… (Not to discredit the lovely work by the excellent artists on Etsy at all… but these work well for our needs!)
(Edited to add names)
Back Row, L to R: St. Agnes, St. Bakhita, St. Cecilia, St. Dominic Savio, St, Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Francis, St. Joan, St. Hildegard, St. Isadore, St. Juan Diego, St. Kateri, St. Lucy, St. Maximilian Kolbe
Front Row, L to R: St. Nicholas, St. Olga, St. Pio, OL Queen of Heaven, St. Rita, St. Stephen, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Ursula, St. John Vianney, St. Wenceslaus, St. Francis Xavier, St. Yves, St. Zita
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TryingMyBest
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Roman Catholics should definitely not buy anything from Monastery Icons. If you're Orthodox, you can get them blessed which would undo anything bad there but I've never known a Roman Catholic priest who blessed icons. If they are unblessed, they are not something that you want in your home.
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JennGM
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Ellie, they are adorable.
I prefer the simplicity. I'm still so partial to the original Fisher Price Little People -- those faces were simple and sweet.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Aagot
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Those are so cute and I would never have known you don't know how to draw faces. I think they look great. Please tell me who you chose for "U" and "Y". I think I figured out everyone else.
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JennGM
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Have you ever been tempted to do male and female for all the letters? I know some letters are hard to get...but others I hate missing out on some great saints!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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I love all of the ideas here. I have been working over a year to learn a metal craft to be able to make my own medals of hard to find Saints. I feel like I am still in the learning process, but I am having success as well.
So many wonderful Saints that are so worth of our devotion!
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When handcrafting my work, I always pray that it will raise your heart to all that is true, modest, just, holy, lovely and good fame!
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knowloveserve
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U is for Ursula... Y is for Yves.
Jenn, it was really tough to choose saints for letters lik J and T. For this set, I tried to have an even gender balance. Male and female for each letter IS possible but I've never been tempted to force it.
For our personal sets, we know no bounds and I paint our patrons and whomever else strikes our fancy. I've wanted to do an alphabet set for my own family... I made an accompanying book to go with this particular set... laminated and spiral bound. I really need to make it happen for us...
and yes! We love the vintage FP little people! Their faces were my inspiration for these.
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MaryM
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JennGM wrote:
| Mary, you are going post pictures, right? I have dreams of doing my own painted saints after my recovery. |
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Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten to post the results. These are the saints that were done at our support group exchange. Many of the saints are ones that I have seen images for in other exchanges or various alphabet of saints blog posts, but many are unique images I haven't seen anywhere. Our family did about 15 additional saints not for the exchange, many obscure, but I don't have a picture of them yet. Will have to do that. Here are the pictures. If you actually go to this google images page and scroll over the faces it will tell you the name of the saint.
(Edited to add names)
Top row, L to R: St. Vincent de Paul, St. Michael, St. Philomena, Sacred Heart, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Catherine of Siena, St. John Baptist, St. Clare, S.t Margaret of Scotland, St. Gerard, St. Thomas Aquinas
2nd row, L to R: St. Anthony, St. Helena, St. Anastasia, St. Nicholas, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Peter, St. Francis Xavier, Bl. Zelie Martin, Pope Francis, St. Cecilia, St. Agnes
3rd Row, L to R: St. Lucy, St. Sebastian, St. Boniface, St. John Baptist, St. Thomas More, St. Juliana Falconieri, St. Pio, Our Lady, St. John Vianney, St. Rose of Lima, St. Frances Cabrini
4th Row, L to R: St. John Paul II, St. Therese, St. Elizabeth(Isabel) of Portugal, St. Rita, St. Paul, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Lucy, St. Gianna Molla, St. Anne, St. Joseph, St. Patrick
Bottom Row, L to R: St. Josemaria Escriva, St. Joan, St. Bernadette, St. Andre Bessette, St. Athanasius, St. Faustina, St. Veronica, OL Guadalupe, St. Kateri, St. George, St. Louis de Monfort
So now that you are recovering are you planning your set? It is actually a good sedentary activity and could be done by a recovering patient  .
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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JennGM
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I couldn't open the page, but they are amazing. What paint did you use? And did you seal them? That's one of my hang ups--finding the optimal materials and I was looking for a non toxic sealant.
I have the dolls....will think about doing them soon.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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CrunchyMom
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I have a non toxic sealant we bought to seal our butcher block counter. I wonder if it would work over paint?
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MaryM
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JennGM wrote:
I couldn't open the page, but they are amazing. What paint did you use? And did you seal them? That's one of my hang ups--finding the optimal materials and I was looking for a non toxic sealant.
I have the dolls....will think about doing them soon. |
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We all just used plain old acrylic paint - nontoxic. As far as the sealant issue, for our exchange we left them unsealed and let the recipients decide that on their own after the exchange. In the pictures above they aren't sealed yet. There were some people who were really concerned about the sealants and opted for shellac. Shellac is non-toxic. It is more work though and can be tacky at higher temps. Others were fine with using acrylic spray-on sealants. I have seen a lot of mixed opinions on that including in this thread. Some sources say they are toxic, some that they are only toxic until cured then fine for handling. Might still be of concern if ingested - so if you have anyone who would put them in mouth then maybe not good choice. Another non-toxic option for a light seal is mod podge. It protects them from some wear but is water soluble so if they could get wet wouldn't be a good choice.
I am sorry you couldn't open the link. It should be public if you have a google account. It isn't hidden.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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JennGM
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I tried again, and I guess it was on my ipad that I couldn't read it. Now I can see, and boy is it good.
Lindsay's suggestion above sent me on a rabbit trail, and I was looking at Bioshield Herbal Oil or
Paperstone finish as possibilities....I was reading that a combo of wax and oil might be a good sealer.
But that was for wood, not necessarily painted items.
My boys are older, so less in the mouth, but if I were to make for siblings' children, this is something I have to consider.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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hmbress
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I have two prints from Portraits of the Saints and just absolutely love them.
I was very concerned to read about Monastery Icons, as I have one that I bought for my son years ago. I did some checking to see if the information linked above is still accurate, and sure enough, they are owned by the Sacred Arts Foundation. IRS records show their address as the same address listed on the contact us page of the Atma Jyoti Ashram. They claim that Jesus' "lost years" were spent in India and that he is a master yogi. It is all so very strange.
I happened to have an appointment with my confessor today so I brought the icon with me and had him bless/exorcise it.
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Heather Rose (ds13, ds10)
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SuzanneG
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Besty at Immaculata Designs often has different saint medals, or if she doesn't have them, she can get them or look for them. I also just learned that she can have a certain medal "made" if she can't find one of that particular saint....obviously more expensive, but still nice to know that it's an option. Email and ask....as not all of her medals and bead options are IN the Etsy shop. She has lots more that she can make into jewelry with a special request. And, bracelets are a nice less expensive option.
There is stationery (Saints Galore) or TradeMark Catholic Stationery) with different saint cards. I have taken the card and framed it. Or even do that with a holy card....a holy card can look really nice with a neat matte and frame.
And, seconding Portrait of Saints....Tracy is trying to get 2-3 new ones every month....and she's always looking for suggestions if you have a saint that she hasn't already drawn.
My girls love their STURDY, plain chains with their special medals.....baptism name and confirmation names or other special medals that they have.
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Suzanne in ID
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Namesakes gifts!!
