The ffrench family started making calendars way back in the 1960′s when John and Primm were newly weds. Now the endeavor is headed up by Crispina ffrench and Sofia Hughes, Primm and John’s daughters. Our 2013 calendar is our 42nd edition and we are printing 2200 of them this year. (That is A LOT of printing!!)
Every year family members design twelve monthly images. Primm is our mom, she is 83 and a master screen printer, color mixer, stencil cutter. She has designed March, July and December for 2013.
Crispina (that is me) has designed January, June, and November – with a nod to Felicitas. Felicitas, is our older sister who has lived, for last 10 years, in a state of fogginess with very advanced Multiple Sclerosis. Each year there is a month made in her honor using some of her amazing line drawings from years gone by as inspiration.
My kids, Ben, age 19 designed August this year after a sabbatical last year. Lucy, 6 made October and Violet, 5, contributed some fishermen for our April 2013.
Sofie Hughes, handles all our customer service and heads up shipping (which is QUITE a job!). She designed September for 2013 and her extra talented daughter Lily, age 13, contributed February this year.
So, if you can keep all that straight, you can see that this really is an old fashioned family endeavor. Next year, we will likely add Jamie to our roster of artists, she is soon to be Sofie’s daughter (big Yay!) as they traverse the adoption process.
People often encourage us to develop our line to include other products. Who knows what you will find here as we continue down our creative path. Ideas include on a line of cards, posters, twinkle lights folded origami-style from our strike prints and maybe even a desk calendar for 2014.
We bow in gratitude to you for your interest and undying support of our endeavors.
Sincerely,
Crispina and the whole ffrench family