Nutcracker sculptures at Charlottetown shops carve out holiday cheer

Islanders taking a stroll through downtown Charlottetown this holiday season may notice some friendly new faces greeting them outsidelocal shops and restaurants.

They're very Christmasy, it reminds me of the Nutcracker ballet that I used to watch every Christmas. Kimberly McIntyre

For the first time, some local businesses will be showcasing wooden nutcracker sculptures as a part of Downtown Charlottetown Inc.'s most recent holiday beautification initiative.

"There's no two nutcrackers that are the same," said Dawn Alan, DCI's executive director.

So far, about 14 businesses have signed upandpurchased a nutcracker from DCI to decorate to their individual tastes, includingthe Old Triangle, Kinetic Fitnessand the Craft Beer Corner.

From driftwood comes art

Darryl Ashford, who made the movefrom Newfoundland to the Island about 12 years ago, is the artist behind the sculptures and uses a chainsaw to carve them.

Until now, Ashfordhasfocused on nautical imagery for his sculptures, often depicting whimsical fishermen and sea captains in his work.

But when DCI approached him with the idea of creating nutcrackers for the holiday season, he was happy to diverge from his usual source of inspiration.

Ashforduses driftwood for many of his sculptures.

The nutcrackers are typically about 1.2 metres orfour feet tall and weighbetween 23 to 30 kilograms.

"The businesses that have adopted the nutcracker this year will have them forever and we'llencourage them to put them out every year," Alan said.

Bringing back memories

One of the participating businesses for this year's initiative is Kuriosities on Victoria Row.

"They're very Christmasy, it reminds me of the Nutcracker ballet that I used to watch every Christmas," said shop owner Kimberly McIntyre.

"We used to always have a nutcracker out at Christmas time and crack all the walnuts open with it."

McIntyre said DCI's nutcracker initiative gives local shops the opportunity to be creative and celebrate small business.

Local illustrator and 3-D artist Allison Wolvers works at Kuriosities and has been working hard for the past week or so to bringthe store's nutcracker to life.

She said deciding on the personality of theirnutcracker was fairly simple, using the shop's green colour palette as inspiration.

"Well the store has a very older esthetic, so we wanted to make sure the nutcracker was more of a traditional nutcracker that you would seein like the old Nutcracker book with the old illustrations," Wolvers said.

Wolvers jokes sheaffectionately refers to the nutcracker as Prince Eric.

Digital map and contest

As a part of the initiative, DCI will be launching a digital map for Islanders to find and visit the nutcrackers.

Islanderswill also be given the opportunity to vote on the nutcracker they like beston the organization's website.

Alan anticipatesthe digital map will be up and running sometime this week.

"I hope that it grows year after year," she said."Hopefully we'll add a whole lot more merchants to the list next year as well."

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