Back Away From Those Gift Cards

Every grocery store that I go to has a wall of gifts cards for sale.  Everything from Home Depot and Best Buy to The Cheesecake Factory.  The worst are the generic Visa, Mastercard and American Express Cards.  How much thought does it take to give one of these as a gift?

Admittedly if you are giving something to an acquaintance who you do not know much about these are a good idea.  But when it comes to someone with whom you have a special relationship – a parent, spouse, sibling, child – what does this tell them?  Maybe that they weren’t worth the time or effort to find something unique.

It’s not that hard.  How about a working, restored antique phone?   You can’t find these at many places.   Garden statues are appreciated by many.  Anything that adds to home décor is great.  The trick, however, is to show your loved one that you took the time and effort to find something that is uniquely for them.  Time is a valuable commodity.  Too many people do not use it for the people they care for.

We specialize in unique gifts.  We have hundreds of hard to find items.  Many are limited editions or created by known artists.  How unique?  Well we have a seven foot tall Brontosaurus Garden Sculpture.  But we also have “normal” type things – but unique nevertheless.

Come see our unique gifts at uniquegiftsanddecor.com.

The Process Matters

What sets several of our products apart from others is the type of casting process that is used.  Many of our scultures and even smaller items are made using the “lost wax” process.  This is a process that has been used by artisans for centuries.  Its main benefit is that it captures an artist’s intricate designs when they are reproduced in metal, resin or other materials.  Without using this type of a process a lot of detail in an artist’s original creation will not reproduce.  It is kind of like what happens when you make a copy of a copy etc.  Eventually the quality suffers.  This isn’t much of a problem when you are talking about copying a letter or other document.  But it is a big problem when you are talking about a work of art.  

The lost wax method originated in ancient times.  Early artisans found that making a wax model was the best way to capture every detail of creations.  This is still the case today although oftentimes clay is used instead of wax.  The process is more arduous than others, but the results are stunning when compared to those other methods.  Even dentists use this process for casting dentures because to the precision match that is needed.

Initially I thought that the name “lost wax” method referred to the fact that it had not been used for centuries and then was rediscovered.  However, this is not the case.  The name refers to the fact that during the process the wax is heated and escapes through a plaster mold, thus being “lost.”  There simply is no substitue when it comes quality of detail.

http://www.uniquegiftsanddecor.com/