Stuarts Draft’s Sweet Dreams festival bolstered by artists’ custom designs

Last fall, Glenn Crider had no idea he’d be in Stuarts Draft on Thursday promoting the upcoming Sweet Dreams festival.

Born and raised in Richmond, Crider had merely performed his craft: making wood nutcrackers. But because of the U.S. Postal Service’s selection of his designs for the 2008 nutcracker stamp series, his life changed.

“I was a podunk artist from Virginia who got invited to Madison Square Garden to sign autographs,” Crider said.

He also attended a December postal event in Richmond and there, met Kevin Blackburn, Stuarts Draft’s postmaster. Blackburn invited Crider to participate in Sweet Dreams, the annual festival, scheduled for July 25 at Stuarts Draft Park.

Blackburn said that he and the Sweet Dreams committee selected Crider and P. Buckley Moss to design items for the event.

“Pat participated in the children’s stamp coloring contest a few years ago for the 100th anniversary of the Hershey’s Kiss,” Blackford said, who had the older drawing in a back office. “We weren’t sure if she’d make it today.”

“I just flew in from Italy just last night,” Moss said of her trip traveling with members of the P. Buckley Moss Society. “I wasn’t sure if my layover would allow me to make it here, but I got straight through customs and security.”

Moss’ print shows a postal worker handing a letter to two “plain” people, the Amish or Mennonite folk she’s known for depicting here in the Valley. She also designed the annual postmark that the community can have stamped on outgoing mail from the Stuarts Draft Post Office.

Crider’s idea for his contribution to the festival began 20 years ago. He actually designed his music box prototype the old-fashioned way with carbon paper.

But his original design didn’t include an important feature it does today: chocolate kisses and a designed quilt. Those only came about this year, with his purchase last year of a $23,000 laser wood burner and a simple request.

“Everyone asks me how I got Hershey’s to approve the use of the Kiss,” Crider said. “All I did was ask them and they didn’t even charge for it.”

The music box, though, was not offered for mass production 20 years ago because, with the detail Crider said he put into it, the price would have been too astronomical. But with his current tools, he’s able to produce them for $75 each, with a portion of the proceeds going to support the Sweet Dreams festival.

“It’s my first music box in 20 years,” Crider said. “I’m still an artist but now I do a lot on the computer. I couldn’t have done something this detailed without today’s technology to make it affordable.”

Crider estimates it will take 14 days to produce the 100 music boxes in his one-man shop in Richmond, with the assistance of his father and wife. He’s already taken more than 20 orders for the piece.

Moss will also have copies of the print she designed for Sweet Dreams’ benefit available at the event.

“Now the crunch is on to get ready for the festival,” Crider said. Crider will also display other pieces of work he’s designed including a pen constructed of wood from a vessel sailed to Virginia in 1607.

He’s recently come into some wood from a tree that fell that Lee congregated around with his generals during the war.

“I’ll be working on a Robert E. Lee pen soon,” he said.