I’ve been very lax at posting lately. But I just ran across this neat little item that deserves mention. It’s a new cookie stamp shaped like a Luther rose, and the potential for crafting looks VERY good. I might have to pick up more than one… on for baking, one for crafting.

There is now a “Lutheran Barter System” up and running on Facebook. Do a search; it looks like it could be good fun. I’m looking forward to finding some artisans who create paraments, vestments, or other ecclesiastical materials so I can feature them on this blog. This barter system involves all creative services, but specifically church-related items for offering.

On Facebook this evening, I stumbled upon some woodworking pictures of Pr. David Kind, a campus pastor at the University of Minnesota. Then I discovered that a couple of the photos made it onto the University Lutheran Chapel’s website, too. Scroll down this page to see an impressive hand-turned processional set made of solid maple.

Alex and I met Pr. Kind in 2007 at the Higher Things For You conference in Minneapolis. He gave a very good presentation on art and Christian worship.

Check out this business, featuring custom liturgical embroidery. Nice work!

I’ve been very into rubber stamps lately, but I always had difficulty in finding good ones for various church occasions. Now I know where to go: Our Daily Bread Designs. Here is a great set of verse stamps for Baptism and Confirmation, and here’s an idea gallery to see how they can be used. There are a lot of great, classy-looking products on this site, including things like all the best Jolee’s and True Faith stickers that reflect liturgical worship and the sacraments. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be a new favorite product site for me.

Update: You can browse the stamp sets on the site for yourself, but here’s an example of what I’m talking about: a stamp set appropriate for Advent!

I’ve got a new book project in the works. It consists of illustrated hymns for children. Go here to read more about it.

Here are a few more rubber stamps to get your creative juices flowing, all from Cornish Heritage Farms:

- “Scripture Essentials I.” This is a collection of Bible verses.

-“A New Creation.”

-“He is not here; He is risen!” I got this stamp for my birthday. Looking forward to making Easter cards with it!

-“Modern church.” Actually a normal-looking church with a steeple, but the stamp is called “modern” because the image consists of a distressed-looking silhouette. I recently received this one, too. These stamps work really well. More religious images can be found on this site, but these are some of my favorites.

Pr. McCain blogs about how Lutheran churches are not iconoclastic in The Less Decoration in Our Churches, the Better: This is Most Certainly NOT True.

I’ve been meaning to post this for about a YEAR now. You must check out this website, Hymns in My Heart, featuring calligraphed hymn verses, made into cards. Lutheran lady Liz Nitardy sells them. I don’t know about you, but I think they look fantastic and I nearly want to buy one of each!

About the artist, from her father:

Recently I’ve been taking a closer look at some children’s book illustrations from the “golden age.” I just stumbled upon a children’s book called “Through the Church Door” that was originally published in the mid-20s. It contains a number of black and white line drawings of children experiencing the life of the church (Anglican), as well as other childhood scenes that serve as a kind of life application of the faith.

Ignoring the text, which is largely very bad, I found the drawings to be very interesting. I’ve been planning out a similar kind of project myself, including a very similar style and subject matter– though with a completely different sort of text. What’s interesting for Lutherans is that quite a lot of the images focus on liturgical church life in a way that would be equally accessible to our tradition. Consider especially the images of the child examining the baptismal font, giving an offering, kneeling in church; or the way the dress of the ministers is depicted, for example.

Do these images appeal to your inner child, or does their idyllic/idealistic/stylized nature seem more consistent with the heavily pietistic text in the book? Personally I can’t help but be drawn to them. I find the style very charming, more attractive than cartoony kids’ drawings.

…is from St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in New Hamburg, Ontario. Things that are particularly interesting to me include:

• -The dual stained glass windows up front depicting the crucified and the resurrected Christ
• -The altarpiece, in a very typically Lutheran “subtly ornate” idiom. Love the statue! Also a very common image of Christ to see in altar statuary in Lutheran churches, with palms outstretched.
• -All the trefoils and quatrefoils carved into the wood. Carved wood in general; check out the altar rail, the paneling, the font, the pews…
• -If you look behind the pulpit, you can see a wooden plaque of St. Peter, including the keys and the inverted cross (presumably a reference to the name of the church). I have to say, the pulpit is a very fitting spot for such an image.
• That’s a cool pulpit too; I’ve never seen one before that has that kind of open metalwork.
• Here’s a detailed photo of the Holy Spirit window.