We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jody Hildreth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jody, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
As a young boy, I was captivated by the world of creation. I loved going to art class at school, wondering what activity would feed my imagination. At home, I spent hours cutting and gluing balsa wood into boats that sailed across our backyard pool, I bought plastic models that I assembled in my bedroom. I rode my bicycle to our local junkyard to scavenge for treasures that could be ripped apart and used for something new. These early experiences laid the foundation for my future artistic pursuits.
As I grew older, my passion shifted to birdwatching, which led me to travel the country in search of new species. Winning a national birding contest allowed me to purchase my first digital camera, sparking a love for photography and nature. Over time, my lens expanded to capture not just birds, but also butterflies, waterfalls, and more. I am self-taught learning by trial and error, reading, and the kindness of more experience photographers.
After thirty years as an elementary librarian, I’ve entered a new chapter of creativity. Now, I delight in photographing nature and crafting whimsical characters from acorns, posing them in natural settings. My artistic niche has become a perfect blend of imagination and technical skill.
Reflecting on my journey, I realize that various skills have contributed to my craft. Renovating our old house taught me to wield power tools, which I now use to construct and detail my acorn characters. Tearing things apart as a child also taught me how to put things back together. I now use wires and several types of glues in the construction of my acorn characters. Perhaps the greatest skill has been learning from mistakes. In fact, some of my best ideas have emerged from unexpected errors. I remember building a small birch bark canoe for my acorn man. I spent hours designing it to float. I tested it in my kitchen sink and everything appeared to work. Out in the field, things changed suddenly. It wasn’t long until the canoe was slowly sinking on its maiden voyage. I had to come up with a different design. Instead of floating, I attached the canoe to a stick and pushed in into the shallows of the pond. The canoe appeared to float and better yet, it didn’t move, which gave me more control when photographing the scene. This morphed into attaching the canoe to a metal rod using magnets. The rod is attached to a clamp giving me greater flexibility. The use of magnets has expanded my creativity. I now put magnets in the arms and feet of my characters which allows me to quickly connect them to hiking sticks, backpacks, or balance easily on a nail pushed in the ground.
The only obstacle I faced in pursuing my craft full time was balancing my artistic passions with the demands of a regular job and family responsibilities. Though I’ve always made time for my hobbies, it wasn’t until retirement that I could fully devote myself to my art. Now, I’m thrilled to explore the possibilities of my creativity, bringing joy and wonder to others through my whimsical acorn characters.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a 57 year old retired children’s librarian. I have always loved being creative. Whether it is building something with my hands, drawing, or writing poetry. Expressing myself in unique ways has always been important to me. When I was a teenager I developed a strong interest in birdwatching. This gave me a greater appreciation of the natural world. In my thirties, I won an national birding award and the prize was a digital camera. At first I used it to document my bird sightings. But it quickly morphed into other uses. I started photographing butterflies, waterfalls, landscapes, and more. I had caught the photography bug, and it would stay with me. I am completely self taught as a photographer and take great pride in my work. I have traveled to over 50 national parks and research the best places to photograph wildlife and scenery. When it comes to nature, I have endless patience, often waiting hours for an animal to appear or a scene to develop.
It wasn’t until Covid that my greatest photo project developed. I was getting restless and bored during our quarantine days. Unable to travel, I needed to find something new that would appease my need for creativity. I was inspired by an artist from the Czech Republic who created acorn characters and photographed them. It looked like so much fun, and something I could do without much travel. It was March, and no acorns could be found outside so I bought some through Etsy. I came up with my own style and design for my characters. I photographed my first scene: an acorn person making a snow angel in the last snowfall of the season. I was hooked! It was so much fun. From building the characters, setting up the scene, and photographing the final image. I called my project Acorn Whimsy and have been working on it almost daily for over four years. When travel restrictions relaxed, I started taking my acorn people on the road. They go with me everywhere now. They have competed in every Summer and Winter Olympic event. They play music, fall in love, read, and so much more. They basically do everything humans do – just in a more whimsical way.
I sell photos of my work at craft festivals and online. At one festival, a children’s publisher walked by my booth. Her children loved my work and she expressed an interest in making children’s books using my characters. She gave me complete control and ownership having me write the stories and photograph the images. Now I was combining another of my interests: writing. At first, I would post my images to my social media accounts with only a quick and dry description. Now, I post daily stories to go along with my work. My audience has grown. Now I have regular followers who engage with my work giving comments, feedback, and suggestions. A small online community has grown around my work.
While there are several artists around the world who build and photograph acorn characters, I am most proud of my design. My figures are completely posable, just like little dolls. They take about 5 hours to build each one, but I can use them over and over. I run copper wire through all their limbs. Their heads can quickly be changed by a copper post in their neck. Other artists create a fixed figure for their scenes, but mine are incredibly flexible which allows me to use the same figure in many different scenes and poses without having to create a unique character for each scene. I am also proud of how people react to my scenes. My characters do human activities. This help people connect with them easier. A parent has a child who plays soccer and sees my acorn playing soccer and they think it is cute. I have customers ask me to create images of activities that that interest them: sports, music, occupations, and more. Anything a person can do, my acorns can do. Nothing gives me more joy than to watch someone browse through my prints and hear them laugh and say to their friends, “Look at this one!”
Currently, I have created over 1,500 different images in over four years. I have no intention of slowing down. My “To Do” list is incredibly long and always growing. Of course, this never would have happened if my wife hadn’t encouraged me to start selling my work. At first, I enjoyed photographing just for myself and sharing the images with family and friends. When they asked about purchasing my work, I was hesitant. My wife said I should try, and she helped push me out of my comfort zone. We started small at a local festival and had great success. Slowly we grew. Now we do about 12 shows each year. I don’t want the focus of my work to be on selling it. I still want the time and flexibility to travel and create new images.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding part of my create work is seeing people react to it. Some of my more comical scenes dealing with bathroom humor. My acorn characters can be seen in all types of natural settings using the toilet and outhouse in humorous ways. I never thought older people would appreciate this type of art, but I was wrong. Grandmothers will flip through all the toilet scenes at our booth and cackle at each one. Just knowing my work is giving them that much joy almost payment enough.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
As a retired elementary educator, I believe it is important to give children experiences in nature. Too much time is spent in front of a screen, either television or computer. Children need to be outdoors skipping rocks, using a stick as a toy, and smelling flowers. Along the way, with the help of an adult, they can learn how plants and animals connect with each other and why they are important to us. Their is so much to learn about nature and so much to inspire. Colors, sounds, textures, scents, and tastes all waiting to ignite a creative spark in a young mind.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.acornwhimsy.com
- Instagram: acornwhimsy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acornwhimsy
Image Credits
Jody Hildreth