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More than 30 years ago, John and Primm ffrench (two lowercase F’s equaled one uppercase letter among the Normans who came to Ireland in the 15th century) were wondering what to give their friends for Christmas. “We’re artists, so we wanted to make something together,” recalls John in his musical Irish brogue. They decided on handmade calendars, and their first effort combined watercolors, silk-screening, and other media. “It was so much work that we could only make 12,” says Primm, who met John when both were studying in Italy during the 1950s. “By the time we were through, we were hardly speaking to each other!” The calendars were such a hit that the ffrenches have been making them ever since, settling on silk-screening as the most efficient method. As the years went by, their three daughters began pitching in. “They were always drawing, anyway,” John says. Today, they produce about 900 calendars a year at the Dolphin Studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Every detail is still attended to by hand. But now three generations participate, including grandchildren Ben Paley and Lily Rose Hughes. (a) Primm’s contribution to a past calendar captures the frosty exuberance of winter. (b) Bold graphics by John (inspired by an ad he saw from a bus window in Havana) and Primm from the ’06 calendar (c). John’s April ’01 page (d) shows his affinity for nature. “I love to garden.” (e) Wielding an X-acto® knife, Primm meticulously hand-cuts stencils, a time-consuming labor of love. “Each stencil can take two or three days, depending upon how detailed the design is,” she says. (f) The ffrenches’ workshop is upstairs in their Stockbridge, Massachusetts, home. Here, John places a print on the drying rack. “I do 300 prints in each batch.” |
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The Dolphin Studio calendar, like many family projects, begins with a talk. “We decide who wants to design which months, then everyone does what he or she wants,” John says. Primm cuts all of the stencil films, one set for each color, and John, also known for his ceramics, prints the pages, one printing for each color. Every design is an original print, suitable for framing. The ffrenches’ custom of highlighting family birthdays and anniversaries on the calendar pages sometimes causes confusion. “Once I marked Ben’s birthday, November 23rd, with particularly elaborate numerals,” Primm recalls. “A customer assumed the 23rd was Thanksgiving, and she invited her family and friends for dinner on the wrong day.” “Making the calendars is a wonderful way of keeping the family together,” John says. “We’re lucky everyone lives nearby.” Felicitas, who has a law degree from Stanford, and Sofia, a teacher, live in Stockbridge; Crispina has her own studio, Fuchsia, in an old mill in Great Barrington. Although each calendar requires months of painstaking labor, the ffrenches seldom fight, even when faced with daunting deadlines. “We don’t disagree about artistic matters—just about everything else!” Primm says with a hearty laugh. The Dolphin Studio produces ceramics, jewelry, and other one-of-a-kind items, but is most known for its annual calendar. (h) Primm’s one-color portrait of Lily and Ben from ’06 was “easy to print, but hard to cut.” (i) Ben drew this family portrait when he was about 8. (j) Crispina’s idea of summer fun, from July ’06. (k) A pair of late-summer owls from the current calendar, drawn by Lily. (l) Another nature-loving design from John, also from the ’06 edition. |
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“Artwork is personal and hands-on, and so is the way we deal with our customers,” Primm says. “All of our correspondence is handwritten—nothing is typed or photocopied.” John adds, “We’ve found that our customers like this very much.” “If you’re a mom-and-pop business like us, keep things as human as possible,” both Primm and John advise. “In this age of technology, customers appreciate talking to a human voice, not a machine.” |
