Collecting Don´s wooden sculptures

Collecting Don´s sculptures in wood can be very exciting and entertaining. Through the years I accumulated quite a few pieces and I enjoy very much having them around. Don inspired himself from Mexican folklore and designed remarkable pieces that would represent bats, scorpions and other symbolic animals from the Mexican Pre-Hispanic period. These works of art were made with different kinds of woods from the region, sometimes inlaid with colored stones, sometimes just nicely carved.

Don´s box designs from the “Animal” Series were also quite unique. Some time ago, in one of my posts I already showed you the “Owl” box; here we have a nice sample of his “Hippopotamus” box:

Don´s imagination and creativity was also inspired by organic forms, female curves and hands:

All of the above pictured pieces carry the decal studio label. There are of course many other interesting works that I could present from Don´s sculptural creations, however, I have only selected a few examples to prevent forgers from trying to copycat his designs.

Copyright © 2012 Karin Goyer. All Rights Reserved.

@donshoemaker.com

Charming organic design box

Don had an incredibly mischievous imagination for the design of his boxes. Besides the conventional tropical woods boxes, he worked on organic designs which he created from rare tropical wood pieces that he was always collecting and putting aside in his workshop for a special day and a special new project in mind, like this one, which looks like it just came out from a fairy tale.

This charming box has its place in my library, I use its delicate small drawers to hide precious little thinks…The box, which has two drawers was created from a granadilla tree knot. Take a close look at the finish of the drawers, every detail was taken care of, notice the small wood sticks that Don installed to prevent the drawer from falling out. The box has the Don S. Shoemaker decal studio label at the bottom.

Copyright © 2010 Karin Goyer. All rights Reserved

@donshoemaker.com

Boxes for all kind of trinkets

Don S. Shoemaker tropical woods boxes are well known. I have seen them on the web and on display in vintage boutiques in Mexico. They were mainly produced in rosewood, in different designs and shapes, many of them include elaborate parquetry work , in cueramo, cocobolo, granadilla, white mahogany and many other rare tropical wood species. Don´s shop always had a complete assortment of boxes for all possible purposes you could image.

I am including some pictures of a set of boxes from my personal collection, a sample of a typical Don S. Shoemaker parquetry box and a very original “owl box”. One evening in Santa Maria Guido while talking about creatures of the night, I said that I loved owls, Don stood up and came back with this astonishing owl box. What a gift!

@donshoemaker.com