It's Plaque Season
Who knew we had such a thing.
Scripture tells us that for everything there is a season, that is also true here at Ad Crucem. The months leading up to Advent and Christmas are overwhelmed with cutting, peeling and packing our Christmons to mail off to predominantly Lutheran Churches around the country. We have 100 white Christmons, and other themed Christmas ornaments including a Jesse Tree set as well as Parables and Miracles of Christ.
After Christmas, and during the secular new year, there is a rush at our churches for new church banners. I’m assuming this is because the churches budgets are in, and they know what they can afford for the year. Our seamstress Tori was pretty overloaded this year getting the banners out in time for Lent and Easter.
Then, concurrent with the banners, is the start of Confirmation season. The laser cutter has cut many hundred confirmation ornaments and engraved a good number of beautiful boxes for confirmands across the country. We also offer a wide range of other meaningful gifts, greeting cards & certificates. Confirmation season lasts into early June then goes pretty dormant for another year.
We used to have a lull from now until the end of August, but, suddenly we have Plaque Season. Between the laser and CNC machine we have a large number of plaques. These are time consuming and labor intensive - especially when CNC’d and painted. Some of the CNC plaques can take 16 hours to cut. Any little error can mean going back to the cutting board, so to speak. It really is fun to come home from Ad Crucem in the afternoons and see our kitchen table with a host of plaques in various stages of completion. The season matches the ordination schedule of our seminaries, because many pastors celebrate milestones decades on from having been ordained.
So, remember us when your pastor is being ordained or retiring, our plaques are things of beauty which they will cherish for decades - and everyone will say, “Oh, they went to Ad Crucem!”
And so our year goes on, as we ebb and flow with the liturgical calendar, preparing beautiful products for home and church.