When Perzy tried the trick with a lightbulb, he discovered the brightness wasn’t improved. But what if he added something to the water that the light could bounce off of? Perzy started with white semolina flakes, used in baby food at the time. “He poured [them] into the glass globe, and [they] got soaked by the water and floated very slowly to the base of the globe,” his grandson, Erwin Perzy III, told the BBC. “This effect reminded him of snowfall.” Inspiration struck: What if he used his technical expertise to create a tiny diorama in his snowy little world? Perzy made a miniature replica of the Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary in Mariazell, Austria, placed it in his water-filled globe, sealed it, and mounted it to a gypsum base that he painted black. And voila—the first snow globe was born.
Easily the most famous creators of strange snow globes are Walter Martin and Paloma Munoz. The couple’s art generally features grisly and melancholy miniature scenes that are photographed close up for drastic effect. This image is from their long-running Travelers series, all of which specifically take place inside of snow globes. Extra info on personalized snow globe.
Collecting Snow Globes: Snowglobes have become an increasingly popular collectible for both antique and novelty globes. Actor, Corbin Bernstein may be the most prolific collector with about 8,000. Bernsen began collecting snow globes in the ‘80’s. “There’s something that happens to a collector, this internal voice that says, ‘I want to have one of each that is in existence,’” Bernsen says. French collector, Mireille Sueur built an extensive collection trolling flea markets, gift shops and tourist sites. Her first words of advice, “make sure you know how to limit yourself”.
Many Americans decorated their trees with imported ornaments up until World War II. Before World War II, many ornaments Americans purchased were imported from Germany. But once World War II started, Corning, an American glass company, started making ornaments out of a light bulb machine. They made 300,000 ornaments a day! The legend behind stockings involves a sweet story about Santa doing something really nice for a poor family. The common legend about Christmas stockings (which has an unknown source and date, according to Smithsonian Magazine) tells a tale of a poor, widowed man who had three young daughters that he worried would never marry due to their lack of wealth. St. Nick overheard people chatting about this family, so he slid down the man’s chimney and placed gold coins in the girls’ clean stockings that were hanging to dry by the fireplace. Source: https://www.qstomize.com/collections/custom-snow-globe.
