The Vaillancourt Story
 
 When Gary Vaillancourt gave his wife, Judi, a gift of three antique chocolate molds in 1984, neither of them knew it would signal the start of a new family business. In the years since, Judi's collection has grown to more than 3,000 vintage molds — one of the largest collections in the world. She uses her molds to make hand-painted collectible chalkware figures for all major holidays — especially Christmas.
 
Today, Vaillancourt Folk Art (VFA) is one of America's last remaining Christmas ornament and collectibles makers. Unlike most Christmas collectibles, which are manufactured overseas, Vaillancourt chalkware figures are still made by hand at the VFA studio in Sutton, Mass. Visitors can tour behind-the-scenes as artists hand-paint more than 300 different versions of Santa Claus and Father Christmas figures.
 
Judi's chocolate molds date to the nineteenth century, when a gift of chocolate was a special treasure and every small European village had a chocolate shop. Chocolate was molded in all shapes and sizes — bunnies for Easter and St. Nicholas, snowmen and angels for Christmas. The mold-makers were skilled artisans who sculpted beautiful details into their molds and lovingly passed their craft and their molds down through the generations.
 
Fascinated by the exquisite workmanship in her antique molds, Judi, an artist by training, filled them with a plaster-like substance and hand-painted the resulting "chalkware." The finished products were stunning. By painting the figurines, Judi had unlocked the mold-makers' intricate artistry, bringing it to life as never before.
 
While the mold-makers' palette had been limited — quite literally — to chocolate brown, Judi's colors brought the figures to life. Particularly compelling are the hand-painted eyes on the faces of each figure, which display a richness of emotion completely hidden when the pieces were molded in chocolate.
 
Captivated by the nostalgic charm of these Victorian-era figurines, collectors began snapping them up as fast as they could be painted, and a unique new business was launched.
 
Among Vaillancourt Folk Art's confectionary molds (chocolate, ice cream molds and barley candy molds) are many made by famed mold-maker Anton Reiche, whose factory in Dresden, Germany was founded in 1870. The work of Reiche artists and sculptors was of the highest level — similar in excellence to that of artists at Germany's famous Meissen and Dresden porcelain factories, which were nearby.
 
Judi meticulously researches the history of each mold and identifies its country of origin. She also paints the first piece of any new VFA chalkware line. The painting studio consists of 30 staff artists, 12 of whom work year-round to produce the hand-painted, limited edition figurines offered by VFA. The studio is housed in an antique farmhouse in the quaint town of Sutton, Mass. The attached retail shop, Vaillancourt Folk Art & Friends, displays all of the Vaillancourt collectibles and also sells artwork by some of the best known folk artists in the country.
 
 VFA artists produce hand-made figurines for Valentine's Day, Easter and Halloween, but Christmas remains Vaillancourt's signature season. In 1997 VFA added a collection of exquisite German glass Christmas ornaments based on its popular chalkware and designed as companion pieces to the chalkware figures.
 
How did such a thriving business grow from the simple gift of three antique chocolate molds? Was it luck? Artistic talent? Entrepreneurial savvy? Judi agrees that these qualities are only part of the story, adding, "Holidays make people long for the past. They want to hold onto memories of simpler, more sentimental times. Our figures help them do just that. They evoke nostalgia for the past while becoming the heirlooms of the future."