Local Artist Rings in Cleaver 140th Celebration for 2021

Everyone seems to look forward to 2020 coming to an end. The Cleaver is eagerly anticipating 2021 to celebrate the 140^th anniversary of the founding of the newspaper. The Cleaver is the oldest business in Clare County and has been on the same block of Main Street in Harrison since 1881.

Local artist Emily Martin is hand painting and numbering 140 Christmas ornaments to commemorate the milestone. Martin started drawing when she was 8; that was when her grandmother Pauline Sharp taught her to sketch birds.  At age 13, she began painting with watercolors, then acrylic.

Martin made several ornament styles, and it was a bit of a trial and error to find the right products and process to get a nice finish on the ornaments. The final product is an adorable piece of folk art to enjoy each Christmas, one that commemorates the oldest newspaper in Clare County.

Plenty more is in store for Cleaver readers in 2021. A special issue will be printed in July, the month the Cleaver began in the back of the butcher shop on Main Street. A historical calendar will be printed again this year featuring more Cleaver information; it will be out in the next several weeks. These calendars are free and 5,000 are being printed.