ACCIDENTAL DISPLAY — The teapot window display includes a tree skirt made by Jayne Phipps-Boger and two teddy bears made by Barbara Fender.

Boger displays mini teapots

A teapot collection in miniature is on display at the Blue Ridge Business Development Center in Sparta through January.

It’s not part of the Kamm collection; these teapots belong to a Sparta woman.

They were decorations for the Christmas tree that adorned the center’s lobby in December 2005. When the tree came down, the ornaments were put aside in the sills of the big bay window, making an accidental, but attractive display.

The teapot Christmas tree ornaments belong to Jayne Phipps-Boger, who works at the center as director of the Wilkes Community College Alleghany Campus.

She bought four ornaments on eBay last April. “Those two multiplied into 283 in a matter of five months,” she mused.

She ordered the first ornaments because she needed something to take to Raleigh, where she and Jonathan Halsey were attending leadership training at the Rural Economic Development Center.

They needed items that represented Alleghany, one for a door prize and one to go into a gift basket for the woman who organized the training.

“Jayne had the idea to bring a little teapot, which would be doubly representative of our community because it was an ornament for a Christmas tree,” said Halsey, who is project manager for the future Sparta Teapot Museum.

Most came from eBay, and some locally from Henry Thorne’s Arts and Antiques store, People’s Country Store, and Sparta Florist and Gifts. Some were gifts from Charlotte Reynolds, who helps with fund-raising for the museum.

Two came directly from England and China, and two indirectly from Austria and Brazil.

“It just kind of happened,” she said of the collection. It’s an example of how everyone in the center tries to work together.

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