I grew up with my father having a small nutcracker collection. Every once in awhile we would get him a new one for Christmas to add to the collection. Once I got married, I encountered one of the largest nutcracker collections probably in existence! - belonging to my father-in-law. A few years passed and there were some characters that my daughter liked that for some reason I decided to see if I could make into nutcracker form. I did it and when everyone saw them they liked them and suggested I make more. So I have kept at for a few years now. It is just so fun creating new nutcrackers and seeing who I can make and trying to get their likeness. The list of people I still want to make is bottomless!
By the way - the origin of my name. I wanted something original and decided to type my daughters' middle names, Grace and Rose, into an Italian translator.