I love to collect items that depict my beautiful hometown of Burlington, Iowa. Posters, prints, coasters, pillows, jewelry, books, canisters, Christmas ornaments, you name it, I love it!
My latest find is a beautiful set of dominoes made by Pamela Scholer Nelson. Pam is a few years older than me, but I know her and her younger brothers Randy and Lenny because all of us kids went to St. Paul School and then Notre Dame High. Pam contacted me not long ago to ask me about the photos in my book Beloved Burlington: Featuring businesses you knew and loved!
Come to find out, she makes beautiful sets of dominoes using images of Burlington. I was delighted to send her a photo of Sutter Drug from the 1970s, and not only did she make a domino of it, she sent me an entire set. Thank you, Pam!
I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t think I’ve ever played dominoes, but now I’m going to learn, or I’m at least going to display these lovely dominoes in my home in Rochester, N.Y. My set of dominoes includes images of so many places with special meaning in my life: St. Paul Catholic Church, Burlington Public Library, Gnahn’s Book and Stationery Store, Mercy Hospital, the curly slide at Crapo Park, Memorial Auditorium and on and on. She even has a domino of the fountain in Crapo Park and the water changes colors (just like the real fountain) when you freeze the domino for a few minutes, then hold it in your hand and warm it up.
I asked Pam a few questions and here is what I learned:
Please tell me about your background:
I was born ( maiden name Scholer ) and grew up in Burlington along with three brothers, graduated from University of Iowa and married Mike Nelson (also a Burlington native).
How did you come up with the idea of making the dominoes:
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated with creativity. I love being imaginative and just can’t stop creating. While most of my art work has been centered around painting, I recently have a new creativity outlet — mixed media and working with resin.
The idea of the historic Burlington dominoes came from the idea of the Snake Alley tumbler and Swiss Cottage tumbler that I painted last year for my siblings and cousins.
Several years ago I painted each of my brothers a canvas of The Swiss Cottage that was built on the bluff in Crapo Park by our great-grandfather Jacob Scholer when he immigrated here from Switzerland in the mid 1800s. It was torn down sometime in the mid 1960s. The domino of the Swiss cottage is a photo of that painting.
The domino of Snake Alley is from a photo, but my tumblers of Snake Alley are actually painted. I also handpaint the hydrochromatic (color-changing ) fountain domino. The images for the dominoes come from a variety of sources, including my personal collection of images, the Internet, securing permission to use the images when necessary. I’m working on a future Iowa-themed set of dominoes.
What’s the process for making the dominoes?
Collect 28 images unique to the Burlington theme. Resize those images to fit the domino. Pour first layer of clear resin and set image. Let cure. Pour final layer of black resin forming the back of the domino. Let cure. Paint dots on domino and smooth any rough edges.
With pouring, curing time, painting and clean up, each set takes approximately 24 to 48 hours (curing time of course taking the most time).
3. I notice you place the dominoes in a beautiful black box that says Bougie Bees on the top. Where can people buy them? You can purchase them at Burlington By The Book. Dominoes traditionally are stored in a small wooden box but I wanted something not so heavy and with an attached magnetic closure lid.
4. Do you make any other products? Yes, some other recent fun things I’ve done include:
- Two children’s books and creating the corresponding ornaments that go with the books.
- An assortment of stainless steel tumblers with images including Snake Alley and the Swiss cottage and RAGBRAI.
- An assortment of resin jewelry.
If you love unique Burlington, Iowa, stuff as much as I do, you need to get a set of these dominoes! Let’s support artists and entrepreneurs like Pam. To contact Burlington By The Book, call 319-753-9981. The store also has many other Burlington-related items.
Beloved Burlington Blog 