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She tried retirement — a lot — and didn’t take to it.
“I retired five times in 33 years of work,” she said with a laugh.
Finally, husband Bill said, “You need a hobby. Why don’t you collect cookie cutters.”
Famous last words.
In the 15 years since Marty took his advice, she has accumulated more than 18,000 cookie cutters. She knows because she and Bill are packing up to move to California to be near their son and Marty already has filled 40 boxes with her cookie cutters.
Yes, that’s a lot of cutters, but there was an upside for Bill.
“I used to bake cookies once a week,” Marty said, though in recent months not so many cookies have come off the oven racks, as the Pembertons have been busy packing.
At the Pemberton house, sugar cookies rule, though many members of the National Cookie Cutter Collectors Club prefer gingerbread. Pemberton will be able to swap recipes and cookie cutters as the collectors gather for the national convention June 11-14 in La Crosse, Wis. Because Marty is the president, she chose the location and the theme, which is “It’s a Big Wide World.”
Like most collectors, Marty is always looking for a cutter she doesn’t already own. So she has asked some of the tinsmiths coming to the show to create cutters shaped like continents and countries. Yes, you, too, could be chomping on Portugal or even Europe.
And though she likes those cutters, her favorites are actually the couple hundred that started her collection. Those cutters hold
fond memories that stretch back 45 years when Marty used to cut out cookies with son Gary. They had cookie cutters for all the holidays, and those are Marty’s most precious cutters. “I’ll never sell those.”
But maybe the yellow plastic cutter shaped like a yellow submarine will someday be sold. She also has some nice Pfaltzcraft cutters that were made by Pennsylvania tinsmiths whose heritage stretches back to Germany, a country known for its tinsmiths.
Cutters come big and small, in plastic or copper or tin or even wood. They are plain and they are fancy. And some of them are painted, including the large rosemaled cookie cutter of a rooster that is one of Marty’s favorites. She bought it on eBay five or six years ago.
“Nobody bid on it but me.”
She’s also got a graniteware biscuit cutter that is one of her most valuable and another biscuit/cookie cutter with a wooden handle that’s got the face of spirit carved into it. One of her biggest cutters is a multi-cutter with the cutters attached to a rolling pin so the baker can cut out lots of cookies at once.
If all this whets your appetite for cookie cutters, you too can start collecting by attending the first day of the convention June 11. That’s when the public can attend for free and buy from the tinsmiths, who will have a wide variety of cookie cutters available for sale.
While Marty will try to sell more than she buys, a new cutter is hard to resist. She holds up a Liberty Bell cutter that commemorates the bicentennial and a rabbit-shaped Pfaltzcraft.
“To me, it’s art,” she said, and her collection grows every time she visits eBay or happens on an antique store when she and Bill travel.
Sometimes, she gets a double, even though she keeps a list of every cutter she owns.
“I have a list but I don’t carry it with me.”
Geri Parlin is a reporter at the La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune. She can be reached at gparlin@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8225.
IF YOU GO
What: The National Cookie Cutter Collectors Club convention.
Where: Minnesota Room of the Radisson Hotel in La Crosse
When: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. June 11-14
About the convention: Activities on June 11 are open to the public and will feature craftsmen selling unusual cookie cutters. These tinsmiths sell hand-formed copper and tin cookie cutters. The theme of this year’s convention is “It’s A Big Wide World.” There will be doll-shaped cutters from 14 countries and cutters in the form of the seven continents and other shapes such as birds, famous buildings and Egyptian themes.
About The Cookie Cutters Collectors Club: Started 20-some years ago by Phyllis Wetherill, who wrote a book and some pamphlets on cookie cutters. She gathered a small group of women interested in cookie cutters, and they got together to talk about their hobby, eventually forming a club of more than 600 members.
