“What else should I do when my husband is out hunting?” Asks Hilke Reese – and the answer follows quickly. She reaches for wool and felts, knits, paints or does handicrafts. The 71-year-old is creative in her blood. “Somehow always” she had to use handicraft tools and create beautiful things from simple materials.
In her apprenticeship as a gardener, the woman from Itzstedt was able to live out her creativity. “I tied a lot of wreaths at work. I had a lot of fun,” says the senior citizen. Her working life also led her to Möbel Kraft in Bad Segeberg – of course to the decoration department, as she says.
I got to know a special kind of felt in Norway
When her husband Peter Reese retired and he devoted himself more and more to hunting, Hilke Reese really got going with the handicrafts. The grandchildren also always asked them to do handicrafts with them. Hilke Reese completed a felting course eleven years ago and discovered her passion for it. She really caught fire on a vacation in Norway, where she discovered the art of dry felting.
A special needle with barbed hooks is used for Norwegian felting. You take some felting wool and poke it with the needle all the time. The hooks on the needle felt the wool, and with a little skill, Hilke Reese can create animals such as dogs, foxes, wild boars and horses, but also trolls, nits and gnomes, which are popular in Scandinavia. Hilke Reese has to be careful that she doesn’t prick herself with a needle, “you just have to be careful”. She also did embroidery, but you have to concentrate a lot more and watch TV, for example, more difficult.
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Hilke Reese, whose whole family is very close to nature, is particularly fond of animals in their native nature. The woman from Itzstedt also accepts commissioned work, so that one or the other dog could find its likeness in pocket size and felt.
Husband Peter built a wooden house instead of a new high seat
Last year, when it was slowly becoming clear that there would probably be no craft markets in 2020, Hilke Reese came up with the idea of the Bullerbü-Haus. She imagined a small wooden booth that was to be set up next to the garden fence so that those interested in contact could see and buy the handicrafts there. Said and done. “That’s a stupid idea,” was her husband’s first comment. But Hilke Reese stayed with it. A red-red house was supposed to be found here. “I saw that on the Darß in Mecklenburg,” says the creative woman.
Instead of a new high seat, husband Peter built his wife’s dream home. It has a side door that Hilke Reese barely fits in to fill the shelves and empty the trust fund, and a large window facing the street and sidewalk. Hilke Reese opens this window every morning, and closes it again in the evening. In the meantime, many pedestrians come by, take a look into the Bullerbü building and grab the cute felt animals or knitted socks. They throw the few euros that things cost into a trust fund. “I just want to have the money out for the material,” emphasizes Hilke Reese.
Great joy for happy children
After an initial skepticism about how their offer would be accepted, a success story has developed. “It’s going great,” says Hilke Reese, delighted. In the meantime, many children in particular stop by and see what new animals are sitting in the house and waiting for new owners. “It’s the best thing when children are happy,” says the senior citizen. Husband Peter is now “in business” too: he contributed nesting boxes that went tearing away. Nevertheless, both do not want to put themselves under pressure, “it should continue to be fun”.
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Although Hilke Reese lacks the craft markets, she also sees positive things. At a market you have to bring a table and everything else with you and sit next to it all day. That is easier with the Bullerbü house.
