Roughwood Aviaries is the culmination of Clifton's lifelong love affair with feathers and therefore birds. To him, a feather is one of the most magical and mysterious objects on earth. The aviaries have evolved into an organization that works to establish color mutations in the pheasant family to which the peafowl belong. It takes many years and generations of inbreeding and out crossing to establish a new color mutation.

The Purple Peafowl was established solely through the efforts of Roughwood Aviaries. Buford Bronze, Peach, Opal and Charcoal have all been and continue to be major breeding projects. The Malay and Bornean Great Argus Pheasants are important programs here with 10-15 breeding birds. Unlike the Malay, very few Bornean Great Argus exist in captivity outside Asia. We are working to establish the yellow and dark phase of Lady Amherst Pheasants. We have kept as many as four hundred birds in the past. Two hundred has become a more workable number to keep for breeding purposes. This number includes peafowl, pheasants and Onagadori chickens Qapan's long-tailed fowl).

Our facility is not a zoo. We do welcome serious peafowl and pheasant breeders. Small children and dogs are not welcome in the aviaries. Many of the birds are one­ of-a-kind and not replaceable if startled into sudden flight resulting in a broken neck and death. As for the future, we continue to look for new color mutations wherever they might occur. Clifton looks forward to raising Congo Peacock and Crested Argus at Roughwood.

Not much later, Clifton opened his own show room on Fifth Avenue in New York. His work began to take new directions away from the ethnic braided leather look with which he started. One such direction is typified by the sterling silver frog leaping from a lily pad of jade shown on the cover. This lively frog proved to be the first in a long line of magical, fantastical creatures, which all Clifton collectors now covet.

Clifton has been a plant enthusiast for most of his life. His green thumb has produced many rare and beautiful plants including orchids and epiphyllums. When he first moved to New York and had not one piece of furniture, his mother sent him money to buy something for his apartment. What was the first necessary acquisition? A tree, of course! How could he live without something green and growing? This proximity to and affinity with the plant world has helped him to produce some of the most realistic pieces of sterling silver flowers and leaves to be found anywhere. A faithfulness to nature is the salient quality of these designs. For inspiration, Clifton has only to go to nature's storehouse of infinite, intricate design. Each piece drawn from this repository seems more lovely and enticing than the last. His use of 14K gold to higWight certain parts of the plants is unique. A large dogwood blossom with a gold leaf, a bittersweet vine with the berries in gold, a pink gold clover blossom with silver leaves, a banana blossom in four colors of gold are bur a few examples from his spectacular plant world.

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Clifton L Nicholson, Jr.

P.O. Box 202

Scottsburg, IN 47170

Phone 812-752-5227

Fax: 812-752-9406

Email

©2003 Clifton L. Nicholson, Jr.

Roughwood was designed as the home of Elva and Clifton Nicholson, in 1968 by Clifton, Jr. The house is a wood frame structure of approximately 4,500 square feet built in the pasture adjacent to the family's original home. Constructed by Clifton, Sr. from collected and recycled building materials, it received a Burlington House of the Year Award in 1973. The exterior of Roughwood is two inch thick West Coast Cedar cur from a discarded stack of burned pressure treated utility poles. Numerous native woods - cherry, mulberry, persimmon, walnut, cottonwood, oak, maple, poplar, cedar, yellow pine, sassafras - were used inside. Large areas of glass and natural river limestone left in a natural rough state are used throughout in floors, fireplaces and columns. Thus the name "Roughwood".

Clifton bought Roughwood from his parents in 1990 and opened his gallery to the public that fall. After living in New York for 28 years, he sold his home there and moved to Roughwood. Clifton has been reworking areas of the house as well as the grounds. A new larger gallery has been created from an area that was originally the master bedroom. Glass sliding doors are being replaced by cypress French doors, bedrooms combined and baths eliminated. The "feel" of Roughwood has not been changed, just enhanced. Clifton brought many plants from his garden at his country home in Ulster County, New York. The gardens contain hundreds of daylilies, hostas and daffodils, dozens of varieties of magnolias and more than seventy specimen of wisteria, Clifton's favorite. Many areas of the garden are highlighted by unusual weeping trees.

Even at an early age, the rare talent of Clifton Nicholson impressed those closest to him. When he was only five years old, his grandmother watched with fascination as the little boy drew a perfect Mr. Peanuts figure while looking at a Planters Peanuts advertisement. His family gave him total support and encouragement. An understanding mother purchased bar after bar of Ivory soap for him to carve. He made his first piece of jewelry using some old beads and junk jewelry that his sister had discarded.

During his boyhood in rural southern Indiana, his deep communion with nature began. Lazy summer days were filled with treasure hunts for a wide range of booty: crawdads in the creek, snake skins shed in the spring, a nest of tiny blue robin's eggs, bright, iridescent beetles. He once caught a skunk and soon fashioned himself a fur hat. Plainly, plants and animals were his love even then. Clifton's fascination with the endless variety of shapes, colors and textures in nature has only intensified with the passage of time as each of his works of art testifies.

While studying interior design at Purdue, Clifton developed an active interest in antiques. He owns many beautiful Chinese rugs, distinctive sculptures and carvings, old Spanish chairs and massive old chests and armoires. His most prized antiques are two Tiffany lamps. In his pursuit of antiques, the creative works of several master artists have been especially inspiring to him. He greatly admires Antoni Gaudi, Emile Galle, Rene Lalique, Louis Tiffany and Frank Lloyd Wright.

While Clifton was still pursuing his undergraduate studies, he took a metals design class. Since then, jewelry design has been his consuming passion. In 1967, he completed a Master of Arts degree in jewelry and metal design with a minor in weaving from Purdue University. His jewelry designs were notable even in college. Entering many museum shows and competitions, he often competed against his own instructors and won! His early work appeared in the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York City and in Craft Horizons Magazine.

Many people are curious about how the metal in Clifton's pieces is formed into those fascinating shapes so accurate dow'n to minute details. The method that he uses is called the lost wax technique. First he carves and molds a piece of special wax into the shape he desires. He uses small probes and knives similar to dental tools to create the exquisite detail characteristic of his work. A small Bunsen burner is used to soften the wax and heat his tools in order to mold the wax more readily. He is constantly carving no matter the place or time. Often his bed is full of pieces of carving wax. He carves while basking in the sun. When he finally has the detail for which he has been striving (oftentimes to the casual observer, he works for hours on a piece which seems already perfect), it is cast. A mold is poured over the wax model, it hardens, and the wax is melted out leaving a reverse mold. Next, the precious metal is thrown by centrifugal force into the empty space left by the melted wax. This original casting must be stripped of superfluous metal and polished to a high gloss. Finally a permanent rubber mold is made from the original. When a series is finished, the mold is destroyed.

After spending a few months in St. Augustine, Florida, where he was the silversmith for the city's restoration commission, Clifton moved to New York City to work as an assistant designer for Richelieu, a major costume jewelry firm. During this period, he worked on his own designs at night and on weekends. He sold some of these designs to such stores as Neiman-Marcus and Bendels. Not long after he had a beautiful shell-and-feather creation on the March 15, 1970, cover of Vogue and was promptly fired from his position. Now he was free to pursue his own projects full time, and did so with zest. Being fired turned out to be his best break yet because that fall he won the coveted Coty Award - the fashion world's highest accolade for excellence of design. Interest in and demand for his designs multiplied. Vogue and Harper's Bazaar - even Look Magazine - featured his work.