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Trash cans wait to be picked up the week after Christmas, strips of shiny paper and colorful bows sticking out of the tops. People breathe a sigh of relief that this busy season is over for another year.

But at Janice Cooper's house, Christmas is all year. She is already getting ready for next Christmas. Her workroom in the basement is stuffed with plastic containers of clay ornaments waiting to be painted and decorated.

Cooper started making the ornaments about 27 years ago when she lived in South Carolina. She gave them as gifts to her friends and family.

After she gave one of her handmade ornaments to the principal of the school where she taught, he encouraged her to make some to sell. She enjoyed giving them as gifts but had never thought about selling them.

"My parents recognized that I had an interest in art and always encouraged me with my projects growing up," Cooper said. "We often visited museums where I could view the artists' work."

She had enjoyed the creative process since graduating from Western Carolina University at Cullowhee with a degree in teaching art education and a bachelor of fine arts in crafts. She decided to take her principal's advice.

"When I was still teaching, I worked on the decorations at night and in the summer," she said. "The creative process was therapy to me."

Cooper's ornaments are made of clay called earthenware, which comes from Asheville. She makes templates for the individual designs. "Some customers think I use cookie cutters, but that is not the case."

After deciding on the design and making the template, she rolls out the clay with a rolling pin or uses a slab roller. She then puts the template on the clay and, using a clay knife, cuts out the delicate designs. She smooths out the clay and keeps it moisturized as she works. A sponge is also used to remove unwanted clay pieces from the ornament.

The pieces are slow dried, which usually takes several days depending on the weather. The decorations are fired, painted or glazed, and then fired again.

The kiln is at Cooper's parents' house. They help with the process.

When she married Carter Cooper, a businessman, he had lots of good ideas for her. He became a helper in almost every area of the business. He designed a shrink-wrapped paper for each ornament with her name and phone number on it and showed her ways to display the items. His knowledge in running the Reed Runner, a Greensboro business, was very helpful.

Friends and family members helped Janice Cooper as needed. Every year, she tried to come up with one or two new designs. College friends, seeing her decorations, suggested she do stockings with college names on them, so those became part of the collection.

One of the first ornaments she designed was a white dog bone with a holly leaf at the top and the dog's name written in the middle. She got the idea after friends told her they needed a decoration for their dog, Ginger. This is still the best-selling item.

The second-best-selling item is a stocking saying "First Christmas" with the child's name and year written on it.

Cooper prefers the glazed, individually cut ornaments that dry white. "The children really like the ornaments with colors in them so I started doing those also.

I can't say which ornament is my favorite, but I think I enjoy doing the religious ones the most."

Last year she designed an angel ornament. A doctor saw it, told friends about it, and Coastal Hospice in Wilmington asked her to make that ornament for them to use as a fundraiser.

She gets ready for the craft fairs all year. Last year she exhibited in 11 fairs. She has been showing her items for many years at the craft event at Wesley Memorial Church in High Point. Many repeat customers know to find her there. The first craft fair every year is the July 4th fair in Southport.

This Christmas was especially hard for Cooper. Her husband, Carter Cooper, died about two months ago from hemochromatosis (too much iron in the body). He had been sick for a number of years. Carter Cooper was not just a life partner but also her business partner.

This year, his niece, having seen the angel ornament, asked Cooper to make one for her with Carter's name on it. She then designed an angel for each family member with the year on it.

Cooper said the decoration business will be hard without Carter. He did so much of the work with her and was always coming up with ideas to promote the business.

Cooper retired from teaching art in the Thomasville Public Schools and still teaches a few individual students. She also enjoys calligraphy and is thinking she might try that for Christmas 2009.

"Calligraphy is something I can do with limited help. The ornaments require two workers at each fair: one to take the order and the other to personalize them."

"I will always do ornaments because I enjoy them so much. I have a friend who has offered to help me by taking the orders. It is something I have to decide," she said.

Her Christmas tree is decorated with many ornaments. Right on the front branch is the beautiful, delicate angel in honor of Carter.

Contact Kathy Johnson at mjohnson2@triad.rr.com