PLATTSBURGH — Olive Aardvark's St. Nikolaus Socks are a cool option to the standard mass-produced decorative Christmas stockings.

Olive Aardvark is Rachel Martine's starving-artist persona. She has always made socks for her family but has branched out to create the unique stockings for retail.

"I have three patterns," said Martine, who lives in Plattsburgh. "One is a curly-elf shape, and two are pretty standard stocking shapes. One is a little longer. I have a really long and skinny one."

She stitches together fabric from the cache she keeps supplied at yard sales, the Salvation Army and fabric stores.

OLD WOOL PANTS
"I have a gadzillion buttons from my great-grandmother, who owned a general store in Pennsylvania. You can only carry things with you so long. So some of them have a bunch of buttons on them.

Martine is trying to downsize.

"When we moved here two and half years ago, I sold so much stuff. I was panicking that we weren't going to fit it into the moving truck. Now, I kid myself, 'If I only had ...'"

She has an obsession with fabric stores, and she's glad there are few in Plattsburgh.

"Things that catch my eye, I'll buy a yard or two. I wound up with bins and bins of fabric. I'm trying to cull down the huge amount of fabric I have hanging around."

From old wool pants, she made a green-and-orange hounds sock and topped it with a curly, black cuff. She cut another from an old flannel work shirt. She made her brother a camouflage sock that she lined with orange fabric and accented with shotgun-shell tassels.

"Most of it's clothing I have worn. My little Hawaiian dress turned into one. It's not an assembly line. They're pretty much different. No two are alike."

SOCKS ON HER MIND
Her artistic pursuits include wedding invitations, murals, logos, signs, kids clothes and Halloween costumes.

"If I have an opportunity to be creative in my life, I grab it, even if I overextend myself."

A south New Jersey native, Martine studied art history and psychology in college. She worked in art galleries throughout high school and college. Her husband, Chris, teaches at Plattsburgh State. The pair wrote two New Jersey field guides.

"We're trying to be able to do it for New York."

For the moment, socks are on her mind.

"I made some last year from primed canvas, so kids could paint them," Martine said. "This year, I'm trying to use what I have.

"I'm trying not to purchase anything else."

E-mail Robin Caudell at: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com