"After 34 Years, I'm Shutting Down My Forge" — Jo Calloway (62) Is Selling Her Last Hand-Forged Halloween Lanterns at a Steep Discount. The Design Everyone Asks For Is Retiring With Her.
In a converted barn in Hollow Creek, Vermont, Josephine "Jo" Calloway has spent 34 years bending iron into things people fall in love with. Now, at 62, she's laying down her hammer for good — and closing out her most requested piece, the Hollow Moon Lantern, one last time. Why is everyone suddenly racing to get one? Because after this batch, they don't get made again.
Hollow Creek, Vermont. The workshop smells like coal smoke, linseed oil and hot metal. Sawhorses along one wall hold half-finished stars and bats, still sharp-edged from the shears. A row of crescent moons leans against the forge, waiting their turn under the hammer. Jo is bent over her workbench, riveting a tin cat silhouette onto a moon she's cut a thousand times before — except this batch is different. It's one of her last.
"People think I'm precious about this place," she says, not looking up from the rivet. "I'm not. It's just work I happen to be good at. But my hands don't cooperate the way they used to, and the world doesn't really pay for this kind of work anymore anyway. Between the two of them, the decision made itself."
34 Years, One Forge, and the Piece That Outsold Everything Else
Jo started as an apprentice welder at nineteen, working on farm equipment and fence gates for the county. "Nobody sets out to become a blacksmith who makes Halloween lanterns," she laughs. "You just keep saying yes to interesting problems until, thirty years later, that's your whole business."
The Hollow Moon Lantern came out of a favor for a neighbor eleven years ago — a garden stake shaped like a crescent moon with a cat curled on top, stars scattered around it, and a hand-blown glass jack-o'-lantern swinging underneath on a brass chain. "I built one for her front porch. Then her sister wanted one. Then it just never stopped." By Jo's count, she's forged just under 4,000 of them across eleven Octobers — every single one by hand, at that same bench.
Why the Hollow Moon Lantern Isn't Like the Ones at the Garden Center
Jo doesn't have much patience for imported "rustic" garden decor. "Most of what's out there is stamped sheet metal, spray-painted, with a dollar-store solar light zip-tied on. It looks fine in the catalog photo. It looks tired by the second season." Her lantern is built to be handled roughly by weather for a decade or more — because that's exactly what she designed it to survive.
"I've had people call me obsessive about the wall thickness on that stake," Jo says. "Maybe. But I'm not putting my name on something that's going to snap in a windstorm two years in."
"I Have Lanterns Still Standing Watch After Ten Octobers"
Jo keeps a battered notebook by the register where customers have written back over the years. She flips to an entry from 2016. "This family in Burlington bought the very first batch I ever made for sale, not just for a neighbor. Wrote to me last fall to say it's still out on their porch every October, still lighting up fine. That's the whole point. I'm not selling decoration. I'm selling something that's supposed to outlast the trend."
"People assume handmade means fragile. It's the opposite. I overbuild everything because I only want to make it once."
What the Hollow Moon Lantern Includes
- 100% hand-forged in Vermont: Every moon, cat and stake is individually hammered and cut — no molds, no mass production line.
- Mouth-blown glass jack-o'-lantern insert: Hand-painted, fitted with a flameless flicker LED (batteries included, weatherproof cap).
- Blackened and triple-sealed iron: Built to hold its finish through wind, rain and snow — not just one Halloween.
- Solid brass hanging chain: Won't rust, corrode or discolor season after season.
- 36" stake, sunk 14" into the ground: Stands steady through fall storms instead of tipping over.
- Final batch: Only 212 lanterns remain from Jo's last production run — once they're sold, the Hollow Moon Lantern is retired for good.
The End of an Era — and a Last Run Before the Forge Goes Cold
Jo plans to close Hollow Creek Forge for good later this year. "No apprentice, no successor. My son builds software in Boston — good for him, but he's never once asked to learn the trade. My granddaughter Sadie is the one who talked me into selling online in the first place." Jo laughs. "I still don't fully understand how the website works. That's entirely her doing."
To move the last of her stock before the season is over, Jo has cut the price on every remaining Hollow Moon Lantern. "I'm not trying to get rich on my way out the door. I'd rather these end up on porches with people who actually notice the difference than sit in a storage unit."
What Customers Say About the Hollow Moon Lantern
"I've bought a lot of 'handmade' garden decor that turned out to be neither. This one is different — you can feel the weight of it the second you pick it up. It's been through two Vermont winters on our porch rail and looks exactly the same."
"My neighbors kept asking where I got it, so I finally just gave them the link. Three of us on the same street now have one. The glass globe is genuinely gorgeous in person — photos don't do it justice."
"I bought this as a gift for my mother, who has every mass-produced Halloween decoration imaginable and is bored of all of them. She called me the day it arrived, genuinely delighted — not something that happens often with a garden ornament."
"Knowing this design won't be made again after this run made me finally pull the trigger. Zero regrets — it's the best-built piece of outdoor decor I own, Halloween or otherwise."
A Gift for Someone With Actual Taste
The Hollow Moon Lantern works as well as a gift as it does on your own porch — for the person on your list who already owns too much mass-produced decor and would genuinely notice the difference. "When you give someone this," Jo says, "you're not giving them a decoration. You're giving them something that took a full afternoon at an anvil to exist. That's a different kind of gift."
Where to Buy the Hollow Moon Lantern
The original Hollow Moon Lantern is available exclusively through CedarAndTin Co., where Jo's granddaughter Sadie runs the small online storefront on her behalf. That's the only place to get a lantern that actually came out of the Hollow Creek forge — look-alikes have started appearing on marketplace sites, but they're stamped, imported copies with no connection to Jo's workshop or her construction methods.
Only This Batch — Then the Forge Goes Cold
Jo doesn't plan to reopen. "Once these 212 are gone, that's it. I'll still be around the shop, just not making lanterns for strangers anymore." Given the reduced price and the usual pre-Halloween rush, she doesn't expect the remaining stock to last long.
It's the last chance to own a piece of real, hand-forged Vermont ironwork — and to give a craftsperson's final run of work a home instead of a storage unit.
Risk-Free: 100% Money-Back Guarantee
Hang the Hollow Moon Lantern on your porch or in your garden and see how it looks after dark. If you're not genuinely impressed by the build quality, send it back for a full refund — no conditions attached.
Claim Yours Before They're GoneBottom Line
The Hollow Moon Lantern isn't a seasonal throwaway. It's hand-forged iron, mouth-blown glass and 34 years of a craftsperson's judgment about what actually lasts outdoors.
Thank you, Jo — for 34 years of work that outlives the trend.
🌙🐈⬛✨Note: CedarAndTin Co. supports all major credit cards along with PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Shop Pay for secure checkout, including buyer protection on every method.