He enjoys folk-art forms such as rose malling and Pennsylvania Dutch designs. "Anything that has a homespun, early American feel — I've always loved that."

So, even though Shore loves to paint and has done portraits, "my real love is folk art." When he decided to take up art as a vocation, that was what he focused on. At first, he and his wife, Jan, had their own casting house, where they made duplicates of his sculptures. About five years ago, he decided to move away from that and license his designs. "That way I can just focus on the creative end."

He feels very lucky that his vision of folk art caught on. "There are hundreds and thousands of talented, dedicated and deserving artists out there, and the vast majority go nowhere." Like any other venue that is based on want more than on need, he said, "only a few rise to the top. It has to do with talent and skill, but also with a big dose of serendipity."

Some things just happen, he said. "Sometimes the stars align."

He also credits his engineering background for some of his success. "It's that left brain/right brain thing — the ability to be intuitive and analytical at the same time. A lot of good crafts are artistic, but they also have balance, rhythm, proportion, structure. They are like music, where a wrong note stands out."

In fact, he quite likes the music analogy. He likes to think he puts his design together "like the notes in a chord." There are always at least two melodies going on — the image itself and the interest, character and whimsy it portrays, and the composing pattern and motif he uses to decorate it. Together they achieve a harmony of aesthetics that he hopes will hold the interest.

It's a formula that seems to be working — and it offers unlimited potential. "I don't think I'll ever run out of ideas." Shore has several new lines in the works. He's planning some literary-based figures — like Moby Dick, Tom Sawyer, the Wizard of Oz. He'd like to do a historic group, with the likes of Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, Thomas Jefferson and others. "I think it will be fun to see them done in my style."

He's also planning a series of dogs. His cat figures have been very popular, "but cat-lovers are easy to please. Dog-lovers always seem to want their particular breed. So, I guess I'll make about 10 groups of dog-lovers happy."