LIFE'S BETTER IN THE MOUNTAINS

Monday, August 18, 2014

Craft Fair


The hills are alive with craft artisans.  And we attend a lot of the craft fairs here and in neighboring counties.  Not necessarily to buy, but always to look and to admire.  One crafter's guild held a fair last weekend.  And the variety of crafts was amazing, far too many to include in one post.

I love the wooden toys.  My favorites are the Noah's Arks with the animals two by two.  In earlier days children were not allowed to play with toys on the Sabbath.  So biblical characters were carved by creative parents and grandparents, the most popular being Noah's Ark.  Since these carvings represented stories from the Holy Bible, they were not considered true toys.

[NOTE:  You should click to enlarge the following photographs.]

There were arks of various sizes.
There was a huge one but I couldn't grab a picture without so many admiring people around it.



 One craftsman makes animals and flowers from ordinary metal objects that might otherwise have been discarded.  It is interesting to try to identify the various tools and metals comprising each piece.




 Who knew rebar could be twisted and welded into a piece of art?  (Did you know that "rebar" is short for "reinforcing bar"?




 Dave's stained glass is always popular.  He makes a variety of smaller sun catchers and ornaments.




 And some very large and lovely glass pieces as well.


It's always a fun time to see all the wonderful and clever crafts.  And we do often buy pieces for ourselves or for gifts from the mountains.  We have purchased several yard birds that are scattered throughout out yard.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

We love craft fairs too. Always so lovely to see what the local artists are creating. Beautiful work there.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Carolyn, There are so many creative people around, aren't there? I love crafts made out of wood...I saw one on Saturday which was a wood carving of an eagle --with the inscription "Freedom isn't Free" on the bottom. It was NOT for sale!!!! ha

We have crafts fairs here several times during the year --and there are some very creative people...

Hugs,
Betsy

Ms. A said...

I'd have a hard time not going broke at those.

wildcatwoods said...

Love to go to these craft fairs but I am spoiled since I work at a craft gallery - many of our artists do the show circuit too.

Carolina Mts

Vicki Lane said...

Great stuff! I have lusted (is that wrong?) after a Noah's Ark for years -- the ones I really like are way out of my price range.

Cheryl said...

I do so love crate fairs......so many individual pieces showing the latent of the artist.

I bought youngest Grandson a Noah's Arc for his first Christmas. Now tow years old he has had lots of fun with it.

Yes I did know all the facts about rebar.....husband is an engineer, I am amazed at what I know about metal these days :)

I love the pieces of art made from scrap and would welcome those in the garden.........

Carolina Linthead said...

Rebar art? Love it! I, too, like the metal yard objects, both as art and as puzzles of a sort...now what is this from? Berea, Kentucky, has lots of artisans...we haven't been there since we moved further north in OH, but it is great. Man, I miss stopping by the guilds and fairs in your neck of the woods.

NCmountainwoman said...

Thanks for your comments, everyone.

Cheri - Many of our artists at the fairs also own studios. We are blessed to have such talent in our area.

Vicki - I know just what you mean. I've always adored the Noah's Ark carvings.

Cheryl - We do have a lot of metal work in our yard.