We went to the Appalachian Festival

Yesterday we went to the Appalachian Festival. First we volunteered for several hours, than we toured the show. We all had a great time. More pictues can be seen here.


The first pavilion we stopped at was sponsored by a local crafters guilds. Sa and So loved seeing the spinning of wool. They were shown not only how to spin, but how to make the wool into strands and how to make 3 ply yarn to knit with. So kept going back to talk to this lovely lady again and again. It was very sweet.




Also in that pavilion was a paper quiller. Her work was beautiful, so was she.

Next to her was this beautiful woman who was playing the hammer dulcimer. It turned out that she knew Sa's harp teacher. She spent a lot of time showing Sa how the dulcimer compared to the harp and playing tunes that Sa was familiar with. Sa is not 'in love' with Celtic music, she is 'in love' with harp music.

The next pavilion we went to was the wood workers guild that used electricity to craft their wears. This guy spent about 20 minutes with Sa explaining the different wood grains and how they affect the finished product. She asked probably 200 questions about how he was shaping the bowl on the lathe. He took her on a tour of the finished projects and told her about how things like beetles and compression marks from the bottom of trees make beautiful markings in finished pieces.


After the electronic woodcarvers guild came the traditional crafted wood carvers’ guild. This guy (standing next to his Welsh flag) had the best time talking to Sa. He was showing how he chiseled a piece of wood in to an octagonal piece. He said do you know what octagonal means? Sa says "yes, its 8 sided like octagon, octopus and October it has Latin roots..."the guy says "are you home schooled?"

The fourth pavilion was an exhibit of coal miners. So and Sa dressed in real coal miners gear and crawled through a tunnel. They made many comments about how heavy the gear was. We had an opportunity to buy a small chunk of coal but I did not have any pockets in my skirt and I was toting a wheelie backpack with my purse buried at the bottom of it. So I smiled and said "sorry, it’s too difficult." Actually it was a good set up because So and Sa were not able to buy a bunch of cheap junk important kid souvenirs, simply because the money was too hard to get too.



We walked around for a bit and there was a guy who had a set up to teach rope making. He let So and Sa each make a length of rope.










They put the rope to very good use.

Appalachian Festival

Today as we were in the middle of studying Greek History. So said “Hey weren’t we going to go to the Appalachian Festival this weekend?” Um, yea, we were. I called the festival office and asked if it was too late to volunteer. No, it’s never too late. Than Sa asked what exactly is Appalachian? So I got out the map and showed the area and started talking about what we had learned from previous festivals. Sadly it’s been several years since we’ve gone. I was teaching them about tanning a hide and coal mining. Than we got into the music so I turned on Bluegrass music and showed them how to play the spoons and Sa was really interested in the hammer dulcimers, because they are so much like a harp. It was fun. I was not able to get them back to Greek stuff so I guess school is over for today. They are currently dancing to Bluegrass in the living room.