78th American Crafts & Historic Homes Tour
Ben Pittman Knives
Metal
All knives are 100% handmade from start to finish with great care taken to create the best possible piece. While the cutlery may be considered a work of art, they are designed to work in both the kitchen and the field. Being of heirloom quality, these knives are intended to make memories and be handed down through generations.
Oxylus Designs
Wood
As a third generation furniture craftsman, woodworking has always been a large part of Stanik’s life. He learned this art from his dad and grandfather and has always wanted to put his own vision into the trade. Stanik has been creating pieces of furniture for 15 years and has gained a large amount of knowledge about woodworking. Many different styles of furniture caught his attention. He enjoys working with metal and wood and wanted to incorporate metal into the furniture designs. This style closely represents an “Urban and Loft” design and appeals to a younger generation and incorporates metal accents in each piece. Stanik never wanted to tie himself to one area of woodworking and respect all aspects of the art. He enjoys classic pieces of furniture made from solid wood as well as fresh ideas including epoxy and live edge pieces. Live edge slabs give the opportunity the show off the true lines of a piece and leave everything completely natural. The use of epoxy pours in a piece provides the opportunity to use lumber that might not normally be selected for a quality piece of furniture and gives movement to the design.
Witmer Cinnamon Treasures
Cinnamon Treasure’s products are produced completely by hand using 100% pure and locally sourced beeswax. They scent the beeswax using a custom blend created only for them. It is started with a solid block of beeswax, melted down to add the scent, then hand poured and finished. All items sold are made from scratch, using antique, vintage, and hard to find chocolate molds to pour into and create the pieces.
Cinnamon Treasure’s uses early flat molds, chocolate, Springerle, and cookie molds to make unique ornaments. They have a wide range of items with a large focus on Christmas and Santa, to rabbits, turkeys, chickens, pigs, horses, bees, hearts, cats, dogs, etc. – hard to name them all!
This unique art of molding and carving beeswax began in Germany centuries ago with the Lebkuchen bakers. The bakers used their Springerle and gingerbread boards to mold the first beeswax ornaments. This became a holiday tradition. These boards were carved from fruitwood into elaborate scenes of animals, birds, guild workers, country life and St. Nicholas. By the mid 1500’s, Christmas markets were thriving in German towns. There are records of bakers attending these fairs making gingerroot flavored breads, as well as merchants who made wax souvenirs which people took home and hung on their Christmas tree. It is a tradition carried on today. Cinnamon Treasure’s has expanded this tradition to include casting and pouring figures from exceedingly rare and early authentic chocolate molds from makers in France and Germany as well as the US.
Pottery
Haigh’s main body of work applies realistic sculpting to the traditional wheel turned face jug. The idea of creating realistic human faces was intimidating, and so he took it on as a challenge.
He draws on a wide range of subject matter as inspiration, including normal human emotion, as well as mythology, and the science fiction and horror genres.
Although most of the business is conducted online, he thoroughly enjoys the wide-ranging conversation about influences, pottery history, and technical detail that a display of his work inevitably provokes.
As a clay artist for four decades, my construct and intent for the creations of my hands and mind are simple. I am trying to bring into the world objects which impart a feeling and mentality of beauty.
The inclusion of the visual, how it enters the eye and so mind, is meant to suggest, without demand, a sense of balance, ease, and harmony and thereby yield strength and content(ment) to the mind.
Though the work may be deemed a functional in nature , it can morph into a presence which alters environment by simply being . It then does not have to be a used to function , and so becomes effective and affecting . This would be to yield change, and so congruent with life.
The leap which clay offers, is the adroitness of inclusion by function and use, multiplying capacity. If I am good enough as a thinker, an artist, and a craftsman, I can build a bridge upon which beauty can travel and so by begin a synergy.
I am a historic redware potter since 1986. I employ historic folk art on slab technique redware pottery. I use mason stain and slip and underglazes.
As a period formal furniture maker, Kauffman’s intention is to build furniture inspired by the designs of authentic period pieces and to impart to those pieces a beauty that can be admired and enjoyed, and a functionality that can be appreciated for generations. Kauffman’s hope is that his furniture, having been built with time-tested, period joinery and embellished with period carving, inlay, veneer, and other decorations, will emulate the quality, lasting appeal, and value of furniture from the 1700s and early 1800s. Lastly, that his furniture craftsmanship, conscientiousness, humanity, and dignity will be easily recognizable to those who own it.
Jackson Foster is a maker and painter of trade & tavern signs in the tradition of 18th and 19th-century artisans. His research of historic people and places is the rationale for the majority of his signs. His background in history, design, lettering, and woodworking provides the basis for creating authentic interpretations of early American signboards. He uses reclaimed wood–some boards date to the 1700s–and period-style hardware including
blacksmith-forged hanging irons, nails, and hinges—all making for unique signs in which no two are alike. He continues to refine his craft through research of early American artisans, typographic styles, painting practices, and joinery techniques. Each sign purchase comes with a framed, historic description providing research and background information.