Tickets on sale August 1st | Kids 12 and under FREE! October 3-5 | 10am-5pm | Waterford, Virginia
81st American Crafts & Historic Homes Tour
This artisan has been making penny rugs and other wool applique pieces for 15 years, and began selling her work on Etsy about 10 years ago. For the past four years, she has been selected into the Early American Life Directory of Traditional Crafts. She enjoys showing and selling her work at juried traditional artisan shows.
Discover landscapes that come alive through glass!
Each of my stained-glass panels captures a moment in nature – from rolling waves to desert skies. Feel the wind, warmth, and raw emotion in every intricate piece.
Handcrafted with copper foil technique, these aren’t just art, they’re experiences waiting to be hung in your space.
Applicant is an impressionist using glass to capture a landscape’s color, line, motion, and season—inviting you to feel wind in your hair, warmth on your face, water flowing around you, rough hide on your fingertips.
Landscapes may be real or imagined places.
Patrons often exclaim, “I’ve been there! You captured my place!”
The first step is selecting rolled art glass sheets whose texture, pattern, and color invoke land, water, and sky.
Applicant then draws a landscape jigsaw puzzle and cuts each glass piece to fit exactly. He cuts simple lines using traditional hand-held glass scoring tools. Intricate, high-risk lines are cut with a wet ring-saw.
Each piece of cut glass is foiled on the edge using copper tape. The cut and foiled pieces are soldered into place and a copper patina applied to the solder before framing in solid copper.
The making process is an invitation for the artist to flow, fully absorbed in the immediacy of vision, tactile response, and emerging result. .
My joy and goal in my work is to preserve and spread the knowledge and enjoyment of
traditional springerle cookies to others. I do this through making the cookies, cookie mold casting, handpainting ornaments made from the cookie molds, teaching cookie making classes, and lecturing on the history of springerle cookies.
The tradition of pressing painstakingly-carved designs into food goes back many centuries in the human story, and in nothing is it expressed so beautifully and deliciously as in springerle cookies. Enfolding life’s joys, setbacks, triumphs, and whimsies into intensely-flavored cake-like pillows, these little morsels are truly edible art and I am still – after 27 years – enamored of them
Our work is a celebration of craftsmanship, sustainability, and timeless design. Using both new and vintage leather, we create timeless pieces of leather artistry that can be passed down to future generations.
The design process begins with an exploration of the materials at hand—vintage saddles, bridles, halters and reins. Each piece is carefully inspected to utilize the aspects with the most character. By repurposing these pieces of personal history, I believe that honors and commemorates the many memories created between horse and rider. Each saddle is a blank canvas, waiting to be reimagined. After design, it is then brought to life as a handbag to be used and loved for many years to come. We enjoy working to restore and repurpose tack into something fresh and beautiful, giving new life to items that might otherwise go to waste.
We also create unique items utilizing newly tanned leather. From wallets to belts, handbags to home decor, the utmost care is taken to produce the finest of accessories.
Our goal is not only to create accessories that are practical and durable but also to craft objects that carry an emotional connection and a sense of individuality. Each leather bag or accessory is a one-of-a-kind piece, meant to be cherished and appreciated for its artistry and sustainability. As we continue to experiment with textures, shapes, and techniques, our commitment remains to producing leather goods that transcend trends and endure through time.
www.SycamoreSpringClothier.com
We are a proud women-owned small business, comprised of four friends who all share a deep love of the art of sewing, and the meaning to be found in studying the garments of the past. Our mission is to provide well-researched, appropriately designed, and beautifully made 18th and early 19th century clothing to individuals, historic sites, educational institutes, and businesses.
Our expertise is in re-creating colonial North American men’s and women’s civilian clothing of the years between 1750 and 1825. Our clothing is patterned, cut, sewn, and finished in our homes using materials related as closely as possible to those found in 18th and 19th century extant period clothing. Our team focuses on finding unique fabric – vintage, when possible – made of natural fibers and in colors and prints that are representative of the time periods we are portraying. Many of our items are hand-finished, as preserving and proliferating historical, hand-sewing techniques for future generations is a keystone of our company. Our unique fabric stock, documented period construction techniques, and hand-finished details make all our pieces one of a kind.
I have been a potter for over 30 years, my focus is on form and function as well as surface design. I mix and use colored slips on bare clay to carve and sculpt illustrations, often featuring nature, trees, mountains and many recurring animal characters from the forest. I strive to make beautifully crafted functional art, I want my pieces to be part of everyday life and use.
I have always been fascinated by Art that tells a story. Therefore many of the pots I make tell a story, with many returning characters. Some of the characters you might find are tortoises, owls, ravens and birds, bears, deer, foxes, bunnies and horses all have special meaning to me and hopefully the viewer. They interact with each other, they seem to be having very full lives outside our windows, I like to think that they are a witness to a moment in time. The tortoise represents the slow moving of the earth but also the witness. If he’s in the story his shell will be showing another memory in time. Dinosaurs, and many mythical “monsters” show up in the stories as well, because who knows and why not. Who knows what the tortoise sees out there. Maybe it’s Bigfoot chopping wood. Maybe it’s just a friendship between an owl and a horse. Every pot tells a different story, I can tell you what the characters mean to me, but it’s up to the viewer to decide the story.
I’m Robert De May
My dad loved to draw pictures and encouraged me to draw. When I was in high school, I took an art class as an elective, and loved it. I became interested in painting with watercolors. My teacher encouraged me. However, after graduating, my interests in painting were replaced by higher priorities like college, a degree in electronic engineering, a 35-year career in IT, a 15-year entrepreneurship in antique and high-end furniture restoration. As I grew very close to full retirement, in January of 2021, I tried watercolor again. A friend liked my first work so well, she purchased it. I’ve been told I have talent. I enrolled in an on-line watercolor academy and surprised myself by the successes of each of my assignments. My instructor praised my prints and I had become an artist.
My art business has been designated as a “Trusted Art Seller” with The Art Storefronts Organization, which means you can shop with confidence, and know that I stand behind the quality and value of my products.
My Inspiration
I found out that if it’s in a photograph, I can usually paint a picture of it. I am inspired by nature, wild life, pets, horses, and old run down barns. As an artist, I love painting landscapes in the country, old buildings, and farm animals. I grew up in the farm country of western Pennsylvania. I remember trekking through the woods, swimming in the Alleghany river, and, when I was only 10, driving farmer Thomson’s tractor while others loaded up hay bails on the wagon I was towing. I love dogs. I currently have two border collies, I have painted both of their portraits. I just love creating these images and continually surprising (and sometimes disappointing) myself by my creations.
My Medium
I love the challenge of a successful watercolor painting. I have tried pen and ink, charcoal, pastels, acrylic, and have settled on watercolor painting. I use the white of the paper as one of the colors in my color palette. Watercolor does not project perfection nor does it require perfection from the artist, but it does challenge the artist to strategize his work. Watercolor does not allow an artist to over paint, or to change colors.