Landmark Artisan

Pittman, Jessica

Buddy Leather

Leather

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.

https://buddyleather.net/

Darr, Molly

Parsonage

Mixed Media

Parsonage has specialized in creating handmade, sustainably sourced personal care products since 1997. Our goods are handmade from start to finish using original recipes, and our ingredients and packaging are carefully selected to maintain a minimal ecological footprint. Parsonage produces bar soaps, solid lotions, body sprays, room sprays and candles. These goods are made with all-natural, scientifically supported ingredients designed to bring intention and calm to your daily grooming ritual.

ParsonageSoap.com

Jobe, Jeffrey

Barking Dog Jewelry Design Studio

Jewelry

As a specialist in hand forged and woven/braided metal, I use a mixture of traditional silversmith, blacksmith, and goldsmith techniques and equipment to create wearable works of art with meaning, predominately through the use of a modified repousse’ technique I developed in 2002. A second technique, based upon a 15th C. technique is acid etching in sterling silver, copper, bronze, and german silver. Other techniques used include hand forged gold & sterling silver; 14K, 18K gold & sterling silver sand casting, and hand made/hand soldered bracelets & chains in sterling silver & 14K gold. I am a native of North Carolina, trained in historical archaeology, with a subspecialty in metals. I am a trained jeweler and a self taught traditional silversmith.

Most of my tools date from the 18th and 19th C. Many of the tools came from a German Jewish goldsmith who survived the Holocaust and come from the camp where he was imprisoned.

With respect to style, my knowledge base is heavily influenced by historic texts, paintings, etchings, and probate inventories while many of the techniques have been reverse engineered using methods learned as a graduate student in archaeology and museum conservation and restoration. Many of these techniques are based on hours and weeks of trial and error in an attempt to recreate lost techniques. Examples of these techniques include traditional sand casting, shot peening/burnishing, chain link construction, hand forging and folding, chasing, embossing, and metal weaving/braiding. Many of the techniques are similar to traditional blacksmith techniques, albeit slightly different. The result is a unique blend of current and historic metal smithing techniques and design.

From initial design to final polishing, all work is done by hand.

barkingdogjewelry.com

Hart, Ian

Vigilance Forge

Metal

I graduated college in 2017 with a degree in traditionally forged ironwork under the tutelage of Richard Guthrie, a Colonial Williamsburg veteran Journeyman who moved on to teach others the craft through the American College of the Building Arts. Rick instilled in me a value of creating accurate 18th century reproductions exclusively by hand, matching the construction methods, characteristics, underlying geometry and functionality of their historic counterparts. He has since passed but I carry this lesson with me through every day: to make a profit when I can, to take a loss if I must, to sleep some nights, and others not, but always to do good work.

For several years I managed a modern architectural iron shop in Northern Virginia, designing massive custom stair railings and similar projects, from conception to construction and installation. I was surprised by the lack of care that my colleagues had in terms of craftsmanship and excellence in design, not just from coworkers but also from architects and design firms that were supposedly classically trained. The jobs were big, they were interesting, but they didn’t satisfy the quality and standards of the work that I valued. Over that period I worked part time in the evenings producing my own work, until last year, when I left the company and opened my own shop full time.

People often say “as long as it works, who cares what it looks like.” I cringe a little every time I hear this. In my experience, if it looks right, it is right, and while people may not realize it, things are distracting if care is not placed into their design and creation. While B+ work may have no fault with it, the little extra decoration, feature, or degree of quality goes a long way in transforming work from acceptable to exceptional. This is my goal today; to provide people with tools, hardware, furniture and furnishings that are a joy to look at, use, and will work as well as someone can ask, not just now, but through heavy use into the far future. Historically people relied heavily on their tools and could not afford to have them break or to replace them frequently. Because of this they are perhaps the best teachers a craftsman could look to. It is not solely with misplaced nostalgia that I look to my forefathers of the crafts, but also because I believe that we might learn lessons in how to shape our future.

VigilanceForge.com

Helberg, Kristin

Kristin Helberg Artworks

Mixed Media

Helberg has always been interested in history and a portion of her artwork reflects that. Whaling paintings and whaling scenes on boxes, as well as sea monsters attacking ships are part of Helberg’s artwork.

She enjoys creating tavern signs that depict imaginary places in Early America. Having spent most of her childhood in York County, PA, Helberg was immersed in the painted hex signs on barns and fraktur art and uses those images on the decorative boxes. Years ago, she mastered the technique of Early American vinegar graining and she always features some grained boxes at the Fair.

Helberg has also created a line of Memento Mori paintings and chests, featuring the dancing skeletons and Plaque Doctors of the late Middle Ages, as well as Halloween paintings and portraits of Edgar Allen Poe and Nosferatu.

Helberg’s paintings are in the permanent collections of The National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian, the Clinton Presidential Library, the Reginald Lewis Museum of African American Art, Musee D’Art Naif in Quebec and the Carter Center of President Jimmy Carter.

KristinHelberg.com

Witmer, Amy & Joe

Best Demonstrating Artisan of 2023

Cinnamon Treasures

Mixed Media

Amy and Joe Witmer are passionate artisans dedicated to preserving and creating Colonial, Traditional, and Historic items by hand. They specialize in crafting solid beeswax heirloom collectible figures and ornaments using traditional German techniques of molding and carving beeswax, a skill dating back to the early 1500s. They support local apiaries and manage their own honeybee hives to ensure they use the highest quality beeswax.

Each piece they create is unique due to the natural variations in beeswax. The Witmer’s meticulously crafted works are cherished in private collections worldwide, and they take great pride in their detailed, handcrafted pieces that merge history with craftsmanship.

Stop by their tent, just outside the Old School, to learn more about their work and art.

Our products are produced completely by hand using 100% pure and locally sourced beeswax. We scent our beeswax using a custom blend of pure essential oil created only for Cinnamon Treasures. We start with a solid block of beeswax, melt it down, add our scent, then we hand pour and hand finish each and every item that we sell – from scratch. We use antique, vintage, rare, very early, and hard to find chocolate molds to pour into and create our pieces. This makes our pieces very rare and unique because you have to acquire very early and hard to find molds. We also pour using early flat molds, chocolate, springerle, and cookie molds to make unique ornaments. We have a wide range of items with a large focus on Christmas and Santas, to rabbits, turkeys, chickens, pigs, horses, bee skeps and bees, hearts, cats, dogs, etc.! It’s 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 that we carry on today. We have 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.

We have built a large following of collectors of our pieces and would love to showcase them at your artisan show.

CinnamonTreasures.com

Kesler, Jonathan

Earthly Arts

Clay

My intention is the integration of art, nature, and the ‘everyday’ life of the patron. This I attempt to accomplish via the creation of forms that may, if desired, have a broad practical functionality which so-by leads to inclusiveness with the life flow of the patron. In turn the subjective art travels with the action creating a bridge for the suggestive surface imagery to promote its theme which is, specifically, nature. Each aspect has a rebounding circular path that in its totality proffers resonance. The art feeds on itself which ‘feeds’ the patron on multiple levels. Such is my intention.

EarthlyArtsPottery.com

Kennedy, Selinda

Kennedy Redware Pottery

Clay

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.

facebook.com/kennedyredware