Laura Dean Bennett
Staff Writer
With the onset of fall painting the scenery gold and orange along Route 219 and Denmar Road, the Droop Mountain Artisans Tour welcomed visitors last weekend to its sixth annual event.
Nearly a hundred artists, artisans and crafters were on hand at three venues to demonstrate, entertain and explain their innovative work.
Guests visited three locations – Hillsboro Elementary School and Hillsboro Public Library, Brenwood Forge and Broom studio on Denmar Road and Mountain Table in Renick.
I began my tour behind Hillsboro Elementary, in the school cafeteria – where lunch was served in addition to five artisans at work – and at the pavilion behind the school.
Eight crafters enjoyed the shade under the roof of the pavilion behind the school.
One of the first things I noticed was the beautiful quilts.
When Lisa Gandy moved back to York, Pennsylvania, from Seattle in 2007, she took a class in quilting and a short year and a half later, she took over the class and has been teaching quilting and quilting for fun and profit ever since.
In 2019, Gandy retired and moved to Marlinton, where she continues to quilt – by hand – and teach quilting.
Gandy will teach a beginner’s quilting class at the Community Wellness Center October 11.
Cheryl McLaughlin Beverage is doing hand work while she speaks to visitors perusing her magnificent creations.
She’s been doing hand work and sewing most of her life.
“My niece, Jane Hunter, taught me to crochet when I was 12 years old,” Beverage said.
“My mom taught me to sew when I was about six years old. My mom was really patient. I caught her finger under the sewing machine needle one time. It must have been excruciating, but she didn’t even get mad at me.
“But I didn’t learn how to knit until I was about 40 years old.”
Beverage makes quilts, purses, beadwork jewelry, Christmas ornaments and has recently begun painting freeform pieces of wood.
I’d never before heard of the “amigurumi” craze, but was instantly beguiled by what Maria Degroff calls her crocheted “lovables,” and amigurumi animals. Amigurumi is the art of knitting or crocheting small, yarn creatures which originated in Japan.
Degroff’s table was covered by an endearing collection of dragons, chickens, cats, mermaids, pigs, octopi, and even Mexican salamanders called axolotls, which – according to a particularly well-informed nine year old of my acquaintance – are all the rage right now.
Apparently, they are characters in the game, “Minecraft.”
Jan Skellion has been a professional hair stylist for 48 years, and was an art major in college and dabbled in ceramics in the 1970s.
Several years ago, she started making needle-felted animals and about four years ago, she got into pottery.
“I’m what they call a hand builder,” Skellion said. “All my pottery is hand built.”
“My love of nature comes out in all my art. Pottery is so much fun. It’s therapeutic. And it’s really rewarding – you can accomplish things quickly.”
Cheryl Cain’s business, “A Basket Affair and More,” came into being after Cain took a sewing class in Hillsboro at Debra Ann Walker’s shop six years ago, and the rest is history.
On display were Cain’s quilts and all manner of quilted crafts.
With Cain, nothing is wasted.
“I started making hot pads as a way to use the extra scraps of material,” Cain explained.
Cain’s display also included her husband, Danny Cain’s “Brush Country Flies,” fishing flies made from squirrel, raccoon, fox and coyote fur and turkey and pheasant feathers.
Sandy Simmons is a well-known local crafter, specializing in beeswax candles, soy candles, quilted and embroidered Christmas ornaments.
Her display included crocheted foxes, baby turtles and many colorful microwave bowls as well as jars of light honey made primarily from locust blossoms.
Larry and Sandy Simmons were some of the original members of the Pocahontas County Beekeeping Club.
“We went to a beekeeping meeting in Lewisburg and a lady was showing her beeswax candles there,” Simmons said. “I just loved them, so I started making them.”
Lisa Stallworth brought her innovative paintings and clay creations from Charleston.
She said she learned pottery at West Virginia State College, had a pottery shop and taught pottery classes at one point.
“When I became semi-retired, I picked the pottery back up, Stallworth said. “And I am enjoying painting now. I like to paint animals and flowers, and I’m starting to get more into abstract subjects.”
The artist said she was glad to be back in Pocahontas County.
“When I was young, my parents had a camp here, and we had lots of good times. But I’d forgotten how beautiful it is here.”
Also from Charleston was Stallworth’s friend, Nancy Brumley, who brought her “Woodland Creatures,” a charming collection of sewn animals.
“I’ve been sewing all my life,” Brumley said. “And after I retired, I wanted to do the things I couldn’t do when I was working. My friends were having grandchildren. and I started making these animals for them.”
The animals had such lovely faces, they were irresistible.
BrenWood Forge and Broom
Brenda Harmon and her late husband, Woody, both equestrian enthusiasts, moved from Ohio to their mountaintop paradise above Hillsboro 27 years ago. They built a home, blacksmith shop and a broom-making studio.
Woody turned his passion of hand crafting ironwork into a business as an artist-blacksmith.
For many years before Woody’s death, Brenda and Woody operated their broom-making and blacksmithing enterprise together.
Brenda has since carried on with the business of BrenWood Forge & Broom on her own, surrounded by Woody’s beautiful ironwork and countless memories of their wonderful life together.
“Woody started the artisans tour six years ago to give the public the opportunity to see how things are made,” Harmon explained. “The first tour was here at our house, and we showed the blacksmithing and broom making. Some of our arty neighbors came and they said, ‘We’d like to do this, too.’
Right now, Harmon’s home is the only one left that opens its doors to visitors on the tour.
“It’s really a good way to make a connection with people who appreciate art and let them learn about the tools of the trade and find out how things are done.
Each of Harmon’s brooms and brushes are original pieces of art which are not only beautiful but are also functional and each has its own personality.
Harmon uses time-honored traditional methods to fashion the brooms and brushes which are hanging all around her in her mountain-eerie studio. The picture window view from her worktable is so seductive, I wonder how she can concentrate on her work.
Wandering around the home and outbuildings was a journey of discovery of so many artists and their work.
I caught up with Ron Ferguson, sitting opposite the back porch, off the kitchen, on his homemade “mule” – a smooth sawhorse specially designed for woodworking.
Ferguson is a retired electrician living in Seebert, who moved to Pocahontas County in 2009.
He’s been doing woodworking for about 10 years now and, as anyone can see by looking at his “Back Home Crafts” cutting boards, he has gotten pretty good at it.
Karen Barnett brought her unique fabric art all the way from Richmond, Virginia, to take part in the artisans’ tour.
Barnett’s husband grew up in Pocahontas County, so they have been visiting here for years.
She’s a quilter who makes quilts, placemats and pillows primarily by machine, but she has recently branched out into what’s called “free motion quilting.”
This technique uses heat moldable batting to create fabric sculptures.
“Right now, I’m experimenting with flower vases,” Barnett said, as she selected a quilt covered vase to show me.
“I find fabric that I love and then mold it and the batting around a vase which is hidden inside.”
A few steps outside on the sprawling wraparound porch are tables featuring Lynn Cetani’s collection of fused glass. The bright daylight streaming in on the porch makes it the perfect place to appreciate her work.
Cetani holds up an amber colored square “bubble glass” plate to the light, showing visitors the delightful bubbles secreted within.
Cetani, a Marlinton resident, is self-taught.
“I started getting familiar with glass by working in stained glass 20 years ago, then about six years ago, I got into fused glass. Now I’m focusing more on sculptural and less on utilitarian pieces.”
Lewisburg woodcrafter Lonnie Withrow combines beautiful tile work and his hand shaped woodwork to create everything from furniture to accessories.
Since he was a boy growing up on the family farm, Withrow, now age 86, has been fascinated by coaxing art from wood. Twenty-four years ago, when he retired, Withrow began to create art in earnest and his work took a turn, when he began combining tile and wood to everything from large pieces of furniture to rolling pins and jewelry boxes, all of which are more like sculpture than woodwork.
Mountain Table, on Rt. 219 in Renick, is a farm-to-table mecca for coffee lovers and adventurous diners with its wide variety of freshly roasted coffees and interesting, ever-changing menu.
It’s also home to a gift shop featuring handmade local crafts and products.
While the intoxicating scent of freshly roasted coffee wafted through the building, local artisans chatted with guests, explained their work and sold their wares.
What a tour – what a day!