I've never been a big craft fair goer, but crafting fascinates me. I don't remember craft fairs so much in "the old days," but I think craft fairs have a way of preserving and keeping alive some of the skills and practices from "the old days."
My Grandpa Scott Nichols had not been a crafter (to my knowledge) until he married Winnie Martin in 1955. Winnie had him doing a number of things he hadn't really been used to before, and altogether she probably extended his lifetime. When he passed away, he was 94 years old. Winnie had him traveling, going fishing with her, gardening with her and doing several kinds of crafting; making things to be sold at the War Eagle Arts and Crafts Fair in the fall of the year. They used to make multi-colored throw-rugs out of various kinds of cloth scraps. The scraps were twisted together to form long ropes which were then formed into oval-shaped rug shapes and the "ropes" were sown together to make the rug hold its shape. I don't know how much they sold them for, but they made and sold a "bunch" of them.
War Eagle was the only arts and crafts fair that I recall from "the old days." I never learned when it originated, but it has been going on for long years over on War Eagle Creek by the War Eagle Mill. There used to be an Applegate's Arts and Crafts Fair at Bentonville. I think that one eventually evolved into something else. In recent years, a popular nearby fair has shaped up on Spanker Creek in north Bentonville/old Bella Vista. But fall craft fairs can also show up spontaneously, like yard sales, almost anywhere where they can draw the attention of passersby.
One of my fascinations with the items sold at arts and crafts fairs is in how they seem to carry on the old-time practice of making new stuff out of old things that have already served one purpose, and which are now being made into something arty and creative. In the old days, handsaws were a staple part of carpentry and construction. With the coming of the electric circular saw, often called "Skil Saws," handsaws became neglected in the tool box or left hanging on a nail in the shop. Someone got the idea of painting a scene on the old handsaw blade. I've even seen scenes painted on the long two-man crosscut saws which everybody once used to fell trees (back when, before gas-powered chainsaws). Then, when the circular saw blades began wearing out and collecting, someone got the idea of painting scenes on the faces of the discarded blades. We have preserved at the Pea Ridge School Heritage Building one interesting example of handsaw blade painting. Our handsaw blade depicts the old Shady Grove Schoolhouse, which still stands today on Arkansas Highway 94 West.
As one who loves tools, and who still uses handsaws, sometimes I rue the trend to re-purpose old tools, making them into things that can't be used as tools any more. But on the other hand, farm people have always made use of old discards as resource material for making new and different things, or for repairing broken things. I remember garden hoes made out of old truck springs and old pieces of water pipe. Even today, in the croplands of east Arkansas, it is amazing what concoctions the farmers will weld together in their farm shops to serve as clod-busters and harrows in the fields.
In the old days, many rural communities had numerous wood craftsmen who could maintain and repair the wooden wheeled wagons, carts and buggies. I remember from the 1940s watching one of our neighbors, Mr. Shell, who lived across Big Sugar Creek from Jacket, Mo., as he put a new wooden spoke in one of our farm wagon wheels. There was nothing crude about his work. He was dealing with precise angles and precision fits. Missing a measurement or cutting an angle inaccurately would undo the strength and durability of the wheel. Although in some of today's craft fairs one finds occasional examples of crude work, I think the craft fairs contribute to preserving the skills of woodworkers across the years.
Another of my fascinations with the skills on display in arts and crafts fairs involves needle and thread skills. In years gone by the skills for creating things with needle and thread were essential survival skills for a family. That seems not to be so anymore, since so many of our clothes and products that involve sewing are imported from Asian countries. But one can sometimes find superb needlework at the arts and crafts fairs.
Some items in the arts and crafts fairs combine artistic skills such as painting and carving with crafting skills to produce art on wood, or carved animals or birds done in cedar or some other wood. I once noted that a lady had created a novel wild turkey by using a walnut shell as the body, along with creased heavy colored paper placed in a slot sawed in the nut shell. It wasn't high art, but I thought it was pretty creative. At one time, we ourselves used to make little toy sled Christmas tree ornaments by gluing together several sticks from ice cream bars.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 10/21/2015