Springs celebrates old-time arts
The Springs Museum Grounds will come to life with the 49th annual Springs Folk Festival, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Somerset County town of Springs.
The festival usually draws more than 15,000 people to see more than 140 demonstrators of pioneer crafts.
Visitors on Friday will include students bused in from area schools to learn from the craftsmen. The museum itself also displays thousands of artifacts from the county's first settlers.
"We try to educate people on the heritage of Casselman Valley," said Jean Papik, marketing coordinator for the Springs Historical Museum, the Folk Festival and Farmers Market. "The artisans are juried, so they must send in a portfolio, then they are asked to do a demonstration on the premise of their craft before they are admitted into the Folk Festival."
Artisans such as Lynn Lais, of Grantsville, Md., have been demonstrating at the Springs Folks Festival for years. Although Lais once attended a number of festivals throughout the area, the Springs event is only one he still attends.
"The festival is two miles from my shop and four miles from my home, so it's very convenient," Lais said, noting the festival offers an excellent venue to highlight his work as a professional potter. "I started making pots in college in 1975, and everything fell into place. I've been a professional potter since 1978 and have been doing the Folk Festival for probably 17 years now."
Although Lais uses modern tools for his demonstrations, such as an electric potter's wheel, he pointed out that creating ceramic pottery is an art with a more than 4,000-year history.
"I participate in the festival every year to (help the festival) continue to provide a variety of demonstrations and because it's easy and fun," he said.
Husband and wife duo Gene and Dorothy Gillespie, of LaVale, Md., are also professional artisans. They've operated a wood-turning shop for 15 years, making everything from bowls and stools to vases and other hollow vessels. Dorothy Gillespie also carves and burns wood.
This will be the couple's seventh year at the folk festival. They attend a number of other festivals, including Mountain Heritage and Arts Festival in West Virginia, the Shaker Forest Festival in Gaithersburg, Md., and the Fall Foliage Festival in Oakland, Md.
In addition, the Gillespies teach classes in their studio and started the LaVale-Cumberland Turning Club, which boasts about 70 members, some of whom are students in middle or high school.
They stress the importance of hands-on involvement with children, helping more than 100 kids each year create their own tops. They do the texturing and coloring themselves, Gene Gillespie said.
These artisans will be joined by a variety of demonstrators ranging from quilters, muzzleloaders and shooters to shingle makers and cornstalk broom makers.
In addition, food vendors will prepare traditional apple butter, roasted peanuts, fresh doughnuts, old-fashioned ice cream and homemade bread baked on an open hearth. They'll also turn cabbage into sauerkraut, which is sold by the bucket.
"You can tell which visitors have been here the year before, because they come dragging their five-gallon buckets from last year to buy more sauerkraut," Papik said.
In addition, a Pennsylvania Dutch dinner is served in the folks meeting hall, once a 19th-century church. The dinner includes Pennsylvania Dutch favorites such as pancakes and sausage, dried corn, cottage cheese, home fries and homemade bread.
For more information on the Springs Folk Festival, contact the Springs Historical Society at 814-662-4158.
