Another great year at the Mercer Museum in Pennsylvania. This is a wonderful place to hang out for a weekend. The crafters are experts in their fields, fashioning with enthusiam furniture, baskets, pottery, weavings, soap, paintings, so much more and even home brewed beer over a wood fire.
The lifestyle of the traditional craftsmen are in a world of their own. They have studied and practiced their craft. They have sought the simpler way of making useful and decorative crafts.
People have told me I can get a motor for my potters wheel instead of the slow steady kick of my wooden treadle, but that would defeat the purpose. The idea of starting a craft from scratch, a piece of wood, a ball of clay, a hank of wool... and slowly and meditatively turning those raw materials into a work of art; semetrical, smooth flowing lines, perfect balance... is not something to be rushed, but worked on subconsiously, meditatively, slowly. The craftsmens hands caress their work and instill a bit of themselves into it.
And the end product reflects the craftsmens lifestyle, practice, patience and skill.
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