Brownsville woman believes her creative craft-making talent is ‘a gift from God’
BROWNSVILLE – Cindy Despot who first became interested in crafts as she watched her grandmother piece together quilts as a child calls her creative talent “a gift from God.” “I’m just a very creative person,” she said. “It’s something that isn’t hard for me. I don’t have to work at it. It’s just there. I really can’t explain it. It just comes natural for me to make crafts.”
As a child, Despot said she remembers sitting next to her grandmother, the late Christina Kurek, in the living room of her Hiller home. She recalls intently watching every move her grandmother made as she stitched together the pieces of a quilt or knitted an afghan.
“The first craft that I can ever remember making was an afghan that I made with my grandmother,” she said. “Then, we made a quilt together. My grandmother was very handy. You always saw her knitting or sewing. I imagine that is what sparked the creativity in me. After that, I kind of got the bug. And since then, I have tried almost everything.”
Despot, 43, said she has come a long way since her childhood when she first experimented with making candles and creating sand art, which was very popular at the time.
“I would just read the directions for a craft, and then go and do it,” she said. “Once I got the basics down, then I would begin to expand on it.”
Although she acknowledges that she possesses a special talent for crafts, Despot is convinced that almost anyone can master the basics of crafting.
“I think to some degree everybody could probably do basic crafting as long as they don’t expect to achieve perfection all the time,” she said. “But I’m also a perfectionist. I always think that I can do better, and I’m always critiquing my work. I guess that’s how you improve. If you couldn’t see your mistakes, you would never get any better.”
Despot, who has operated a crafting business in a workshop located next to her High Street home in Brownsville, is one of 10 Fayette and Washington county artists whose work will be showcased at the 21st annual Holiday Treasures Art Show and Sale. The event will take place Friday through Sunday, Dec. 5-7, in the unique earth-sheltered home of Scott and Barbara Campbell located on the Grindstone Road near Brownsville.
She plans to feature her primitive country dolls and seasonal dolls; decorative and tole painting on wood, metal, cloth and paper mache; grapevine and star wreaths made with berries; welcome lights; Christmas ornaments; and appliquéd sweatshirts in the show.
Her items will be priced from as low as $1 for a Christmas ornament to as much as $60 for one of her primitive country dolls or grapevine wreaths.
Despot has participated in various craft shows since 1990, but she wasn’t involved with this show until she became friends with Barb Campbell. The two women met recently when they were both working out at the Wellness Center, which is located at Brownsville General Hospital.
“Barb Campbell and I work out at the same place in Brownsville,” she said. “We gradually fell into this show together. I wasn’t involved with the show last year. But Barb saw my crafts, and one thing led to another.”
In addition to working out at the Brownsville General Hospital, Despot said she has been participating in local 5K races, including the Mount Summit Challenge, for about four years.
“I’ve been doing the race circuit for the past four years. It’s another one of my hobbies,” she said. “I had been interested in running since I was a child. I’m always busy doing something. One of my goals in life was to participate in 5K races. I thought it was something that I wanted to do before I turned 40. I’ve been hooked ever since.”
After Despot exercises in the morning, she returns home to begin working on her crafts in her workshop, which was an old bake shop that she and her husband, John, renovated to accommodate her craft hobby, which eventually turned into a business.
Despot said she likes to work on her crafts when the couple’s three children, Kelsey, 13, Emily, 10, and Nicholas, 8, are in school or after they go to bed in the evenings.
“It’s nice because people come to the house to buy my crafts,” she said. “I have a store without really having a store. Hopefully, as the kids get older, we can expand the workshop into a full-time business.”
During the late 1980s, Cindy and John Despot operated a store called Yesterday’s Memories on Market Street in Brownsville. Before her children were born, she also worked a regular 9-to-5 job as a financial officer for a home health care agency.
When her oldest daughter was about a year old, Despot quit her job to spend time with her family after her husband landed a full-time position at UPS. That’s when her craft hobby began to turn into a business.
“I try to do most of my work about a month before a craft show starts,” she said.
“I seem to work much better under deadline pressure,” she continued. “It’s amazing how much I can get done when a deadline is looming over me. I tend to spend the summer months with my kids, and I do most of my craft shows in the fall, winter and spring.”
When asked to describe her favorite craft that will be featured at the upcoming show, Despot said it would be difficult for her to choose one because she likes many of her crafts for various reasons.
“I really like some of the painted things that I’ve done, but some of my dolls are really unique as well,” she said.
“I’m partial to the black Americana dolls that I make,” she added. “They usually sell well for me, but I really have no idea what people like about the dolls. I think people like them because they are a unique part of the past.
“Some of the dolls are really ugly looking,” she added. “Sometimes, the uglier the dolls are the more people like them. People really seem to like the primitive dolls that look like they just came out of someone’s attic. The dolls are very much aged.”
If she just works on one doll at a time, Despot said it could take her several hours to paint, sand and wax a basic doll, but it really depends on how involved the process becomes.
“The dolls are made out of material,” she explained. “The dolls are usually different because it depends on what look you’re trying to achieve. I put clay features on the dolls sometimes to make big lips or teeth. But most of the dolls have painted or penciled faces.
“Sometimes, I will make the same doll, but I never usually make more than about 20 of the same doll,” she added. “I get bored making the same doll because I like to try something different and creative.”