Local artists showcase work at Greene County craft expo
The Greene Academy Homecoming Christmas Craft Expo in Carmichaels was held on Saturday and Sunday last weekend.
Christmas carols echoed through the candle-scented rooms of the Greene Academy of Art. Now in its 37th year, the festival still has the same sense of community between local artisans.
”Most of the crafters have been coming for quite a long time, so it’s kinda a family thing,” said Dorothy Cole.
Cole has been quilting for 38 years and now quilts everything from table cloths to microwave mitts. She’s also been crocheting since she was 12 and belongs to a prayer shawl group where she gets to use her talent for others.
Homemade crafts showcased at the event ranged from Cole’s quilts to JoAnne Stagon’s beads.
”I love to pick up a bead and think where it’s gonna carry me to,” said Stagon.
Stagon has been dabbling with beads for 20 years now and has attended the Craft Expo for five years.
”I like the diversity,” said Stagon. “I’m not someone who likes what everyone else sells. I like different.”
Stagon says when she wants a particular piece of jewelry and she can’t find it, now she just makes it herself.
The same could be said of Beth Zeth.
”I took a class at Michaels and was hooked,” said Zeth, who has been creating her own jewelry for seven or eight years. “Now I’m a bead addict.”
What was just a new hobby for Zeth has now become a passion.
From snowman cutouts to fall and Christmas wreaths, the Greene Academy of Art was full of decoration for the autumn and upcoming winter season. Fall sleds made of twine and weave and jewelry of gemstones, pearls and beads covered the tables clothed in white.
Gladys Gales has always loved the stuff. Gales says she has nothing modern in her home aside from her television and appliances.
Now that she and her husband are retired, they make crafts. They buy paintings and then frame them by hand and add a light panel on the back so the paintings are lit up during the night.
”It keeps you from fighting when your husband retires,” joked Gales.
Gales mentioned it’s special when someone comes into your home and sees something you can say you made.
Gales used to go to craft shows all the time, and now she’s part of one.
Billie Allen, a former column writer for the Herald Standard, still explores her passion for writing, but in a different way then she has before. Now, Allen writes romantic fantasy novels, exploring the theology of Christian beliefs and the existence of angels. Allen also makes wreathes and small Christmas trees, decorating them by hand and making them all her own, from Easter to July 4th to the incoming Christmas season. Explaining her novels, Allen says the novels come together into a tight bow.
Just like one of Allen’s wreathes.